Chapters (78)
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- 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
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Remarkable Praise for Nicci French
- Also by Nicci French
- About the Publisher
“It sounds as if they really got under your skin.”
Leary looked at her with an aggrieved expression.
“They didn’t get under my skin. They behaved badly and they behaved unprofessionally.”
“You still owed them money.”
“You,” he said. “Did you say you’re a doctor? A doctor of medicine?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, I’m a businessman and I know about what you owe and when you owe it and when you don’t owe it.”
Jude looked around. “I don’t know much about you, but I’m guessing this money was more important to them than it was to you.”
“You’re right,” he said. “You don’t know much about me. I tried to be flexible with them. I said I’d pay them when they’d done the job they’d promised to do. Does that seem reasonable?”
“That’s difficult for me to say.”
“And they left with the door to the garden off its hinges, the radiator and the dishwasher unplumbed, mud all over the carpet, cigarettes in saucers everywhere, and they never came back. But I did get their bill of course.”
“Which you didn’t pay.”
“Of course I didn’t pay.”
“I see that there was a breakdown in communication,” said Jude. “But the fact remains that they spent many weeks in your house, spent a lot of money on materials—”
“That I didn’t want.”
“You’re saying you don’t intend to pay anything?”
“That’s right.”
“You know that his being dead doesn’t change anything. You still may face legal action.”
She didn’t know if any of this was true, but she wanted to see how he would react. There was a flicker of what might have been concern on his face, but he seemed unmoved.
“Bring it on,” he said.
“Can I ask something?”
“What?”
“I don’t know your circumstances. Can you actually afford to pay what you owe? Or some of it?”
“What?” he said again, sounding more agitated.
“I have to ask. As an executor. You’ll have to pay something.”
Jude felt strange as she heard herself saying these words, as if she were fighting on behalf of Liam.
“The fact that things are a bit bumpy in my sector is not the point,” he said at last. His face was rigid with stifled shame and anger.
“Did you argue with Liam?”
“I tried to remain courteous.”
“Was he angry?”
Jude could imagine it. There was an anger in Liam that she had glimpsed, all those years ago, and never forgotten. Sometimes it was just a look, if she had said the wrong thing, but it had been enough to frighten her.
“I wouldn’t say he was merely angry. I would say he was abusive. In the end I wouldn’t take his calls. I felt threatened by him. I even thought of calling the police.”