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
At the far end, the roof sloped down to the floor. In it was a large dormer window. Vin unfastened a catch and pulled one half inward. He reached a hand back toward Jude.
“What?” she said.
“It’s okay,” he said.
She took his hand and he led her out into the darkness and the fierce cold hit her so that it almost hurt her face. She could hardly see anything. She couldn’t even make out what she was standing on.
“Is this a terrace?”
“It’s not anything. It’s just somewhere we come up at night, for the view. Look.”
She could see him faintly gesturing. She could see the lights of east London and beyond them, against the sky, the glow of the Shard and Canary Wharf. She could feel Vin standing beside her.
“In daylight you can see all the way to the Surrey Hills,” he said.
Jude saw the flash of flame from Vin’s lighter and then the glow as he lit whatever it was he was lighting. She saw the glow of it and smelled the familiar smell. He handed it to her and she contemplated it and then took a drag and handed it back to him. She looked around. She felt dizzy and also nervous.
“Is there a railing?”
“There’s nothing. We thought of turning this into somewhere we could come and drink on sunny days. But we didn’t and we probably won’t now. So be careful where you step. It’s a long way down.”
She looked upward. It was a cold clear night and she could see the stars. It was almost like not being in London at all.
“So what do you make of it all?”
“All? Life, the universe and everything?”
“All right,” he said. “What did you make of this evening?”
Jude opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. There was too much to say—about Tara, about Erika, about Dermot, about Danny—but she wasn’t sure this was the right time, standing on a roof with a man she wasn’t sure she liked and had no reason to trust.
“It was an intense day,” she said. “The funeral was intense in one way and the party was intense in another.”
Vin laughed.
“That’s a diplomatic way of putting it. When you came here, you didn’t know what you were letting yourself in for. This household is a bit complicated.”
She turned to Vin. She could only see his silhouette against the sky. His tone sounded more serious than she’d heard from him before, but it was still disconcerting talking to someone when you couldn’t see their expression, and when a few steps away the roof ended.