Ellie looked at her watch: 2pm. She stood up, applied fresh lipstick, slipped her sunglasses on, threw her handbag over her shoulder and made her way out of the office. As she moved into an elevator and down to a floor housing one of The Shard’s six restaurants, she was flanked by her recently appointed trio of bodyguards and took a moment to think about her former head of security, Andrei. For his own sake, it was best that he disappear from her world rather than face charges for assisting her in disposing of Matthew’s body. She assumed he’d gone back home to Eastern Europe; the payoff was generous enough to allow him not to work for many years to come.
She walked confidently through the bustling dining room, noting the hushed tones and cocked heads as she brushed past each table. She was no longer concerned by what people thought of her; she’d let her PR team take care of that. That extended to her family, too, who she hadn’t seen since Matthew’s death. There had been intermittent contact with them through Ula, and she had felt huge waves of guilt when their home had become besieged by reporters. But by accepting Tim into their lives, they too had been complicit in breaking down her barriers and allowing him to poison the waters. In Ellie’s mind, Tim and her family were intrinsically linked and, to cut him out, she had to cut them out too.
She kept her sunglasses over her eyes as the maître d’ lead her to a corner table overlooking the Thames. She ordered her usual Hendrick’s gin and tonic and thanked a nervous young waiter whose hand trembled as he filled her glass with sparkling water. She could smell Ula’s perfume before she reached Ellie’s table.
‘I’m sorry to bother you, but your barrister’s just called,’ Ula said, unable to disguise her concern. ‘The jury is ready to return with its verdict.’
Ellie nodded, took a sip of drink and followed Ula and her bodyguards into the lift, towards where her car was parked by the service entrance. They sped off in the direction of the Old Bailey courts where she had spent every day of the last four months on trial for Matthew’s murder. She had pleaded an assertive ‘not guilty’ on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
‘Have you made a decision about the re-tests? Will we be offering them to those unsure if they’re a Match?’
‘No, I don’t think we will,’ Ellie replied coldly. ‘Everyone included in that time frame who may or may not have been mis-Matched will have to follow their instinct. Sometimes, the grass isn’t greener on the other side and we should stay in the field where we belong. And sometimes we just need to take a gamble and hope for the best.’
‘And if you don’t get the verdict you hope for?’ Ula asked. ‘What then?’
‘You know what to do,’ Ellie replied. ‘Press the button and let the world start making its own mistakes again.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first person I’d like to offer my thanks to is John Russell. Much gratitude comes to you for allowing me to bounce so many ideas at you over Oscar’s dog walks, and for coming up with some alternative twists and turns of your own. For a man who rarely reads a book, your ideas and suggestions were amazing! Thank you also for your patience while I hid myself away in our office as you kept me fed and watered.
Thanks to my mum, Pamela Marrs, for being my most loyal supporter and the inspiration for my love of books. And a huge thank you to Tracy Fenton, Queen of Facebook’s THE Book Club, for her advice and frequent abuse. To writers both experienced and new to the game, you’re a Godsend.
I’d like to offer a massive shout-out to members of the aforementioned and largest online group of like-minded readers. There’s no other group out there like you and I’m grateful to every one of the thousands of you who have downloaded my novels to date.
Special thanks to the wonderful Governess of Grammar Kath Middleton and Randileigh Kennedy (fantastic authors themselves), Anne Lynes for your eagle eyes and the inimitable Samantha Clarke. Also thanks to my early readers/self-titled groupies Alex Iveson, Susan Wallace, Janette Hail, geography expert Michelle Nicholls, Janice Leibowitz, Ruth Davey, Laura Pontin, Elaine Binder, Rebecca Burntin and Deborah Dobrin. And a special mention to my friends Rhian Molloy and Mandie Brown, both early-days readers.
Gratitude goes to my fellow writers Andrew Webber (your enthusiasm helped so much) and James Ryan. Thanks to Peter Sterk for his advice when it comes to DNA and genetics; Angela Holden Hunt; Chloe Cope Neppe for medical advice and use of Aussie slang; and Julie McGukian for her crime scene clean-up suggestions – Christopher couldn’t have got away with murder without you.
Thanks to my friend Adam Smalley from thedesigngent.co.uk for the mock-up web pages that even I believed existed. I also found the website psychopathyawareness.wordpress.com very useful when examining Christopher’s psyche.
A whopper of a thank you goes to Emily Yau, my commissioning editor at Ebury. Of the hundreds of new books popping up online every day, you came across mine and took a punt on downloading it. You have changed everything, and for that you’ll have my eternal gratitude.
Finally, my thanks go towards you, whoever you are, for taking the time to purchase this book. You’ll never know quite how much this means to a writer.