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
“Up to now I’ve been on your side,” Leila said eventually. “I didn’t understand why you set out to do this favor for someone you say you hadn’t seen for over a decade. I’ve made every effort to see it from your point of view and I haven’t quite managed it. And now this. If you can’t do better than that, we’re going to make you the focus of this inquiry and you won’t like that. You won’t like that at all.”
Leila Fox’s gray gaze was still on her. Jude’s body felt flimsy in the chair, her head unbearably heavy.
“What do you want from me?” Jude said feebly.
“Tell me about it.”
“You mean the alibi, if that’s what it was? I’ve told you so often.”
“No, not that. Tell me about you and Liam, eleven years ago.”
“Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Please,” said Leila, almost in a coaxing tone.
So Jude took a deep breath and, in as clinical a way as she could manage, talked about how she and Liam had got together, even though they had been so different, because they had been so different. The parties they had gone to. She said that they had slept together. She didn’t describe it.
“Was he your first?”
Jude felt her face flushing.
“Yes. He was my first. Why does it matter? What has that got to do with anything?”
Then she said how intense it had been and then she described the night of the crash, Benny and Yolanda in the back, the suddenness of it, how she remembered in fragments, and at the end of it Liam being taken away. And after that, it had all been over, like a dream that had faded.
As she spoke, Jude was aware of Leila gazing at her, leaning forward, almost with a hungry expression. When she had finished speaking, the detective was silent for a long time and then a slow smile formed on her face.
“What?” said Jude uneasily.
“I should have known all along. When you talked about feeling guilty about Liam going one way and you another in your lives.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was you.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” But Jude did know. She felt she was falling into a great abyss that had opened beneath her, down and down and no end to it.
“You were driving that night.”
It wasn’t a question. Jude closed her eyes.
“When the police arrived, Liam took the blame for you. That’s what happened.”
A small sound escaped from Jude, a kind of grunt as if someone had hit her in the stomach.