‘They’ll pay you well.’

She winked and he got up, ready to leave. He had dropped in to see how the interview had gone but in truth Jack had called him five minutes before he arrived to tell him what a fantastic presentation Sarah had done and the Board had unanimously agreed to appoint her.

‘What happened to the court case?’ she asked.

‘It turns out that Alexia had professional executors. She didn’t have any family that we know of, other than Dominique. So two partners of a local law firm had been appointed. They took one look at the litigation and decided there wasn’t enough money in the estate to indemnify them, especially if what money there is happened to be proceeds of crime. So they discontinued, meaning that The Real Byte won. They’ll be more litigation over costs probably, but that’s for another day.’

‘All’s well that ends well then.’

Priest looked away, thinking of Elinor. Rose and Dennis had called Priest earlier to say that they had taken her ‘back to hospital’ because they were worried about her mental health.

‘At least it’s over, for now.’ He popped his head around the door to the lounge and shouted bye to Tilly, who waved back lazily, then turned to Sarah. ‘Got to run. Bit of paperwork to catch up on.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘Who is she?’

Priest smiled. ‘See you soon.’

She led him to the door, brushed a hair off his jacket.

‘It’ll take a long time but the new charity will be up and running eventually,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t believe the money people have come forward with.’

‘Really?’

‘One benefactor alone put in over a million pounds.’

‘You’re kidding,’ he said, smiling internally. ‘Who’d have thought it?’

*

It was early evening and the air was heavy. Rain was coming. The sky was a dark, hazy blue, blemished with ethereal clouds. The smoke from the small bonfire drifted high above the back of the allotment before dissipating into nothing.

‘What happened to the fish in the end?’ asked Li, tearing a page from one of the folders and casting it into the flames.

‘Hemingway didn’t make it,’ Georgie replied, doing the same.

They had found two old deckchairs stacked around the back of a shed and, at this time of night, it seemed unlikely that anybody else would need them. So they sat, enjoying the warmth of the fire, feeding the flames with the Martin papers.

‘I think you owe me an introduction,’ Li said, with a wink.

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘It’s OK,’ Li laughed. ‘In your own time.’

Georgie smiled and threw on another piece of paper.

‘How did – what was his name? DCI Rowlinson get your boss out of the church, by the way?’

‘There was a side door. Rowlinson kicked it down and luckily Charlie was hunched up in the corner.’