Free Take My Breath Away by Martin Edwards

a book about a famous case to prove that the jury brought in the right verdict
. But having an imagination wasn’t a must for serving on a jury, and even Chandler had speculated that Crippen might not have meant to murder his wife. While he was at work on his book, Nic had not simply wanted to dream up a way of exonerating Crippen. He’d believed in the doctor’s innocence. Believed in it with the same fierce passion that insisted his father was innocent, when all the evidence damned him.
    When daybreak came, his heart stopped thudding and as he stretched out and calmed down, he told himself not to give up, that one day he would feel at ease in London. Self-deception, of course. No matter how long he lived here, even if he stayed until his dying day, in his bones he would never belong.
    A few minutes after half seven, the phone rang. Lea Valentine, Dylan’s partner.
    She didn’t bother with preambles or solicitous enquiries after his health. ‘Heard the news?’
    ‘What news?’
    ‘It was on breakfast telly. The woman who killed Dylan. She’s dead. Without regaining consciousness. Guess who she was?’

Chapter Six
    ‘You’ve been wonderful,’ Roxanne said after Chloe Beck bookmarked the internet labour law reports on her personal computer the next morning. ‘I don’t think I could have survived even this long without you.’
    ‘It’s nothing. Anyone would have been glad to show you what’s what,’ Chloe said. ‘Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it, showing you the ropes. Making friends.’
    Roxanne gave a cool smile. Grateful for Chloe’s help, but not wanting the other woman to befriend her. It was safer to keep a distance from people at work. She must guard her privacy. Even if Hilary kept her word and did not betray her, it would be so easy to let something slip in casual conversation.
    Chloe was a chatterbox, someone who regaled the slightest acquaintance with highlights from her life story. Roxanne had already heard far more of the gory details about Chloe’s implants op than she would have wished. Worse, Ms Silicone didn’t just like talking about herself. She was fascinated by people, endlessly inquisitive. A dangerous companion for a person with something to hide, but avoiding her was easier said than done. Their rooms adjoined each other and Roxanne had to pass Chloe’s in order to reach hers. The only alternative was to hike all the way around the floor in the opposite direction so as to avoid the chance that Chloe might look up from her desk and wave her in for a chat. But that would be both ridiculous and cowardly, and whatever her faults, no one had ever accused her of being stupid or lacking in courage. Usually she just shook her head if Chloe spotted her asshe passed, mouthing ‘sorry’ through the glass panel in the door.
    Yet it would have been impossible, even if she never asked her for help with an unfamiliar computer system or to do any secretarial work, to escape Chloe’s company altogether. Thanks to speech recognition software and the regular absences on business of Ben and Joel, Chloe often seemed to have time on her hands. She liked to pop in for a chat whenever she was at a loose end. Any excuse was good enough. Later that same day, Roxanne even found herself participating, for the first time in her life, in a conversation about lipstick.
    ‘I’d feel naked without it,’ Chloe confessed. ‘If my house was burning down, the first thing I’d want to rescue would be my lipstick. You may laugh, but it’s true!’
    Roxanne had grown up regarding lipstick as something that mattered to people of her mother’s age. She thought of it as a generation thing, but Chloe was her own age. At least she guessed so. In superbitch mood, she might have said that the other woman wore so much make-up, it was hard to tell. But who was she to criticise someone else for wearing a disguise?
    ‘I’m sure you’d look just as good without it,’ she said.
    Chloe feigned self-consciousness. ‘Oh, do you