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
‘I swear I am not, not, not a murderer. Norma Maguire is my sister. I tracked her down when I tried to track down my mother. My sister has my inheritance. My sister is a murderer. Norma Maguire killed Sandra O’Day, Annie Boyd and Amanda Winton. Norma Maguire was going to kill Francesca Christie and Sally Haydn. I’ll tell you everything straight but you’ve got to understand I’m not the killer, she is. After she killed them, strangled them… I…’
‘Go on, Mr McKee.’
McKee looked into Clay’s eyes.
‘She paid me to skin them.’
‘I don’t think for one moment you did it just for money,’ said Clay. ‘Your relationship with women, it’s bizarre. Why did you make yourself a party to your sister’s crimes?’
After a deep silence, he muttered.
‘I caught the word living and dead,’ said Clay. ‘Could you repeat what you’ve just said so that your meaning is completely clear.’
He turned his chair at an angle, spoke into the empty spaces in the room.
‘I have no power over living women. The only power I have is over dead females. It’s the only way I have of asserting myself. When I was a child… I saw… things that have stayed with me. Now. And forever. In her bedroom, my mother made me watch her with men. Fucking her as she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. Every time I become aroused, I see those pictures and it makes me useless. I knew what it was like to skin cows. I wanted to know what it was like to skin a dead woman. It felt… it made me feel powerful.’
He turned his chair round and faced Clay.
‘That’s very interesting, Mr McKee. If you know enough to understand that she killed these women, then surely you must know why she did these terrible things?’
Edgar McKee looked at his solicitor, who poured a glass of water for him. As he drank down the water, his Adam’s apple bulged and his hands shook.
‘It goes back a long way. She was five, younger maybe. She made me watch her.’
‘She made you watch her do what?’
‘She found a cat in the back garden. It couldn’t move. It’d broken its leg. Its leg was sticking out at a weird angle. She told me she was being kind and putting it out of its misery. She told me to watch the cat and not to move or else. She went to the kitchen. She came back. She had a carving knife in her hand.’
130
2.32 pm
Walking up the stairs to the incident room, Clay felt her iPhone ring out in her jacket pocket.
She saw MARGARET CHRISTIE on display as she connected and took a deep breath as she stopped on a turn in the staircase.
‘Margaret?’ Clay hung her name in mid-air.
‘Norma Maguire, DCI Clay.’
‘Yes?’