Contents (57)
- 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
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
‘Milk no sugar, if I remember rightly, Ezra,’ she said. ‘And mind how you go getting down that ladder. It slips, you know. Leaping about on roofs as if you’re still a spring chicken, I ask you. I don’t want to be sued if you fall, and I’m not hanging about to catch you when you do.’
Gilly watched as the two of them shared another hard stare. Edie disappeared back indoors a moment later and they saw no more of her. Gilly, though, had a grin on her face for the rest of the afternoon.
Thirty-Five
Toby ruminated over the newspaper article about Rachel, sitting at his cottage’s kitchen table with a strong coffee, his laptop and a notebook and pen by his side. At first he considered whether there could be any other purpose to the article than to cause trouble. Could there be someone out there who thought that they were doing the right thing? Even with the best will in the world, Toby couldn’t see how this could possibly be the case. He couldn’t imagine any of the bookshop regulars finding a motive to become the article’s ‘source’, for example, and between them they were the people who knew Cullen and Rachel the best. There was Alan Crosswick, the solicitor, he supposed, but the man had seemed entirely confident about Rachel remaining in her position at the lighthouse. Why would he employ her if he had any worries about her involvement in Cullen’s death?
Even though Toby ruled Crosswick himself out, he decided to call and talk to the man anyway. It had taken the solicitor’s office weeks to establish Trudy Goodwin’s connection to Cullen MacDonald and then track her down, and yet the article had appeared almost instantly.
‘Yes,’ Crosswick said heavily, when Toby got him on the phone. ‘I’m sorry to say that we followed the same line of thought. It turns out that one of our interns was not as trustworthy as we thought. They are no longer working with us.’
‘Can you give me a name and a contact?’ Toby asked. ‘I’d like to talk to this person, if possible.’
The solicitor cleared his throat. ‘I’d rather not do that,’ he said. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think there was anything malevolent involved. It was a young person gossiping to friends, that’s all. I think a lesson has been well learned; I don’t want to make it any worse of them.’
‘Fair enough,’ Toby said, making a note. It wouldn’t be hard for him to find a name through other avenues, if he needed to.
‘There is something else,’ Crosswick said, after a pause.
‘Oh?’
‘I haven’t told Rachel yet, but we’ve had an offer for Cullen’s estate – the lighthouse, the gatehouse and the land on which they both stand. It came in this morning.’
‘It’s not on the market yet though, is it?’
‘No, but Cullen’s death is common knowledge and the person making the offer knows the area and already has an interest.’