April put her cup to her mouth, but hesitated. ‘You know, he did take his time finding a photo of her when I asked to see one.’

‘Was he in it?’

‘No,’ April said, only to shrug it off. ‘Don’t look so worried. I’ll take a look online, and I bet we don’t find anything.’

That possibility didn’t fill Tara with hope. An online presence might give them some insight, good or bad, but what if April could find no trace of Nick or his dead girlfriend? Was it possible that Nick had joined the group under a false pretext?

STATEMENT

The Widows’ Club @thewidowsclub

Again we feel obliged to respond to certain criticism. We would like to point out that we have always welcomed new members and the admins interview everyone before admission to the group. We accept we have a duty of care but we are not fortune tellers.

18

April had her earphones in to seal herself off from the house that was yet to wake. She was in bed listening to a playlist that had neither been borrowed nor shared with Jason. All the songs were new releases and not a single riff was tainted by his memory. There was only one man April had on her mind, and it wasn’t her husband.

Conjuring an image of Nick, April recalled his confused expression that time she had told him she couldn’t afford a place of her own. It had been only their second meeting, but Nick had already noted that Jason had been a council worker and presumed she had been left with a decent pension. Was that when he had lost interest? It was the same night that he had met Faith, and Tara was right to say he moved fast; he had pursued her from that moment on.

What did they really know about Nick? He was charming, charismatic, and appeared to be a genuinely nice guy, but, as April had discovered to her cost, not every man was as he seemed, and the interview process for the group wasn’t exactly robust. April had been asked to complete a form to provide her contact details, but she hadn’t been required to prove who she was. Neither had Nick.

When April rubbed her tired eyes, Dexter crawled up from the foot of the bed to rest his chin on her lap. He licked at her hand as she tapped her phone, his deep brown eyes glinting in the soft glow of the screen. A new George Ezra song was playing and she remembered that time Jason had been singing along to ‘Budapest’ in the car. The window was down and a passer-by had laughed at his misquoted lyrics. April caught herself before she could smile.