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Back The Favor Save as PDF
Chapters (78)
  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-One
  25. Twenty-Two
  26. Twenty-Three
  27. Twenty-Four
  28. Twenty-Five
  29. Twenty-Six
  30. Twenty-Seven
  31. Twenty-Eight
  32. Twenty-Nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-One
  35. Thirty-Two
  36. Thirty-Three
  37. Thirty-Four
  38. Thirty-Five
  39. Thirty-Six
  40. Thirty-Seven
  41. Thirty-Eight
  42. Thirty-Nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty-One
  45. Forty-Two
  46. Forty-Three
  47. Forty-Four
  48. Forty-Five
  49. Forty-Six
  50. Forty-Seven
  51. Forty-Eight
  52. Forty-Nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty-One
  55. Fifty-Two
  56. Fifty-Three
  57. Fifty-Four
  58. Fifty-Five
  59. Fifty-Six
  60. Fifty-Seven
  61. Fifty-Eight
  62. Fifty-Nine
  63. Sixty
  64. Sixty-One
  65. Sixty-Two
  66. Sixty-Three
  67. Sixty-Four
  68. Sixty-Five
  69. Sixty-Six
  70. Sixty-Seven
  71. Sixty-Eight
  72. Sixty-Nine
  73. Seventy
  74. Acknowledgments
  75. About the Author
  76. Remarkable Praise for Nicci French
  77. Also by Nicci French
  78. About the Publisher

Leila Fox shrugged, disappointed. “All right,” she said. “I told you that your involvement with all of this was a shock to us. In my opinion, we aren’t the only people who were shocked when you popped up. I think someone wanted to make it look like a mugging, and they might have got away with it had it not been for you.”

Jude started to say something but Fox held up a hand to silence her.

“Bear with me. I imagine this person or persons being surprised after killing Birch when they search him and find he doesn’t have a wallet or a phone on him. What’s that about? And then they must have been even more surprised when they heard about you. They must be wondering what you were doing there. They must be wondering what you know.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“That’s what you say. They don’t know that.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that it’s very much in your interest that we find out who did this. In the meantime you should be careful.”

Seventeen

Jude clicked on Danny Kelner’s website.

“Wow,” she said aloud.

It seemed that Danny Kelner ran an outfit in Clapton called Lines on the Body. She was a tattooist and on the homepage there was a photograph of a woman with dark hair and dark eyes, three beautifully drawn tears on one cheek and delicate, barely visible ripples of water around her neck. She looked like a woman who could tell your fortune or cast a spell. Jude clicked through the samples of Danny Kelner’s work, photographs of snakes winding around necks, insects on breasts and the backs of hands, cats stretching down backs, flowers and vines curled around legs and arms. There was exotic calligraphy, networks of tiles, dots and splotches and swirls. There were stars, planets and comets. A sumptuously evoked dragon was winding round the bald head of a man and across his face. Was that legal?

So this was who Liam had ended up with. Just the sight of her made Jude feel small and pale and drab. She also felt confused. What was the right thing to do? To reply or not to reply? She had already damaged herself. Surely the best thing was to do nothing.

But of course, she dialed the number. It was answered so quickly that she felt unprepared. In what sounded to her like a nervous gabble, she introduced herself.

“It’s Jude Winter and I’m so sorry about your loss,” she said. “I don’t even know what words to use.”

“Thank you,” said Danny. Her voice was husky and low. “It’s good of you to call.”