Chapters (58)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Acknowledgements
- An Eastbourne Murder Mystery
- Canelo Crime
- About the Author
- Also by Sheila Bugler
Kitty knew she should keep going, walk to the end of the corridor, open the door and rescue the woman. But she couldn’t move. The sounds coming from the room mixed with other sounds in her head. The ones Mr O’Brien and her mother had been making when they were in the kitchen.
The door swung open, and someone was standing there. A man. Behind him, there were three other men in the room and two women. One of them was lying on the bed, crying. The other woman was standing at the end of the bed, her face hidden behind a video camera. The light from the overhead bulb was reflected in the shiny tip of her black, high-heeled shoe.
‘Hey!’
The man in the doorway had seen her.
Kitty turned around and ran. She could hear him shouting at her to stop, chasing after her. His footsteps were loud and heavy on the bare floorboards. She skidded down the stairs and raced across the hallway towards the front door that Lucy was trying to open.
‘Hurry up!’ Kitty said.
The door was bolted. Lucy was trying to pull the bolt back but nothing was happening. Behind her, Kitty could hear the man getting closer. Pushing Lucy out of the way, she grabbed the bolt and pulled it with every bit of strength she had. At first nothing happened. The bolt didn’t budge. Groaning, she put everything she had into tugging it one final time. It moved. Just a little at first, then a little more, until suddenly the bolt was pulled back and she was able to open the door.
A flood of cold air hit her as she raced outside, along the driveway, through the gates and onto the road. There wasn’t a pavement so they ran along the edge of the road. When Lucy tried to stop, Kitty grabbed her hand and tugged her forward.
‘Please, Kitty. Stop. Just for a minute.’
Lucy had never been good at running. Not like Kitty, who was able to run faster than any of the other girls in her class. And most of the boys too.
‘I can’t breathe.’
There was a whiny tone to Lucy’s voice that Kitty couldn’t bear. She wanted to press her hands over her ears and tell Lucy to shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up so Kitty could think. But she wouldn’t shut up, because she never did. Not even now, after they’d seen what they’d seen and they were running away from it before the men caught them.