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
‘Is everything okay?’ Dee said. ‘You seem very keen to get rid of me all of a sudden.’
‘I’ve already told you,’ Fiona said. ‘I need to be somewhere else.’
‘Home.’ Dee nodded, as if she understood. ‘Sussex, isn’t it? I’m from Eastbourne. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?’
‘Sussex is a big county,’ Fiona said, ‘and lots of people from Sussex end up in London. I don’t think it’s strange at all. Goodbye, Dee.’
After she went back inside, Dee stood by her car, wondering what to do now. There was no point banging on the front door and insisting Fiona come out and tell her the truth. If she asked Fiona about the photo, she’d say it was a coincidence. She’d tell Dee some story about Annie and the other girl being childhood friends.
As she thought this, Dee wondered if she’d got it wrong. If, somehow, her mind had seen what it wanted to. Except she hadn’t wanted to see what she’d seen, had she? She had believed Annie Holden was who she said she was. Part of her still believed that.
But Dee knew what she’d seen today. Just as she knew, too, there had been other signs that something wasn’t right. The sense that Annie was hiding something. That moment of recognition when Dee had first met Fiona. That gut instinct that had always driven the decisions Dee made in her life and her work.
She got into her car, making sure she revved the engine so Fiona would hear it, and drove away from the house. As soon as she turned the corner, Dee pulled into the side of the road, jumped out of the car and ran back towards the house. As she came around the corner, she saw Fiona coming out of the house and hurrying along the street in the opposite direction.
Keeping a decent distance between them, Dee followed Fiona as she turned onto Wapping High Street. When Fiona turned left into Wapping station, Dee hurried forward, hoping to catch her before she went through the barriers. But by the time she reached the station, she was too late. Fiona had already passed through the barriers to the platforms beneath the ground.
It took an age for Dee to find her debit card and get through the barriers. Wapping only had one train line, which meant there were just two platforms. Dee tried the westbound platform first. As she ran down the stairs, she was just in time to see Fiona getting onto the train that had recently pulled into the station. But by the time Dee had reached the bottom of the steps, the train had already left the station and Fiona was gone.