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
‘You stupid, stupid girl.’ Her mother had screamed when she’d found out. She’d screamed lots of other things too, but Kitty couldn’t remember all of them. Mum’s face scrunched up when she got angry and her cheeks became really red. When she’d grabbed the wooden spoon, Kitty had tried to get away, but Mum had held on tight to her arm, screaming at her while the wooden spoon smacked down on Kitty’s shoulders and back, again and again.
‘I wish I’d never had you.’
Smack.
‘You were a mistake.’
Smack.
‘You ruin everything. Why do you have to ruin every single thing?’
Her father was there too, sitting in the corner of the room. Watching, without doing a single thing to stop it. She’d tried to understand why he didn’t ever do anything when her mother got like that. At first, she’d thought that maybe because he was drunk he didn’t really notice. But then she realised it wasn’t that. Because even drunk people could still see what was happening in front of their eyes, couldn’t they? No. He didn’t do anything because Mum had told him so many bad things about Kitty he’d started to believe them.
That would change after Friday night. When Dad knew what Mum was really like, he wouldn’t sit back and let her get away with whatever she wanted. He’d jump in and protect his daughter and keep her safe. He would become the sort of father Kitty had always wanted. Finally.
Ten
It was Sunday morning when Emer returned Dee’s phone call.
‘Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you, Dee. Work’s been crazy.’
‘You’re working at the weekends too?’ Dee said. ‘I hope you’ll manage to find some time for sightseeing. London’s a great city.’
‘Maybe when my contract’s over,’ Emer said. ‘I haven’t done a job like this before. That’s why I’m putting everything into it. I keep thinking they’re going to see through me and realise I’m not up to it. Anyway, in your message you said you wanted to ask me something?’
No time for small talk, then. Fair enough, Dee thought. It couldn’t be easy starting a new job in a new city, having to prove yourself to a whole bunch of people who didn’t know you. No wonder Emer sounded stressed.
‘I wanted to ask you about Lucy Ryan,’ she said.
‘Anything,’ Emer said. ‘Do you really think there could be a link between what happened to both of them?’
‘I’ve read everything you sent me,’ Dee said. ‘And anything else I could find too. It doesn’t look as if the police ever thought the two things were connected.’
‘I think they did look into it,’ Emer said. ‘Although, from what I can remember, they never really found anything.’