“I don’t know. I’ve just seen some of the invoices and I’ve seen Liam Birch’s bank statements. Maybe Mr. Leary was just a slow payer. Cash-flow problems like that can be enough to sink a tiny business like this one. And this one was already underwater. It’s the job of the executor to sort out matters like this and I don’t see why you should do it.” He looked at her pointedly. “Or why you’d want to do it.”

“Isn’t it something you could help with?”

Michael shook his head. “It was painful enough just looking at this horror show.”

“Would Liam have known it was this bad?”

“Oh yes. That pile of papers was full of reminders and threats. It must have been like being inside the burning building.”

“So what’ll happen to the business and the house and everything?”

Michael shrugged. “On the face of it, your old boyfriend had nothing. Less than nothing. Mortgage not paid, overdrawn at the bank, bills not paid, clients not paying him. Sometimes you can come to some kind of arrangement. But it takes professional help and it takes time.”

“What about life insurance?” asked Jude. “You hear about people who’re worth more dead than alive. Wouldn’t there be enough to pay off the mortgage and pay his bills?”

“I forgot about that,” said Michael. “When I said there were two areas, I should have said there were three areas. There were two life insurance policies. The first was connected to the mortgage, the second was taken out ten months ago.”

“That would have been shortly after his son was born. So that must be a reasonable payout, mustn’t it?”

“Both of them had lapsed. He had stopped making the payments. There were warning letters printed in red for both policies. I doubt either of them will pay out a penny.”

“Poor Liam.”

“Welcome to the private sector,” said Michael, sounding strangely cheerful. “You’ve spent your career working for the NHS. Your generous salary and pension plan are paid for out of my taxes. But for the rest of us, out in the real world, if things go wrong, really wrong, then the safety net gets pulled away. Liam must have known he was heading for a reckoning, one way or another.”

Jude was irritated by Michael’s tone, the patronizing tone he had always had for her, ever since they were teenagers. But she was aware that he had done this work for her in his own time.

“So you think that this isn’t something I can sort out on my own.”

“I’m quite sure it isn’t.”

“I could go and see that man who owed Liam money. That would help, wouldn’t it?”

“Don’t even think of it!”

“Why?”

“You don’t know anything about the man except that he failed to pay Liam. I mean, he could be violent.”