And if he did wait, if he did wait for her and the verdict went their way, Pip would work every day to be the kind of person who deserved Ravi Singh.
‘You old softie,’ he said in her ear, and Pip smiled, a breath of laughter.
There was another sound, hiding beneath her breath, a faint whine, high and reeling, growing closer and closer.
A siren.
More than one.
Screaming up and down, clashing together.
Pip whipped her head around. There were three police cars at the end of the road, overtaking traffic, speeding towards her.
Louder.
Louder.
Blue lights spiralling, breaking up the twilight, flashing in her eyes and lighting up the street.
Pip turned away and shut her eyes, screwed them tight.
This was it. They’d found her. Hawkins had worked it out. It was over. They’d come for her.
She stood there and held her breath.
Louder.
Closing in.
Three.
Two.
One.
A scream in her ears. A rush of wind through her hair as the cars streamed past, one after the other, their sirens fading as they carried on down the road away from her. Left her behind on the pavement.
Pip peeled her eyes open, carefully, slowly.
They were gone. Their sirens dwindling to a whine again, then a hum, then nothing.
Not for her.
Not today.
One day they might be for her, but not today, day seventy-two.
Pip nodded, picked up her feet.
‘Just got to keep going,’ she told Ravi, and everyone else that lived in her head. ‘Keep going.’
Her judgement day would come, but for now, Pip walked and she promised. That’s all. One foot in front of the other, even if she had to drag them, even when that hole in her heart felt too big to keep standing. She walked and she promised and he was with her, Ravi’s fingers slotting in between hers in the way they used to fit, fingertips in the dips of his knuckles. The way they might again. Just one foot in front of the other, that was all. Pip didn’t know what was waiting for her at the end, she couldn’t see that far, and the light was failing, night drawing in, but maybe, just maybe, it would be something good.
3 minutes after the verdict was read in The Crown vs. Max Hastings:
Holly Jackson started writing stories from a young age, completing her first （poor） attempt at a novel aged fifteen. She graduated from the University of Nottingham with an MA in English, where she studied literary linguistics and creative writing. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys playing video games and watching true crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective. As Good As Dead is the final part of the trilogy, following New York Times bestsellers A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Good Girl, Bad Blood. You can follow Holly on Twitter and Instagram @HoJay92.
As ever, the first thanks must go to my agent, Sam Copeland. Thank you for being the best sounding board agony aunt bad cop / good cop. This all started with me pitching you girl does school project about old murder case back in June 2016 and look where we are now! A whole-ass trilogy is the technical term. But there wouldn’t even be one book if you hadn’t taken a chance on me back then and told me to write this idea, so thank you! （Although let’s not give you ALL the credit – though I’m sure you’d love to take it!） Next, I want to thank booksellers, who do such a fantastic job of getting books into the hands of readers and have continued to do so despite the incredible challenges of this past year. I am so so grateful to you for your enduring enthusiasm and dedication to books and reading, and for the huge part you have all played in the success of the AGGGTM series. To the bloggers too, who dedicate so much of their time to posting reviews or shouting about books they have enjoyed. I could never thank you enough for all the love you have shown the AGGGTM series, and I am so looking forward to seeing your reactions to As Good As Dead.
To everyone at Electric Monkey who all work tirelessly to help turn my Word documents into actual, physical books. It takes a village. Thank you to Sarah Levison for expertly navigating this monster-sized book with me, and for recognizing exactly what I wanted it to do. Thank you to Lindsey Heaven for all your hard work overseeing this series from the beginning. Thank you also to Lucy Courtenay, Melissa Hyder and Susila Baybars for helping me whip this manuscript into shape. Thank you to Laura Bird and Janene Spencer; it’s always a magical moment seeing the layouts for the first time, when the story actually first starts to look like a real book. Thank you to Tom Sanderson for the incredible cover design; it is so dark and fitting for this finale and I couldn’t have asked for a better cover. I hope no-one looks at duct tape the same way again. Thanks as always to the star, Jas Bansal, for everything you do and for being such a marketing / social media genius. One of my favourite parts of publishing each book has been watching the buzz you so expertly create pre-publication. Thank you also to Kate Jennings, Olivia Carson and Amy Dobson for all your amazing hard work in making sure people hear about the book. Thank you to Sales and Rights for all you do in getting these books out into the world, with particular thanks to Ingrid Gilmore, Lori Tait, Leah Woods, and Brogan Furey. And a special thank you to Priscilla Coleman again for your fantastic artwork, and for bringing the DT Killer to life so expertly in the police composite sketch.