Game, Set & Murder: The deliciously gripping new cosy murder mystery for 2025! by Judy Murray

Author:Judy Murray [Murray, Judy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2025-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

HAILEY

The worst thing about Justin’s illness was not the burden of trying to keep ahead of medical advancements or the exhaustion from a night of checking that he was comfortable even if it meant her being woken several times. It wasn’t even the endless worry about his condition and when it might take a turn for the worse.

It was the loneliness.

It was missing him when he was just too tired to go out, or even, as was the case tonight, missing him while he was at the party but just too weak to take part the way he used to. She remembered dancing to this very band with him only five or six years ago. Him whirling her around to ‘American Pie’ until she was dizzy. She still had the heels she had been wearing that evening, the grass stains still on the expensive Italian leather of the soles. Tonight, he was in his wheelchair, resting in a quiet room with a view of the garden, with a constant stream of friends passing through to say hi. Yes, he was here, but he wasn’t by her side, not like he used to be.

Oh, how much fun they had had at parties back in the day. They had been to the best clubs in some of the most glamorous and exciting cities in the world. He had taken her to karaoke bars in Kyoto where they were the only non-Japanese customers in sight. She had taken him to country bars in Nashville where he had been the only Brit. They had used contacts in the Senate to get bookings for the best ribs in Washington and taken Bibi’s advice on the very best sushi in Miami. Garrett himself had even set them up with a night to remember in Dublin.

When they were even younger, during those few months of backpacking they had managed to sneak in between Oxford and the start of their glittering careers, they had travelled around Mexico, enjoying a couple of weeks in the then-undiscovered paradise of Tulum. These days Hailey rolled her eyes when yet another intern announced their intention to head there for life as a ‘digital nomad’. She remembered when the place barely had working toilets, let alone enough Wi-Fi to run a career through. One night, they had used a tip from a university contact and set themselves up with some extraordinarily pure cocaine. Neither of them had ever taken it before – exams (and common sense) had taken precedence over everything for the past few years. But that night, as they had lain on their backs on the warm Tulum sand, the stars glittering brighter than they ever had before, they had both agreed that they could never do it again. Because nothing could compare to this. They had to keep this experience sacrosanct, a forbidden night that no one else would ever know about. Perfect, preserved in the amber of their memories forever. Their secret.

Hailey had stayed true to her word, as had Justin.

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