BooksBarbecue
Back Before You Were Gone
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

‘I understand why this is confusing for you. I was in the same boat until Friday night. After you left, I was distraught. I’d suspected for a while that your mother hadn’t been honest with me. She’d been acting strangely ever since you told us about seeing Kitty in London. That’s why I hired the private detective. I wanted to find out what was really going on.’

‘But you didn’t hire a detective,’ Emer said. ‘You paid some woman to contact Dee pretending to be me. And then you told me the woman I’d seen wasn’t Kitty. You said she was Fiona and Michael’s niece, that they’d adopted her after her parents were killed in a car crash.’

‘I didn’t pay any woman anything,’ Robert said. ‘As for the rest of it, I was going to tell you the truth when the time was right. But I was trying to protect you. And yes, I was trying to protect your mother, too. That’s why I’m here. I came because I knew you were putting yourself in danger and I couldn’t bear that. My car’s out here. We’ll drive to the nearest police station and tell them what’s going on. After that, we’ll find a quiet place where we can try to work out what we do next.’

She’d started crying, although she wasn’t sure what had triggered it. The pain in her arm where he was holding her too tight, or the knowledge that he was a psychopath and her whole relationship with him had been based on lies.

‘There’s no need to cry, love. We’ll get through this. I’m sure that woman has filled your head up with all sorts of nonsense, but that’s all it is, Emer – nonsense. You’ve no idea how worried I’ve been. I thought… well, I’m just glad you’re okay. Now come on. Look, we’re almost at the car. It’s just out there, on the road outside. You’ll be safe now, I promise.’

His voice was soft, cajoling – the voice he used when he wanted her to apologise to Ursula or agree not to ‘cause a fuss’ about something, or tidy up after dinner because ‘your poor mother’s had a tough day and she could do with a bit of help from you every now and then.’ The voice he used when he wanted to control her. Because that’s what he’d been doing. All these years, when she’d thought he was caring for her and loving her as if she was his own child, he’d been controlling her.