Woman of the Dead (26 page)

‘And first you want to be sure I’m not a monster.’

‘Correct.’

‘I had a hundred reasons, Mark. And yes, it had to happen. They deserved it.’

‘Did they?’

‘It’s better that they’re dead. Believe me.’

‘That’s all right, then.’

‘Is it?’

‘Yes, Blum.’

‘You’re not going to leave me?’

‘I’m not going leave you.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Positive.’

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A Weidenfeld & Nicolson ebook

First published as
Totenfrau
, by Bernhard Aichner

© 2014 by btb Verlag

A division of Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH, München, Germany.

First published in Great Britain in 2015

by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

This ebook first published in 2015

by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Translation © Anthea Bell 2015

The rights of Bernhard Aichner and Anthea Bell, to be identified as the author and translator of this work respectively, have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978 0 297 60849 3

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