An older woman stands up and walks to the lectern, a piece of paper trembling in her grasp. It’s so brave of Beth’s mother to speak today. He sees the familiar features on her face, but she still looks like a stranger, lost in her own grief. He listens to her words of love, a fitting eulogy for a beautiful person, and finally gives in to his emotions. He cries for the wife he’s lost, the life that was once so privileged and now lies in tatters.

And he cries for his daughters.

December 2021

December 2021

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Beth

If she’d walked home via Thurleigh Road she wouldn’t be here now, Beth thinks, staring at the three emergency vehicles lined up on the pavement, their flashing lights giving the normally quiet road an early Christmas glow. She would be in bed, Simon gently snoring next to her, wondering whether the magnesium that her nutritionist recommended will do its job, or if she’ll need something stronger to help her drift off.

But no. Tonight, she chose the slightly longer route from Wandsworth Common train station via the main road because it felt safer. And here she is. Surrounded by police and paramedics.

A small gust of wind appears from somewhere and Beth shivers as it coils around her. It’s always a dilemma, going to an upmarket restaurant in the wintertime, and she’d erred on the side of style over practicality this evening. Her floaty dress, leather bomber jacket and Veja trainers had looked good when she left home, and equally so when she arrived at Barrafina in Soho. But now she wishes she’d chosen something more in keeping with the early December temperatures, or even sneaked a pair of tights underneath her dress. Not that she could have expected her evening to turn out like this of course. Standing outside a vacant shop unit within a few feet of a corpse.

The relief when the paramedics finally arrived – about ten minutes after she made the 999 call – had washed over her so potently that it felt like a jet of warm water, albeit a temporary one. She was no longer responsible for the inert figure collapsed on the ground, the poor homeless man with a needle sticking out of his arm, whose smell she’d been trying desperately to ignore. She’d stepped back with an almost giddy sigh when they took over, and watched the performance like it was an episode of Casualty. The stocky older woman with short grey hair had flung her green rucksack onto the concrete paving slabs and pulled out various bits of equipment, while the younger one stretched on some latex gloves and crouched over the man slumped motionless in the doorway.