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
“If you’ve a problem with me doing this, fine. Absolutely fine. I’ll just say I wasn’t asked and I don’t want to do it.”
“Who will you say it to?”
Jude thought for a moment and then grinned wryly.
“I don’t have a clue. I don’t know anything about being an executor apart from what I learned from spending about ten minutes online. You just have to get the assets valued, make sure debts are paid off and do what Liam wanted, like making sure that his harmonica goes to the right person. It would probably be sensible to get a solicitor to do it. It’ll cost money but it’ll get done the right way. Or you can lean on Dermot. He said he’d do it. I’m not sure he’s quite . . .”
“Stable,” said Danny.
“Capable of doing something like this.”
Danny leaned forward to look at the document. Her dark hair fell across her face and she gathered it up with one hand. Her expression was stern, a little sad.
“You know what gets me,” she said. “I look at the date, what is it? Four months ago? And I imagine Liam suddenly having the idea of doing a will and thinking about it and probably making lists of all those stupid little things he’s leaving to people and all the time keeping it a secret from me. And then, just to make sure it’s a secret, he goes back to his parents and does it there and gets witnesses I don’t know, and then to carry out the will he names an executor.”
“Two executors.”
“Dermot,” she said. “Was he in on the secret?”
“He was as surprised as I was.”
“Why would Liam do all that without telling me? That’s what gets me.”
“I’m guessing he did it because he had become a father and that made him feel he had to put things in order. Maybe he didn’t tell you because people find it difficult to talk about dying. I work in geriatrics, so I see people die all the time and a lot of my job is to make their dying as good as I can. But I haven’t made a will myself because I’m young and I still want to hang on to my belief that I’m going to live forever. I think becoming a parent makes you feel mortal and makes you think about life going on after you’ve left it. What would really have been terrible is if he’d secretly written a will leaving everything to someone else. But whoever the executor is or isn’t, basically it’s all going to you and Alfie.”
Danny got up and filled the kettle, put it on the hob and then sat down again.
“So you need to look at bank records and things like that?”