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
A woman Dee had never seen before, yet she knew immediately who she was. A series of images played through her head, some real and some imagined. Annie Holden, smiling shyly when Dee complimented her paintings. Two little girls playing together on a beach in the west of Ireland on a hot summer’s afternoon. Dee’s father, his face shutting down each time she asked him about his family in Ireland. Kitty Doran and Lucy Ryan, two little girls caught in the middle of something too big for either of them.
‘It’s me,’ the woman said. ‘Emer. Can I come in?’
Thirty
Sunlight streaming through the windows woke Emer up. She put her hand over her face, trying to block out the light, but there was too much of it. Groaning, she rolled onto her side and cracked her eyes open just enough to make out her surroundings. That’s when she saw the view. Eyes wide open now, she got out of the bed and wandered across to the window. On the other side of the glass, a sweeping expanse of clear blue sky, a sea as flat and still as a plate of glass, a shingle beach of grey and white stones polished and bright beneath the morning sun.
She’d known Dee’s house was near the beach but last night, arriving in the dark, she hadn’t realised how near. Dee had explained that her father had bought this plot of land and designed and built the house for his wife and daughter. Emer had already seen how beautiful the inside was. But she’d had no idea just how stunning the location was. It was strange to think her uncle – her father’s brother – could have created a house like this. It was proof, not that she needed it, of how different the two men were. If her own father ever had enough money for a project like this, he’d have wasted every penny of it in the pub.
Her phone pinged with an incoming text. It was from Maeve, asking how she was getting on.
All good here, Emer typed, how are things in London?
They’d flown into Gatwick together yesterday afternoon. On the plane, they’d agreed that Emer would go and see Dee by herself, and Maeve would book into a hotel in London. The hotel had been Maeve’s idea, and Emer was grateful to her for thinking of it. Meeting Dee for the first time was bound to be emotional, and it wasn’t a moment Emer wanted to share with anyone else.
I’m going for a wander, Maeve replied a few seconds later, call me later and let me know if you’re able to meet up.