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Back Going Under Save as PDF
Chapters (70)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. DEDICATION
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I BIRTH
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. TEN
  16. ELEVEN
  17. TWELVE
  18. THIRTEEN
  19. FOURTEEN
  20. FIFTEEN
  21. PART II LIFE
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. TWENTY-ONE
  28. TWENTY-TWO
  29. TWENTY-THREE
  30. TWENTY-FOUR
  31. TWENTY-FIVE
  32. TWENTY-SIX
  33. TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. TWENTY-NINE
  36. THIRTY
  37. THIRTY-ONE
  38. THIRTY-TWO
  39. THIRTY-THREE
  40. THIRTY-FOUR
  41. PART III DEATH
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. THIRTY-NINE
  47. FORTY
  48. FORTY-ONE
  49. FORTY-TWO
  50. FORTY-THREE
  51. FORTY-FOUR
  52. FORTY-FIVE
  53. FORTY-SIX
  54. FORTY-SEVEN
  55. FORTY-EIGHT
  56. FORTY-NINE
  57. FIFTY
  58. FIFTY-ONE
  59. FIFTY-TWO
  60. FIFTY-THREE
  61. FIFTY-FOUR
  62. FIFTY-FIVE
  63. FIFTY-SIX
  64. FIFTY-SEVEN
  65. FIFTY-EIGHT
  66. FIFTY-NINE
  67. SIXTY
  68. EPILOGUE
  69. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  70. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As per my text to you, we are arriving in Australia at the start of September. We are much looking forward to some Sydney sunshine, is very cold here in Lund and we have been working too hard and getting very fat. Tomas and I gratefully accept your dinner invitation … if it still stands? Just checking.

Best regards,

Wolfgang

Suddenly, there’s a bright spot in the mess that is my life.

Winnie is grinning, the Smiling Assassin forgotten. ‘We’ve got to do it! I love dinner parties. If we clean the house a bit, it’ll be great!’ Then she frowns. ‘We don’t have a dining table,’ she points out. ‘Do you reckon we could do a Japanese theme and eat on the floor?’

‘I’ll just buy a table,’ I say. I can’t really imagine Wolfgang appreciating eating on the floor. Surgeons are, after all, notoriously clean. ‘It’s an investment.’

We spend the morning exchanging emails with Wolfgang Dietrich. Dinner is planned for three and a half weeks away.

Will you invite Jack? Wolfgang asks. He loves dinner parties. We can talk about art.

Winnie looks at me. ‘Maybe you should invite him. It’s because of Dr Prince you even met these guys.’

‘Wouldn’t that be weird?’ I feel a bit sick at the thought of asking Dr Prince over to number 19 for dinner, even with the excuse of his European friends.

She shrugs. ‘I don’t think so. It’d be weirder if you didn’t invite him, I reckon. He’ll most likely say no, but at least then you can say you did the right thing.’

I bite my lip. ‘Should I … call him?’ I immediately reject this idea as soon as I suggest it. I don’t possess that kind of courage.

‘Maybe text,’ Winnie suggests. ‘Just say, Hey, Dr Prince, I’ve invited Wolfgang and Tomas to my house for dinner when they’re in Sydney. You’re very welcome to join us or swing by for a drink. You know—just be cool about it.’

‘I guess I did mention that I was having them over for dinner,’ I agree. ‘Like, this isn’t a big surprise or anything.’

‘You’re work colleagues,’ Winnie says confidently, with the air of someone who doesn’t work inside a hospital. ‘This makes sense.’

‘Well, yes and no …’ I don’t know any other doctors as junior as me who casually invite consultant surgeons over to their crumbling old sharehouses for dinner.

‘Come on, Kitty.’ Winnie looks excited. ‘Since when are you scared of anything? Like are you a man or a mouse?’

‘I’m a mouse,’ I admit freely, ‘and I’m a lot more scared of things since being a doctor initiated the destruction of my personality and self-esteem.’