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
“Has anyone else been here?”
“No.”
There was a pause.
“What are you doing here, in Norfolk, with Liam Birch’s phone? And his luggage.”
“I was waiting for him. He was meant to arrive this evening. I mean, yesterday evening. I went to the station to collect him but he wasn’t on the train.”
Leila Fox smiled sympathetically. “You’re going to have to say more than that.”
Jude thought about what she could say and decided she had no choice. So she told the whole story of Liam arriving at the hospital and their conversation in the café and what he had asked her to do and while she was talking she was listening to herself. She had thought and thought about this, but now that she was putting it into words and saying the words aloud, it felt even stranger. Absurd even. She could tell as she spoke that this wasn’t what they had been expecting. When she was finished, the two detectives looked restless and dissatisfied.
“I have so many questions,” said Leila Fox after a pause during which they stared at her and she wanted to scream. “I hardly know which one to ask first. For a start, I have to ask, were you in a relationship with Liam Birch?”
“No.” Jude didn’t know if this was another lie. They had been in a relationship eleven years before, but that was different. “I knew him when we were seventeen, eighteen. Friends, that’s all.”
“I mean now.”
“Not at all. I’m getting married in a couple months.”
“To someone else?”
“Of course to someone else.”
“This someone else: does he know you’re here?”
Jude hesitated for a fraction too long. “No, he doesn’t.”
“Where does he think you are?”
“I’m sorry,” said Jude in a distressed tone, “but what does it matter where my fiancé thinks I am?”
Leila leaned forward. “Put yourself in our position, Jude. A man has been murdered and for some reason his phone is over a hundred miles away.”
“I have his wallet as well,” Jude blurted out.
“You have his wallet?”
“Yes.”
The woman raised her eyebrows. “This is all very confusing. For example, you’re saying that Liam Birch asked you for a favor but I’m not clear what the favor was.”
“I’m not clear either,” said Jude. “He said he was going to tell me what it was when he got here.”
“Why you?” said the male detective. He had a sharp, metallic voice that Jude disliked. “You said you haven’t seen him for more than ten years. Why does he suddenly turn up and ask you for a favor?”
“I don’t know. We were close once. But it was a long time ago.”