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
When Clay stepped on to Allerton Road outside Doherty Estates and Properties, her iPhone rang out. She looked down the busy street in the direction of Maguire Holdings, connected the call and asked, ‘Karl, how did you get on?’
‘Daniel Ball’s gone home, thrown in a sickie, and he’s not answering his landline home phone or his mobile number.’
Clay’s suspicions escalated.
‘Where does he live?’
‘721 Loreburn Road, over the road from Mosspits School.’
‘You can make it there in five minutes, Karl. I need that list of names of people who’ve walked out on Norma Maguire. Was she there?’
‘No, she was out at a meeting. No one knew the answer to my question. At least that’s what they all claimed.’
As Clay walked towards her car, the pattern in her head became clearer.
Richard Ezra – Maguire Holdings to Doherty Estates and Properties; his wife ends up murdered and a year later, so the story goes, he threw himself into the Mersey.
Francesca Christie – Maguire Holdings to Doherty Estates and Properties; she is kidnapped and goes missing, and is almost certainly in the hands of The Ghoul.
Clay fired up the ignition and drove away on autopilot as the line between bizarre coincidence and grim pattern blurred from static black and white into a moving cloud of grey.
76
1.55 pm
Clay sat at her desk in the incident room and drank a mouthful of cold coffee to wash down a painkiller. She didn’t hear the door open but was drawn by Poppy Waters’ voice.
‘Eve?’
‘Poppy…’
She walked towards Clay with Francesca Christie’s open laptop in her hands, and sat next to her.
‘You’ve found something, Poppy?’ she asked, trying hard not to become instantly intoxicated with hope.
‘Yes. I think I know why she left her job so suddenly.’
‘Go on?’ Clay sat up, shook off her fatigue and gave her attention to Poppy.
‘She kept a diary of things that went on at work in Maguire Holdings. She didn’t like her boss, Norma Maguire.’
Clay pictured the woman in a wheelchair to whom she’d spoken hours earlier.
‘Norma harassed Francesca. She’s listed dates and times when Norma said or did things to her.’
‘Are we looking at sexual harassment here?’