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
“So I was thinking, what if my text arrived too late and Nat had already left to meet me? What if he’d seen me and Liam together? I’m just saying, maybe he did see us together. He might have got the wrong idea.”
The way in which her feelings had swung so violently from love and affection to hostility and suspicion made her feel queasy.
“Is that it?”
“Yes. What do you think?”
“We’ll look into it.”
“It’s probably nothing,” said Jude. “I don’t know anything anymore. That thing we talked about the other day, about the accident, about how I was driving, I couldn’t tell Nat. It was impossible. I went to see him and confess, and then he was so unpleasant and angry that I couldn’t.”
“I get that,” said Leila in a gentler tone.
“Yes.”
“Now I need to go.”
“Of course.”
“One word of advice.”
“What?”
“This executor thing. Go easy with it. Try to sort out your own life, not his.”
Thirty-Five
Jude woke in the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. Her head was buzzing with all that she knew about Liam and his life. He had been absent for years and she had sometimes wondered what had become of him. But she had never googled him. She had never looked for him on Facebook or Instagram. It felt like forbidden knowledge.
Now that he was dead, she was learning everything: about his family, his house, his business. She knew more about his finances than she knew about her own. She knew more about his finances than he had known. She knew the places in his life, where he had grown up, where he had lived, where he had worked. But then, as she turned all this over and over in her mind, it occurred to her there was one place that she hadn’t seen. She decided to go there and found the idea strangely soothing; she drifted off to sleep.
It wasn’t until she was drinking her second cup of coffee the next morning that Jude remembered those thoughts from the middle of the night. Even in the gray light of morning, it still seemed a good idea. She had nothing else to do. Why not now?
What was it that Leila Fox had said to her? Walthamstow Marshes. She took out her phone and looked at the map. It was a big area, running for a mile or more along the west side of the River Lea up to the reservoirs. Would she be able to find the spot? Then she remembered something else that the detective had said. It was near a place where people rode horses. Near? Had that been her word? She couldn’t remember. She looked at her map again and saw the Lee Valley Riding Centre. She could go there and see. At least she might get some sense of the place where Liam had died.