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“That wasn’t the end of it While Kirsty was in hospital, that devil fiancé of hers ran aith all her money They think he’s in Brazil”

“Probably living with that guy who robbed the train,” someone called

Dougal gave up pretending to collect the dishes He was holding court now Lake quietly sipped his drink In his experience, if you were silent long enough, people always told you everything you wanted to know and oftenthe hard ith Betty

“So,” Dougal said with a flourish, “poor Kirsty had no choice but to coain Herhard to get ahead again”

As one the group nodded sole to

“You’re not going to use this inforal shouted

Lake could feel theabout a treasured child of Invertary and he was the outsider The English outsider, lest he should forget

“Why would I do that?” he said calmly

“To h Lake was the idiot

“Dougal,” Lake said in a conciliatory tone “What happened to Kirsty has nothing to do with this cos I’ to use this to shut her down”

There was silence in the pub for a second before Dougal spoke

“Good, because we’ll have none of that around here,” he declared

The noise resual bustled aith Lake’s empty plate, Lake reread the infor the war, but ither out of her underwear

Soal said made Lake’s trained suspicions stand to attention He flicked through the photos of the accident until he canified the ie as much as possible There was definitely another set of tyre tracks on the road where Kirsty’s car had plunged down the ravine He punched a number into his phone and waited

“John,” he said by way of hello “I need you to look into so for me”