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Back Before You Were Gone Save as PDF
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-one
  24. Twenty-two
  25. Twenty-three
  26. Twenty-four
  27. Twenty-five
  28. Twenty-six
  29. Twenty-seven
  30. Twenty-eight
  31. Twenty-nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-one
  34. Thirty-two
  35. Thirty-three
  36. Thirty-four
  37. Thirty-five
  38. Thirty-six
  39. Thirty-seven
  40. Thirty-eight
  41. Thirty-nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-one
  44. Forty-two
  45. Forty-three
  46. Forty-four
  47. Forty-five
  48. Forty-six
  49. Forty-seven
  50. Forty-eight
  51. Forty-nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-one
  54. Acknowledgements
  55. An Eastbourne Murder Mystery
  56. Canelo Crime
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by Sheila Bugler

‘They imagined the worst, you know. My mother would wake up screaming. I’d hear her. Screaming in the middle of the night before rushing into the bathroom to throw up. The grief ate into her, month after month, year after year. She died never knowing what had happened. And all the time… all this time, you knew and you could have changed everything. But you didn’t, did you?’

Maeve stopped speaking. Her face disappeared as she moved to another part of the room. Kitty looked around, trying to see what Maeve was doing. But Maeve had disappeared.

She’d shown no reaction at all when Kitty first told her.

‘Are you okay?’ Kitty had asked. Maeve hadn’t responded, and then… what? Kitty had gone to switch the kettle on. Tea, she’d thought. Tea is what she needs. She might have even said it aloud, she couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything after that moment.

She’d been hit. On the back of her head where the pain was worst. Had Maeve hit her? Or was someone else here too? The question sent shockwaves of panic surging through her body. The slamming sounds from the bathroom were getting louder and more frequent. Maeve was saying something. Repeating the same words, over and over.

‘Do it, do it, do it.’

Kitty fought to pull her wrists and ankles free, but all she succeeded in doing was cutting her skin until she bled. It felt like she’d been tied up with wire or cable ties.

‘Kitty!’

She was hallucinating. Had to be. Thought she’d heard Emer. A memory. That’s all it was. A memory from that night, all those years ago, when she was running down the hotel corridor and Emer was running after her.

‘Kitty!’

No. Not hallucinating. This was real. Emer was outside the room. Kitty struggled harder, her screams muffled and inaudible behind the towel in her mouth.

‘Shut the fuck up!’

Maeve. Not Emer. Leaning over her again.

She had a pillow. Holding it up for Kitty to see.

‘I’m going to kill you.’

Kitty shook her head, struggled harder. Outside the door, Emer’s voice faded and disappeared as Maeve rolled Kitty onto her back and the pillow came down. Blackness and unbearable pressure. She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs screaming for air as she bucked and thrashed and did everything she could to push back. But Maeve pushed harder, the pillow pressing down on her face. A flare of pain across her chest. Her heart was beating too fast, trying to keep her body going. Blue and white dots danced toward her through the darkness.

The dots faded and so did the darkness, until there was nothing left.

Forty-five