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
‘Emer, stop. I was being a bitch, and I’m sorry. I really don’t want you taking a sickie. Your work’s important, I get that. I’ll come to London. It’s really not a problem for me because I can work on the train. Tell me where you work and I’ll come to you.’
‘Canary Wharf. We could meet at the DLR station.’
‘I thought you worked in the City?’
‘Isn’t Canary Wharf part of the City?’ Emer said.
‘Not exactly.’ Dee smiled. ‘You’d better promise me you’ll take some time off when all this is done and get to know London a bit better. Okay, I’ll let you get back to work for now, and I’ll see you Monday. Let’s make it around midday. I can treat you to a nice lunch somewhere.’
‘Sounds good,’ Emer said. ‘See you then.’
Seventeen
June 1997
Kitty lay in bed, eyes wide open staring at the familiar grey shadows in the room. Too scared to close her eyes in case she fell asleep, she kept checking her watch as the minutes crawled by. She’d arranged to meet Lucy at half past nine. Kitty was supposed to be at Lucy’s tonight for a sleepover, but yesterday Mum had got angry about something and said Kitty couldn’t go. It wasn’t fair, but there was nothing Kitty could do about it. She’d asked Mrs Ryan if she’d speak to Mum, but Mrs Ryan had sighed and said she didn’t think she should interfere. Most of the time, Kitty liked Lucy’s mum because she was kind and never got angry, but right now she was raging with her. Mrs Ryan was a coward, just like every other adult Kitty knew. All of them too afraid to stand up to her mother and tell her not to be such a cow.
Dad hadn’t come home after work, which meant Mum’s mood was worse than usual this evening. It was stupid, because they all knew he was in the pub, and if Mum didn’t like that, Kitty didn’t understand why she didn’t just walk down there and tell him to come home. Instead, she clattered around the house, muttering to herself and shouting at Kitty to get into the kitchen and help her cook tea because did Kitty think her mother was a slave with no life of her own?