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
“One of the people in this house is called Doc, I don’t know why, he’s not anything like a doctor. I don’t really know what he does with himself. Mostly he plays the guitar and has loud sex with Erika, and burns toast in the middle of the night.”
Erika, thought Jude. The woman who had called Liam’s phone the night he had died.
“Reminds me of university,” she said. Danny didn’t reply so she felt a need to explain. “You know, sharing a house with lots of people.”
Danny leaned forward and put the mug down on the floor, then straightened up again. “Tell me about you and Liam.”
Upstairs there was a violent hammering sound. Jude waited for it to subside.
“There wasn’t any me and Liam. I hadn’t seen him since I was eighteen. And then he came to the hospital a few days before he died.”
Danny smiled, except it wasn’t really a smile at all, more like someone baring her teeth. Jude saw her hands grip the sides of the chair, as if she was trying to keep control over herself.
“Try and see this from my point of view,” she said in her ragged voice. “There’s this girl Liam mentions over the years, usually when he’s drunk and maudlin, someone he was in love with when he was just a kid. Sometimes I felt almost jealous of her.” That smile again. “And then he gets fucking murdered out there in the mud and the cold and the rain, my beautiful man, my darling, and it turns out he had been planning to spend the weekend with this woman from his past. With you.”
“Spending the weekend,” said Jude. “That sounds different from what it was. He tracked me down at work, out of the blue. It was after a night shift, we had coffee, he told me about Alfie, he said he had a favor to ask me and told me to go to this cottage and wait for him and he would explain. That’s it. There’s nothing more.”
“I like stories,” said Danny. “When people come to me for a tattoo, I tell them that each image I puncture into their skin, it’s got to tell a story. It can’t just be a passing fancy. Look.” She drew up the loose sleeve of her shirt and held out her inner arm. Jude stood up and went over to her. There were a series of what looked at first like delicate ticks in the pale skin between elbow and wrist, but she saw they actually represented birds in flight, their wings at different angles. Danny clenched and unclenched her fist and the shapes moved.