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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

‘The thing is, Dee. I think she might still be alive. I want to ask if you’ll help me find her.’

Three

Dee drained her glass.

‘I’m going to need another drink for this. Can I get you something?’

Emer shook her head, holding up her barely touched soda and lime.

As she waited at the bar, Dee ran back over everything she knew about her cousin, which wasn’t a lot. She knew Emer’s life hadn’t been easy. First, she’d lost her sister in a terrible accident. Soon after that, her father had abandoned her. Maybe both those tragedies had damaged her more than she realised. Because, clearly, the poor girl was damaged if she believed her sister could still be alive.

‘I thought Kitty drowned,’ Dee said, when she sat back down. ‘Are you telling me that’s not what happened?’

‘I know how mad it sounds.’ Emer smiled. ‘You must be wishing you’d never agreed to meet me, right?’

‘Wrong.’ Dee reached across the table and squeezed the young woman’s hand. ‘I’m glad we’ve found each other, and I’m happy to help if I can. I’m just not sure how.’

‘Will you at least hear me out?’ Emer said, pulling her hand away. ‘Before you decide I’m a certified nut job?’

‘Of course.’

‘Right.’ Emer paused. ‘Sorry. It’s not easy, you know? It wasn’t the first time, you see. I was only ten when it happened. So when I told people that I’d seen her, no one believed me. They tried to convince me I’d made it up. Over the years, I accepted that maybe I had. Until two months ago. I was in London for a few days and I saw her on the Underground.’

‘You said this had happened before?’

‘They never found her body,’ Emer said. ‘Did you know that? Sorry. Why would you? Our fathers had stopped speaking long before then. Anyway, the day itself is a blur. I remember we’d had a row and Kitty went to a different part of the beach to get away from me. Our mother was with us, but she was reading magazines and she’d made it clear she didn’t want us disturbing her. I wasn’t worried, at first. We were always having silly rows, they never meant anything. I don’t know how long it was before my mother started panicking. She said she’d seen Kitty at the edge of the water earlier. I remember her running up and down the beach, calling Kitty’s name. Kitty couldn’t swim, you see. She’d always been scared of the water so I didn’t know why she’d gone in that day.