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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

“But I’m the executor and it’s my job to call in debts, isn’t it?”

“No. I mean, yes, in theory. But not by turning up on his doorstep. You could write him a letter.”

Jude looked at Michael dubiously.

“Anyway,” he said. “It wouldn’t sort out the mess Liam had got himself into. It would help pay the bills, I suppose, and there might even be a bit left over. But it wouldn’t be enough to pay the mortgage. It’s too late for those life insurance policies.”

“Those policies,” said Jude, “were they joint policies? I mean husband-and-wife policies, not that Liam and Danny were actually married. Or did he do them himself?”

“If you mean, were they in his name only, the answer is yes. The beneficiary of the second policy was the woman he lived with.”

“So Danny will be left with nothing?”

“Is that a woman you’re talking about?”

“Yes. His partner; the mother of his child and the person he left everything to in his will.”

“She’ll be left with nothing and a terrible mess to go with it.”

When he left, he kissed her on the cheek and patted her arm awkwardly.

“Seriously. Don’t go poking around too much, Jude. It sounds to me as if you’re in over your head.”

“Don’t worry.”

He looked at her suspiciously.

“Why do I not feel reassured?”

Thirty-Two

Jude had the address of Liam and Vin’s workplace but even so she had trouble finding it. The map on her phone took her to the outskirts of Walthamstow, down a potholed road lined with houses, several of which had boarded-up windows, and into the Jubilee Industrial Estate.

She couldn’t tell from the names on the signs what most of them were: alongside a microbrewery, and a storage and distribution company, there were also names like MaleCo, Formix, Vista Ready. She walked around the muddy yard, blowing on her hands and trying to find a name, until at last she came across a small, simple wooden sign: LIAM BIRCH: ALL THINGS WOOD. The shutters were open. She pressed her face to the smeared window and couldn’t see anything, but she could hear the burr of a chainsaw. She knocked at the door and then, after a minute of waiting while icy rain dribbled down her neck, pushed at it. It swung open, and Jude stepped inside.