After an hour in Paul’s company I began to feel whole lot better. I filled him in on the details he didn’t already know – mostly my adventures with Richard and Helena and all the tussles over the will.

‘But they didn’t contest it?’

‘Not in court, no,’ I admitted, ‘but Helena and her husband put up obstacles every step of the way − delayed things, refused to answer emails – all very petty, really. In the end the solicitors had to get heavy.’ I sighed. ‘I wish Nick hadn’t done it, named me in his will.’

‘Well, I don’t blame him. His kids never gave him the time of day, and he’d grown fond of you. He certainly wouldn’t have wanted you to agonise over it.’

‘I suppose not,’ I admitted reluctantly.

‘What are you going to do?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know if I can bear to live there …’

‘Creepy?’ he asked.

‘No, not that so much,’ I told him, ‘just sad. There are all his things … I’ll have to get rid of them. And there’s a lot of stock in the shop that I haven’t got a clue what to do with …’

‘Don’t look so worried.’ He put an arm around my shoulders, giving me a friendly hug. ‘It’ll all work out.’

‘I suppose. But at the moment, I find it unnerving, just going in there.’

‘Well, that’s understandable, especially with all Nick’s things still there.’

‘His children didn’t take any of it. There are his clothes …’

‘You need to clear the place out, make a fresh start. Look, I’m busy tomorrow morning, but I could be free in the afternoon. Why don’t I help you? We’ll go in and clear all his clothes. That’ll be a start.’ He picked up his beer glass and clinked it against mine. ‘You never know, we might find these rings.’

‘I wish we could,’ I told him devoutly. ‘At least then I could prove I hadn’t taken the bloody things.’

He frowned thoughtfully into his pint, his dark brows drawing together in a manner I was trying hard not to find adorable. ‘You don’t think that Helena or her husband might have hired someone to look for these rings before? That maybe that’s why Nick was murdered?’

‘The thought has crossed my mind,’ I admitted, ‘but it doesn’t make sense, does it? I mean, if Nick had them all this time, or Helena thought he had, then why would she suddenly make a move to grab them? She’d already been waiting for years. As far as she knew, she was going to inherit everything when Nick died anyway, why not just wait a little longer?’

Paul nodded reluctantly. ‘And there’s been no sign of our Russian friends, I take it?’