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‘But what if Dad just comes back and says nothing?’ said Brooke. ‘Goes to bed?’

‘Then we go to bed,’ said Alice.

‘But we can’t just pretend none of this happened!’

‘We’ll have to,’ said Alice.

Toby was with Brooke on this. Alice glanced quickly at him. A warning shot.

Bill being a murderer was bad enough. So was Lars being killed. And Sam Bowen. But Toby could see the decision he had put off re-emerging. Whether to tell the cops about Bill, and lose his wife. Or keep quiet. And what? Live for ever with a father-in-law who he knew was a murderer.

It wouldn’t work.

Toby would need courage to do what he had to do; he wasn’t sure he had it. There had to be some way of avoiding the decision, of finessing it somehow.

Pray for a miracle. Maybe Megan was right; maybe Bill would be able to convince the admiral of his innocence.

He was finding the waiting difficult, and Friends was irritating the hell out of him.

Brooke’s phone rang. ‘It’s Justin,’ she explained. She withdrew to the kitchen, and reappeared a minute or so later. ‘I’m just going to pick him up from the hotel. I told him about Bill. He wants to be here, and I’ve got the car.’

‘I’ll go and get him, if you like,’ said Toby. He wanted to be doing something. And he wanted to talk to Justin alone. Reluctantly, he could see that Bill must have killed Sam. But it was harder to believe he had shot his old friend Lars. Whereas Justin?

Brooke glanced at her sisters. It was clear she wanted to stay with them. ‘Thanks, Toby. I’ll give you the address of the hotel.’

Alice heard her husband drive off. She would have preferred Justin not to be around when Bill returned; his presence would make things even more awkward. But she hadn’t been able to think of a way of discouraging Brooke from asking him to come over, especially when she herself badly wanted Toby to be there. She should just have come right out and said it wasn’t a good idea.

Too late now.

The episode of Friends came to an end.

‘Another?’ said Megan.

‘Let’s have one from the first series,’ said Brooke.

‘You find one, Brooke,’ said Megan.

While Brooke fiddled with one of the three remotes, Megan’s phone rang.

‘It’s Maya,’ Megan said to the others. ‘Hi, Maya. I’ll put you on speaker. Alice and Brooke are here.’

She tapped her phone and placed it face up on the coffee table.

Maya’s voice crackled through the room. ‘Hi! Is Daddy there?’

‘No. He’s off meeting Admiral Robinson.’

‘Good.’

The three sisters exchanged glances at this, wondering why that was ‘good’.

‘I’m in Brooklyn,’ said Maya. ‘I’ve just seen Henry Greenwald, like you asked me to. He had some very interesting things to say.’

‘Like what?’

‘He was reluctant to talk at first, but I persuaded him. I told him two people had been killed, one of whom was Sam Bowen. He said Sam had approached him on Facebook and they arranged to meet up in Brooklyn next Friday. I asked him whether he remembered his mother meeting any Russians or any submarine officers.’

‘And did he?’

‘Not the Russians. But he said when he was about six he saw his mother talking to a man in their kitchen. The man was wearing a blue uniform. His mother was really angry with Henry, and told him never to breathe a word to anyone about it, which is why he remembers it so well. As he got older, he assumed that his mother was having an affair with the man, and that really upset him. But in 1996, just after his mother was murdered, the FBI came to talk to him about his mother’s contact with the KGB, and asked him and his father the same question I did.’

‘And did he tell them?’

‘No, he didn’t,’ said Maya. ‘He was sixteen. He was angry with the FBI for trying to ruin his mother’s reputation so soon after she had died. Plus he didn’t want his father to find out. But he was relieved at least to know that the naval officer was a spy rather than a lover.’

‘But he told you just now?’

‘I said I was persuasive. And his father died a few years ago.’

‘That all figures,’ said Megan, glancing at Alice. ‘It must have been Dad she met.’

Alice nodded.

‘That’s what I thought,’ said Maya. ‘That’s not good, is it? It means he was spying for the KGB.’

Alice took a deep breath. ‘Hi, Maya, this is Alice. There is something you should know. We think that Dad was spying for the KGB and he probably killed Sam Bowen and Uncle Lars too. Admiral Robinson told us as much this afternoon.’

‘My God!’ said Maya. ‘That can’t be true! Is the admiral going to arrest him?’

‘Not necessarily,’ said Alice. ‘He’s talking to him now.’

‘I don’t believe it.’ There was the sound of a muffled sob down the phone line. ‘I’d better go,’ said Maya. ‘Tell me as soon as you have news.’

Megan picked up her phone and disconnected. ‘It all hangs together,’ she said.

‘It does,’ said Alice.

The phone beeped in Megan’s hand, and she checked the screen. She read for a few seconds.

‘Oh my God!’ she said. ‘No! No, this cannot be what I think it is.’

Her face creased in anguish: a mixture of horror and fear.

‘What?’ said Alice.

‘It’s an email from Dad. To all of us.’

‘What does it say?’

‘Take a look.’

‘No — read it out, Megan!’

‘OK.’ Megan bit her lip, and then began to read from her phone, haltingly:

‘Dear Alice, Brooke, Megan, and Maya,

I’ve just spoken to Glenn. He told me that you know everything.

I’m truly sorry.

I love you all so much.

Goodbye.

‘Oh God!’ said Brooke. ‘Does that mean?’

‘He’s killed himself,’ said Alice.

‘Are you sure?’ said Brooke, scrabbling frantically for her own phone. ‘Can’t it mean something else? I don’t know, perhaps he’s running away?’

They all looked at each other.

‘Perhaps,’ said Alice.

‘Perhaps not,’ said Megan.

‘Let me see,’ said Alice, grabbing Megan’s phone. ‘Yeah. I think it does mean he’s planning to kill himself.’

‘If he hasn’t already,’ said Megan.

‘Oh God,’ said Brooke.

‘We’ve got to focus,’ said Alice. ‘He may not have done it yet.’

‘How do you know?’ said Brooke.

‘I don’t, but we have to assume he’s still alive until we are sure we are too late. Now, where is he? Toby said he was meeting the admiral at Old Hunstanton.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Are there any pubs there?’ said Megan. ‘Perhaps they’re meeting at a pub.’

‘Bound to be,’ said Alice.

‘Wait!’ said Brooke. ‘Didn’t Toby say above Old Hunstanton?’

‘Yeah,’ said Megan. ‘I think he did.’

‘I’ve been driving on that road the last couple of days,’ said Brooke. ‘There are cliffs above Old Hunstanton. Between the village and Hunstanton itself.’

‘That’s right,’ said Alice. ‘There’s a lighthouse there and a cliff path to the town.’

‘Maybe he’s going to jump?’ said Brooke.

‘Sounds like it,’ said Alice.

‘He could take pills,’ said Megan. ‘Or shoot himself.’

‘He doesn’t own a gun,’ said Alice.

‘That we know of,’ said Megan. ‘He shot Lars, remember?’

‘There are cliffs. He’s suicidal. They’re right there; all he has to do is jump.’

‘You’re right,’ said Megan. ‘Let’s go! I’ll drive Brooke’s car.’

‘I’ll call Toby,’ said Alice. ‘He’s going to be a lot closer than we are.’