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
“I guess that one of the main things you do when you do murder investigations is that you ask the suspects where they were and normally it’ll be something like, I was watching TV or I was going for a walk or I was having a drink with so-and-so. But this time you’ve got someone actually being filmed at the same time as the murder.” When Jude finished, there was silence. “Sorry, are you still there?”
“I’m still here.”
“What do you think about that? Don’t you think that Danny’s alibi is too good?”
“You were just saying that it wasn’t good enough. Now it’s too good. What does that even mean?”
“How many people have photographic evidence proving they couldn’t have done it?”
There was a silence.
“Well?” Jude asked.
“I’m just hearing the bit where you say, ‘proving they couldn’t have done it.’”
“You don’t see my point?”
“Before I answer that, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“No. I mean, no, I don’t mind.”
“What were you doing last night?”
Now it was Jude’s turn to pause.
“It was complicated. Things got confused. I’m not proud of it.”
“I don’t need to justify myself to you and you don’t need to justify yourself to me. But if I were a friend of yours, I would probably be trying to help you at a time like this. Do you have friends?”
“Yes.”
She thought of her friends, of the life she had been living just a few weeks ago. Happiness and sociability and a thick crowd of hopes and plans. She thought of how quickly things could fall away and be lost, and the ache in her chest almost made her gasp.
“I think you should talk to them. But those people in Liam’s house. They’re not your friends.”
Jude started to speak in reply, then she realized the line was dead. Leila had hung up.
Fifty-Two
Jude walked very slowly into the bedroom, which was dark and cold and smelled of damp. The rest of the day stretched ahead of her. And then the next day, and the next.
She looked at her phone, all the missed calls and the unanswered messages. She would look at them all later. She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. She felt tiredness chewing away at her thoughts. She wanted to sleep and not wake until—until what? Until this was all just a terrible dream and she would wake up and be back in her old life: before Liam came and found her, before Nat had fucked another woman, before she had entered the house in Walthamstow.