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
The gardener squinted as he placed a pair of reading glasses on his nose.
‘How can I help you?’ he asked.
‘Sixty-six? Does that mean anything to you?’
‘The cemetery’s divided into plots. The plots are numbered. One of the plots has the number sixty-six.’
‘Can you take me to it?’
He left the wheelbarrow and its load of perished flowers where he stood.
‘Follow me…’
Clay gathered her coat at the collar and she and Stone walked after the gardener into the mean wind and the dying strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone.
39
11.30 am
Norma Maguire’s brain was alive with dark instinct.
Fran wasn’t answering her landline phone in the office downstairs or her mobile. Three times her landline voicemail kicked in and three times Norma listened with growing impatience to her employee’s voice grinding in the fact that she just wasn’t there.
Hi, Francesca Christie speaking. I’m currently unavailable. Leave a message after the tone or try again later.
She dialled Daniel Ball, the office manager, the man who knew everything about everybody.
‘Norma?’
‘Where’s Fran? She’s not answering her office phone and as far as I’m aware she isn’t out at a viewing.’
‘I don’t know where she is, Norma.’ The neutrality in his voice incensed her.
‘You’re the office manager, for God’s sake. If you don’t know where my people are, who the hell does?’
‘Please don’t shout at me, Norma. What do you want me to do? Follow people down the street?’
‘Have you seen her today?’
‘Yes, she left the office at twenty to ten. Norma, you were there. You saw me with her when you came downstairs just after half nine.’
The noise of voices in the office behind Daniel died down and she imagined them all listening in, all knowing what was going on while she was in the dark.
‘Oh!’ said Daniel, with a note of levity. ‘Speak of the Devil. Francesca just came into the office.’
‘Send her up to me. Now.’
The familiar tap on the door – the way only Fran’s fingers could connect with glass – didn’t happen and, instead, for the first time, she walked into Norma’s office without warning.
Norma pretended to be studying a set of papers on her desk and feigned surprise when she looked up and made eye contact with her employee.
‘I didn’t hear you coming in, Fran…’
Francesca Christie looked around the room, as if looking for some other person.
‘Fran?’ Francesca touched herself under the throat. ‘Who’s Fran?’
Norma felt a worm turning in between the hemispheres of her brain.
‘What’s wrong, Francesca?’
‘I won’t be coming back to work for you.’
‘You have a contract with me. One month’s notice.’
‘I’m not coming back to work for you. Contract or no contract.’