Jude didn’t go straight to Anthony Leary’s, but stopped off at the little Italian restaurant she had seen on her way to Liam’s workshop. She was so hungry she felt almost sick, and she realized she hadn’t eaten a proper meal since coming back from her parents on Sunday, just randomly snacked on things like the marinated anchovies past their sell-by date that she’d found in Simon’s fridge.

It was cozily warm in the restaurant, and full of pungent smells. Jude ordered a pizza with olives and capers. It was far too big for one person, bubbling with spicy tomato sauce and with blistering cheese that hung in sticky threads when she lifted a slice to her mouth. But she ate almost all of it, and drank several glasses of water, followed by a large mug of coffee. She felt so full she could barely move and suddenly so sleepy it was hard to keep her eyes open. She didn’t want to be going back into the cold rain, or return to a basement flat that smelled of damp, where the fridge leaked and the cat kept up its ankle-biting vendetta.

Jude checked the map on her phone. Anthony Leary was just a couple of miles eastward. If she was going to visit him, she needed to do it now while she still had some will left in her.

Twenty minutes later she was very cold and very wet. The route had taken her along busy roads and she was splattered with muddy water sprayed up by passing cars. On the ride, the houses had gradually become more prosperous, larger, better maintained, set back from the road, further apart. Did the disputed money really matter to someone who lived like this? For Liam and Vin it had been about survival. Probably Leary wouldn’t even be at home on a Wednesday afternoon.

But he was. He opened the door, eyebrows raised suspiciously. Leary was a middle-aged man with weathered cheeks and a snub nose that seemed out of place with the rest of him; his graying hair rippled at a side parting. He was wearing a beautifully cut gray suit that was slightly too tight, like he was about to go to or had just come from a meeting. A small dog stood beside him, barking ferociously.

“Sorry to disturb you,” said Jude, wishing she wasn’t so damp and muddy, her hair flattened by her bike helmet and her fingers throbbing. “My name is Dr. Judith Winters.”

She waited to see if he recognized the name but his expression didn’t change.

“I’ve been appointed executor to Liam Birch’s will,” she said, thinking that the “appointed” made it sound more formal than it actually was.

Now Anthony Leary’s expression did change. His face darkened and his eyebrows drew together so that his forehead was corrugated with lines.

“Did you know he had died?”