But back to the main point of this communication: do you know the woman in the attached sketch, by any chance? If you do, please get in touch. If you could bring her to a restaurant of her choice so that I can buy her dinner, that would be even better. Just don’t forget to tell me which restaurant, when, etc.

Thanks in advance,

Niall Greeves

So that’s what he was doing at the police station the other day. It was nothing to do with Billy Dead Mates. He was there because he wanted to get in touch with me.

In the sketch that he’s scanned into the email, I look wary, unapproachable, lonely. It’s a better likeness than all my official publicity photographs.

Damn Niall Greeves. Damn him to damnation for making me want to put him in his place by proving I’m funnier than he is.

I click on ‘Reply’.

From: [email protected]

Sent: 17 July 2016 10.52:13

To: [email protected]

Subject: The Billy Dead Books by Kim Tribbeck

Dear Susan

I’m so sorry we’ve ended up where we are. I don’t know what to say. I love the book as much as you do, and am bitterly disappointed. It seems almost a tragedy that no one apart from us will ever get to read the inside story of the Billy Dead Mates investigation, but Kim is adamant. I think it would be unfair to blame Niall. Yes, it’s because of him, but he certainly hasn’t applied any pressure. And there’s the Charlie factor, too: as she and Kim have become closer friends, Kim has wanted to protect her, understandably (if not her appalling sister). Anyway, rest assured: no one has leaned on Kim at all. This is one hundred per cent her decision.

I can sort of understand it. She was willing to put her life and feelings out there for public consumption while she was unhappy and lonely (I almost wonder if the book wasn’t a cry for help, in some ways) but now that she is neither, now that she feels she has something worth preserving, she doesn’t want to be the butt of everyone’s disapproval and derision.

As you might imagine, Charlie Zailer is simultaneously relieved and disappointed. She seems to think Kim will write a different book in the not too distant future – perhaps crime fiction – so we can always keep our fingers crossed for that!

Once again, I’m so very sorry. I wish I could have come back to you with better news. I suppose the only silver lining is that I don’t now have to convey your anxieties about The Billy Dead Books as a title. That would not have gone down well!

Very best wishes,

Inessa

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements