Chapters (156)
- A DATE WITH DEATH
- Also by Mark Roberts
- A Date With Death
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- The Past
- 1977
- Day OneWednesday, 1st December 2021CatoptrophobiaFear of mirrors
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- The Past
- 1979
- Day TwoThursday, 2nd December 2021OneirophobiaFear of dreams
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- The Past
- 1980
- Day ThreeFriday, 3rd December 2021MonophobiaFear of being alone
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- The Past
- 1982
- Day FourSaturday, 4th December 2021ThanatophobiaFear of Death
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- 123
- 124
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- 134
- 135
- 136
- 137
- About the Author
- An Invitation from the Publisher
Hi Sally, Thank you so much for getting in touch. I’m glad you’ve opened up this initial dialogue. Reading between the lines, I guess you’d like for us to get to know each other a little better. Say, talk on the phone, maybe. If I’m reading too much into this please forgive me and I wish you all the luck in the world in finding a man who will quite rightly worship the ground you walk upon. I take my hat off to him. xoxo Geoff
She looked over the rest of the message, the same condensed contents of messages to Annie Boyd, Amanda Winton and Francesca Christie, and said, ‘You’re right, Gina. It’s The Ghoul. I see he’s signed himself off as Geoff Campbell this time. He’s on the minutes. He doesn’t usually ask for a mobile number at this stage. Have you written back to him yet?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Write back, something like, Hi, Geoff, you’re right lol there’s no time like the present. We’ll work off my phone. I’m going to need it down the line. Be affectionate but equally desperate with it.’
Clay handed Riley her iPhone and she typed at speed with the thumbs of both hands.
‘Give him a specific time to call you. Tell him you can’t wait to talk to him. Let’s make it hours, not days. We’ll book an interview suite with a strictly do not disturb sign on the door.’
Riley looked up from the iPhone.
‘What time, Eve?’
‘Half past ten this morning. It’s bordering on indecent haste but we haven’t got time on our side. Stay put right here. Between now and half past ten don’t get drawn into anything other than the phone call to him. I don’t care if World War III breaks out, that’s the only thing you have to do. Go over your Sally Haydn profile and learn it word for word. Rehearse your phone call with Bill Hendricks.’
‘Half past ten. It’s good,’ said Riley. ‘It makes me look super needy. Can’t even wait for the evening to talk to you, Geoff.’
‘Keep sending him messages, butter him up. See what language he comes out with, so we can rule out all possibilities of this being a linguistic fluke.’
There was silence as both Clay and Riley reread his message, a silence broken by the sound of a domestic running a vacuum cleaner outside in the corridor as Hendricks entered the incident room.
‘Bill, over here.’
Clay made a multitude of connections in her head.