Chapters (49)
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Also by Graham Hurley
- LIMELIGHT
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- AFTERWARDS
‘But I don’t want to change the subject. Politics? Would that make us feel better? Brexit? Boris fucking Johnson?’ There’s colour in Beth’s face now. She has an intensity I hadn’t quite grasped at first, and now she’s very angry. ‘We all know why we’re here,’ she says. ‘We all held a candle for that lovely, lovely woman. So maybe the least we can do is honour the way she chose to go. Do I hear a yes? Or am I stepping out of line?’
‘Tell them, Beth.’ Presley is playing with his glass. ‘Just tell them what happened.’
‘OK.’ She picks at a fingernail for a moment, then looks up. ‘It was Sunday last. Chris had been in bed most of the day. I knew it had been getting bad because she’d told me last week, but apparently it took a turn for the worse. She’d tried to peel a banana, spent hours at it, had to give it to Andy in the end. A banana? Something as simple as that? Dear God …’ Beth shakes her head.
‘She phoned us,’ Presley goes on. ‘She wanted to talk to Beth.’
‘That’s right. It was the evening, gone eleven. We were nearly off to bed, but Chris was in tears. That was a first. She’d been a strong woman for so long, always on top of it, always looking on the bright side, but it was like I was suddenly talking to someone else. She wanted me to come round with the car. She said they needed a lift, the pair of them. I said fine, I’ll come down and pick you up. They wanted to go over to Exmouth. Fifteen minutes, tops. A doddle. No problem.’ She breaks off, biting her lip, and for a moment I think she’s decided she can’t go on but I’m wrong. ‘The moment I saw them, I knew they were pissed. They must have been drinking most of the day. Do I blame them? Absolutely not. In any case, it didn’t matter. They still wanted to go to Exmouth, so I got them both in the car. That was strange, or maybe sweet’s a better word, because they insisted on sitting in the back, side by side. Andy had a bag. I could see them in the mirror. They were holding hands. They were all over each other. Nice. That was nice to watch.’
She breaks off again. Nathan wants to know about Exmouth.
‘So, where did you drop them? Where were they going?’
‘They wanted to go to the dock. You know where the Stuart Line puts in? The tourist boat? Down beyond the Rock Fish restaurant? That’s where I took them.’
‘Why?’ Nathan again, our guest QC. ‘Why the dock?’