First Published: 2023
We met Kuldesh Sharma in the last book.
He is an old friend of Stephen's who owns a antique shop in Brighton, and helped Stephen to identify the rare books that Stephen saw in the Viking's library. Kuldesh appears in the prologue of the book. It is December 27th and he is alone at night in a solitary area. He knows he is doing something wrong, and he mentions a box. Then a car comes; there is a shot and Kuldesh dies.
The book jumps back in time. The day before the gang are celebrating Boxing Day in the village restaurant, and they have invited Mervyn, Joyce's new love interest, as he is all by himself. The man hardly talks even though everybody makes an effort to ask him questions. Then Elizabeth asks him about his love life, and he says that he has a girlfriend, Tatiana, in Lithuania. It is a woman he met through the Internet, and there have been several attempts for her to come and meet him, but there have been several problems. Mervyn mentions that he has lent Tatiana money, and at once all of the gang know that Mervyn is the victim of a fraud. Joyce is disappointed as she thought she and Mervyn could become an item.
The gang asks Donna to give them a help with Mervyn, and Donna discovers that the photo that Mervyn has of Tatiana is actually a famous singer in Lithuania. Donna and the others tell Mervyn that he has been deceived, but Mervyn won't believe them. He is quite a difficult man, and he insists that in January Tatiana is coming over, and he will be expecting apologies.
Donna and Chris get called when the body of Kuldesh is found, and Donna recognises him at once as she was with Bogdan and Stephen when they went to see him. Chris tells Donna not to say anything about this crime, not even Bogdan. Yet, Donna tells him, but leaves a voice message saying that Elizabeth and the others shouldn't get involved. Naturally, Bodgan tells Elizabeth and they ignore Donna's warning. Elizabeth and Joyce go to the Kuldesh's shop has been ramsacked, someone looking for something. The accepted theory is that Kuldesh had a packet of some drug or something as a middle man and someone would pick it up later. It is true. Two drug dealers, Mitch Maxwell and Dom Holt chose him as his was the only shop open. Yet, somehow Kuldesh decided to take the packet for some unknown reason.
When Joyce and Elizabeth turn at the shop, Chris tells them to go. The two women go to a nearby café, and the lady who runs it, Louise, shows them the footage of her CCTV camera, and they see a man coming from the shop. Ibrahim shows the footage to Connie in prison, and she identifies Dom Holt, and the gang goes to his warehouse. Dom appears and threatens them apart from slashing Ron's car tyres and smashing the windscreen.
Chris and Donna are ordered to step off the case when Senior Investigation Officer Jill Regan from the National Crime agency tells them that she and her team are taking over. Chris and Donna are not happy, and Donna keeps Kuldesh's mobile she found in the shop. The man made two calls: one to a professor in archaelogy and another to an untraceable number.
Elizabeth has a very intense conversation with Stephen when she returns home one day. He tells her that he has received a letter and starts reading it. The letter says that Stephen has dementia or Alzeheimer, and he needs to accept it and find a place to look after him. The look on Elizabeth's face shows that the letter is telling the truth, and Elizabeth realises that Stephen wrote that letter himself a year ago and must have asked someone to post it for him now. Stephen says that they need to find a place for him, and they start crying and hugging. This is a heartbreaking and beautful moment, especially as it is rare that Elizabeth shows her feelings.
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