'I've been feeling depressed lately, about a few things. I thought I was doing a good job of hiding, but he noticed-of course he did, he notices everything."

"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband."

"Her white dress glowed ghostlike in the torchlight. Alicia seemed oblivious to the presence if the police. She was immobilized, frozen-a statue from ice with a strange, frightened look on her face, as if confronting some unseen terror."

"The wal; behind him was sprayed with the fragments of skull,brains, hair-and blood."

"The following day, she lay in bed in a private room at the hospital. The police questioned her in the presence of her lawyer. Alicia remained silent throughout the interview."

"Alicia remained silent-but she made one statement. A painting. It was when she was discharged from the hospital and was placed under house arrest before the trial."

"And for most people, this was enough to condemn her-returning to the studio so soon after Gabriel's death betrayed an extraordinary insensitivity."

"The painting was a self portrait. She titled it in the bottom left-hand corner of the canvas, in light blue Greek lettering,

One word:

Alcestis."

"But I'm going too fast. I'm getting ahead of myself. I must start at the beginning and let events speak for themselves. I mustn't color them, twist them, or tell any lies."

" Alcestis the heroine of a Greek Myth. A love story of the saddest kind. Alcestis willingly sacrifices her life for that of her husband, Admetus dying in his place when no one else will. Am unsettling myth of self-sacrifice, it was unclear how it related to Alicia's situation."

" But where to begin? I should introduce myself. but perhaps not quite yet; after all, I am not the hero of this tale."

"She is naked. Her body is rendered in unsparing detail: strands of long red hair failing across bony shoulders, blue veins, visible beneath translucent skin."

" I stared at the painting, staring into Alicia's face, trying to interpret the look in her eyes, trying to understand-but the portrait defied me."

"Well, what about money? Alicia didn't stand to gain much by his death; she was the one who had money, inherited from her father."

"The tabloids had cast her as a villain from the start; a femme fatale, a black widow. A monster."

"I wanted to hit her. I wanted to leap on her and beat her with my fists. I wanted to smash up the room, break the furniture against the walls. I wanted to weep and howl and bury myself in her arms. I did none of this."

"The recreation area was a large circular room furnished with battered couches and low tables. a bookcase full of tattered books no one wanted to read. It smelled of stale tea and old cigarette smoke that had stained the furnishings. A couple of patients were playing backgammon in a corner. Elif was alone at the pool table. I approached with a smile."

"According to the handover notes, a nurse saw you whisper something to Alicia before the attack. I was wondering what it was?"

"Up close Elif was even more intimidating. It wasn't just her massive size but also the rage etched deep into her face- a permanent scowl and angry black eyes, eyes that were quite clearly disturbed. She stank of sweat and the hand rolled cigarettes she was always smoking that had left her fingertips stained black and her nails and teeth a dark yellow."

"You mean her husband? I hesitated, unsure if I understood. "You ask Alicia if her husband deserved to be killed?""

""Well, it was difficult not to be. Gabriel was special, even as a child." Max had a habit of playing with his wedding ring. He kept turning it around his finger as he talked. "Gabriel used to carry his camera everywhere, you know, taking pictures. My father though he was mad. Turns out he was bit of a genius, my brother. Do you know his work?""

"Jean-Felix Martin. Alicia's gallerist. They'd known each other for years. As thick as thieves. Never liked him much, if I'm honest."

"I'm not interested in gossip." I made a mental note to talk to Jean Felix as soon as possible. "I'm more interested in your personal opinion. May I as you a direct question?""

""Happy?" Max smiled coldly. "Oh, they were happy. Gabriel did everything he could to make her happy."

"He would have stuck by her-I knew that for a fact. A man never abandons a woman like that.

Not if he loves her."

""Call me Jean-Felix. And when you see Alicia, tell her I love her." He smiled, and again I felt a slight replusion: I found something about Jean-Felix hard to stomach. I could tell he had been genuinely close to Alicia; they had known each other a long time, and he was obviously attracted to her."

"I went into waterstones on my way to work and bought a copy of Alcestis. The introduction said it was Euripides's earliest extant tragedy, and one of his least-performed works."

"The truth is, I have many complicated feelings around going home, and being at the house, with Lydia and Paul. So I avoid going back-and I end up feeling guilty, so I can't win either way."

"I didn't say anything and he kept pleading. They wanted something tonight. He didn't dare go back empty-handed. Whatever I could give him, anything. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help him, but I suspected giving him money wasn't the way to deal with this."

"I stopped listening after a while. He went on complaining, self-justifying, self-pitying, boring me to death. He never asks me anything. He doesn't have any actual interest in me. Even after all these years, I'm just means to an end-and audience of the Jean-Felix Show."

"Then there was silence. Everything stopped. Inside my body, every cell deflated; wilting cells, like dead petals falling from a flower. Jasmine flowers floating to the ground. Can I smell jasmine somewhere? yes, yes, sweet jasmine-on the windowsill perhaps."

"Silencing Alicia wasn't so easy. Injecting her with morphine was the hardest thing I've ever done."

"Julian Mcmahon from the trust was waiting for me in the reception. he had a big build, curly ginger hair, and a fondness for phrases such as between you and me or at the end of the day or the bottom line."

"As I listened, I looked up at the white clouds drifting past. Finally, they had opened-it had started to snow-snowflakes were falling outside."

"I stood up. "I'm going to see Alicia. I need some answers." "From Alicia?" Christian looked startled. "And how do you intend to get them? "By asking her. I walked out."