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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 conversation continued for some time, but Dee wasn’t able to catch any more of it, because the woman had turned her head to the side and lowered her voice to a whisper. When she hung up, she asked Dee to take a seat and told her someone would be with her shortly.

With a perfectly manicured hand, she gestured to a row of sofas several miles away on the other side of the lobby.

‘I don’t understand,’ Dee said. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘Oh, it’s not a problem.’ The woman smiled so hard Dee reckoned her face must be aching. ‘I can’t find your cousin’s name on our list of employees. But you said she’s a temp, so that might explain why her name’s not on the system yet. Gerry will sort it out for you. Don’t worry.’

Dee traversed the marble floor, sat down on a pale grey sofa that was surprisingly comfortable, and waited. Less than five minutes later, a tall, dark-haired man came through the barriers that separated the lobby from the rest of the building and walked briskly across to where Dee was sitting.

‘Gerry Boyd,’ he said. ‘Head of Security. I understand you’re looking for your cousin?’

‘That’s right,’ Dee said, wondering why the hell the Head of Security had been called to deal with her.

‘And your cousin’s name is Emer Doran?’

‘Yes. I’m sorry, are you going to tell me what’s going on here?’

‘I think you’ve got the wrong building, madam.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Dee said. ‘This is where she works. I saw her walk in here with my own eyes. I’m not making it up. We said goodbye outside and I watched her walk into this building right here.’

‘How long ago was that?’

‘Last week.’

‘That’s not possible,’ Gerry said. ‘I’ve checked all our records. No one called Emer Doran has ever worked for Pitman and Pace. Not in this building, or at any of our other sites either.’

‘She’s a contractor,’ Dee said. ‘Working on some sort of IT project.’

‘That may be true,’ Gerry said. ‘But she’s never done that here. I’ve checked all our records, including the names of every contractor we’ve had working here over the last six months. Whoever you thought you saw coming in here that day, it wasn’t your cousin. It’s simply not possible.’

Twenty-two