Suki dashed over and held her tight. ‘Hush,’ she said, crying too. ‘We’re going to get through this. Together, OK? We’ve lost him, but we still have each other and we have to hold on to that. All right?’

Claire was nodding. ‘Yeah,’ she said wearily. ‘All right.’

Then a letter arrived from England.

131

131

Shauna met up with Jeb Cleaver in their usual spot – the sad-looking country pub that never had many patrons. Over the years, they’d met there many times. Jeb got the drinks in and then they sat at a corner table well away from the handful of other lunchtime drinkers, and Shauna ploughed straight in.

‘You let me down,’ she said with barely repressed fury. He was well overdue a bollocking, and she was in just the mood to give it.

‘What?’ Jeb stared at her.

‘This.’ She threw the envelope containing the prints down on to the beer-stained table.

Jeb picked up the envelope, shook out the prints. Looked at them.

‘That’s Josh Flynn. And that . . .’ He squinted at the print. ‘Do I know her?’

‘You bloody ought to, since you had your cock stuck up her last time you met.’

‘What?’

‘Although I grant you it was a long time ago. That’s Claire Milo. Remember her? Remember what we did that night? You were supposed to have seen her off once and for all. And now what do I find? My husband was in New York, kissing her in the fucking street.’

‘Holy shit,’ Jeb said, staring at the woman’s face. He nodded slowly. ‘Yeah. That’s her, all right.’ He looked up at Shauna and grinned. ‘So hubby’s been playing away, yeah? Bet that’s bit you up the arse.’

Shauna gave him a freezing look.

‘Hubby’s dead,’ she said.

‘He . . . you what?’

‘He died during a fight in New York. I thought he was up to something more over there, and I had him followed. The detective took these shots of him and the Milo bitch before he died.’

‘So, you want me to shake up her old dad, Pally? Eva’s gone, but there’s still him,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘And the sister, Trace.’

Shauna considered it. But no: it was Claire herself she wanted to see suffer. She found she didn’t care about the others any more.

‘No. What’s the fucking point?’ she said.

‘Well ain’t this a day for surprises.’ Jeb downed his pint in one long swallow. ‘You not bothering to kick someone’s arse, given the chance? Amazing, I call that. Another?’ he asked, pointing to her untouched gin and tonic.

Shauna shook her head and he went off to the bar. When he came back, he was smiling.

‘What?’ demanded Shauna.