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
She looked at them in turn, read their minds. ‘I’m not sending in some ambitious twenty-five-year-old WPC. There is an element of risk. This is my plan, this is my responsibility. This is down to me and no one else.’
Clay took out her iPhone and scrolled through her contacts.
‘Who are you on to, Eve?’
‘I’m calling the duty superintendents from all the stations on Merseyside in the first instance. We can’t sit around on this one. We need to square it all up with senior management, and get this one out of the nest and flying.’
‘You mean business then, Eve?’ asked Riley.
Clay remembered her first impression of Annie Boyd on the mudflats on the River Mersey, and the subsequent visit to her parents.
She remembered the despair on their faces and imagined the lifelong road of devastation that lay ahead of them.
‘Yeah, I really mean business,’ said Clay. ‘Bring it on!’
62
8.45 am
Detective Chief Inspector Eve Clay got out of her car when she observed a painfully thin man in his forties opening up the front door of Maguire Holdings.
A little further ahead, on Allerton Road, Detective Sergeant Karl Stone got out of his car and headed towards the estate agency.
Clay noticed a disabled parking bay directly outside the estate agency as she showed the man with the keys her warrant card.
He introduced himself. ‘Daniel Ball. Office manager.’ He looked at Stone, who also showed him his warrant card. ‘Please, come in.’
Daniel Ball turned on the lights and closed the door after himself. He indicated empty seats behind unmanned desks but Clay said, ‘It’s OK, thank you, Mr Ball.’
‘What – what’s this about?’
The complete attention he’d been giving to Clay and Stone faltered and he looked directly out of the window, where a red Vauxhall Combo arrived in the disabled parking space.
‘This the boss?’ asked Clay.
‘Yes. What’s this about?’
‘Francesca Christie works here, right?’
Daniel Ball looked like he’d just had a ball of wet dung thrown in his face. ‘Until yesterday lunchtime she did.’
He looked out of the window again, where a middle-aged woman was opening the car door.
‘That suddenly?’ asked Clay. ‘Lunchtime? Not even until the end of the day?’
‘Yes,’ said the office manager. ‘That suddenly. Shocking.’
‘What’s your boss’ name?’ asked Clay.
‘Norma Maguire.’
‘Was there an argument?’ Stone chipped in.
‘Not exactly. More of a unilateral bombshell from Francesca.’
‘I spoke to Francesca’s mother last night,’ said Clay.
Outside, the door of the red Vauxhall Combo closed with a slam and the car beeped as Norma Maguire locked the vehicle. As she wheeled herself from the road to the shallow ramp leading on to the pavement, Clay sensed a mounting agitation in Daniel Ball’s eyes.
‘Norma’s not happy about Francesca walking out. If you have questions to ask Norma on that matter, please tread carefully.’