Fourth Estate
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1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 2001
Flamingo is a registered trade mark of HarperCollins
Copyright © Hugo Wilcken 2001
Hugo Wilcken asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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HarperCollins
Source ISBN: 9780007106479
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007396917
Version: 2016-02-15
For my parents
CONTENTS
Christian’s wife was killed in a car crash yesterday. Apparently her brakes failed and the car careered into a shop front. The shop was open at the time but there were no other victims, just her. She died from asphyxiation, the seat belt crushed her windpipe.
If she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt, she might have survived.I wouldn’t say I knew her. I’d met her twice, maybe three times, when she’d come into the office looking for Christian. We’d probably said no more than ‘hello’ to each other. She was around thirty-five I’d say and quite good-looking – I wondered how she’d ended up with someone like Christian. Once, about a year ago, Christian asked me whether I wanted to go for a drink with him and his wife, but I had something else on so I turned him down. The invitation surprised me, because although we’ve worked in the same office for the past eighteen months, I have no particular rapport with Christian and I’ve never socialised with him. I was with him yesterday though, when they called about his wife.