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
So he’d hired someone to contact Dee and get her to do his dirty work for him. And once he’d learned the truth – that Kitty was still alive – he’d come to London to finish off what he’d started twenty-three years ago. He was going to get rid of Kitty, and anyone else who knew she was still alive. Starting with Michael Holden.
There were still gaps in what she knew, but Dee was getting closer to the truth. She could feel it. Now, all she needed to do was get out of here and find out the rest of it. She jiggled the nail file some more, twisting it one way, then the other. Several times, she thought she’d done it. The file caught the lock at just the right angle and, with soaring spirits, she would twist it a tiny bit harder. But the lock wouldn’t budge.
‘God damn you, stupid door.’
She slammed the door with her fists, shouting for someone to come and let her out. But there was no one out there and, after a while, she stopped shouting. The urge to slump onto the ground and simply give up was strong. But she wasn’t going to do that. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was never going to be found. Sooner or later, someone would notice she was missing. And her car was parked on the road outside the house. It wouldn’t take a genius to work out where she was.
Except that could take days. The only people who would notice she was gone were Louise and Ella. Louise was going on holiday tomorrow, and Ella was moving to the other side of the bloody world in four days’ time. Which meant Dee couldn’t sit around waiting to be found. She had to get out before then.
Grabbing hold of the plastic handle on the nail file, she twisted with all her force. A snapping sound and the resistance she’d encountered every other time she’d tried disappeared. She thought she’d done it, that she’d finally managed to twist open the lock. But when she lifted her hand, she realised the sound she’d heard wasn’t the lock opening. It was the sound of the nail file snapping in two, leaving the plastic handle trapped between Dee’s fingers, and the metal part of the file stuck in the lock.
Forty-six
Back outside the hotel, Emer called the Cavendish Hotel and asked to be put through to Room 204. Thankfully, she’d noted the room number when she’d been at the hotel earlier. She hoped Fiona was still there. If she wasn’t, Emer had no way of contacting her. At first she thought Fiona wasn’t going to answer, but after the eighth ring someone picked up.
‘Hello?’
‘Fiona, thank God. It’s Emer.’
‘Has something happened?’
‘Kitty’s disappeared.’