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Back Broken Hearts Save as PDF
Chapters (79)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  5. PART ONEEdinburgh November 2008
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. PART TWOLondon November 1988
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. PART THREEEdinburgh November 2008
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Chapter Forty-Three
  51. Chapter Forty-Four
  52. Chapter Forty-Five
  53. Chapter Forty-Six
  54. Chapter Forty-Seven
  55. Chapter Forty-Eight
  56. Chapter Forty-Nine
  57. Chapter Fifty
  58. Chapter Fifty-One
  59. Chapter Fifty-Two
  60. Chapter Fifty-Three
  61. Chapter Fifty-Four
  62. Chapter Fifty-Five
  63. Chapter Fifty-Six
  64. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  65. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  66. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  67. Chapter Sixty
  68. Chapter Sixty-One
  69. Chapter Sixty-Two
  70. Chapter Sixty-Three
  71. Chapter Sixty-Four
  72. Chapter Sixty-Five
  73. Chapter Sixty-Six
  74. Chapter Sixty-Seven
  75. Epilogue
  76. Acknowledgements
  77. About the Author
  78. By the Same Author
  79. About the Publisher

‘No,’ said Sam, thinking that she did want to know how long Angie had been in there. ‘You said that you were hardly any time–seconds; but how long were you in there, really, Angie?’

The tears started quickly again. ‘Hardly any time at all.’

‘How long? Thirty seconds? A minute?’ Sam asked, wondering how long it would take someone to steal a child.

‘Maybe a bit more?’

‘Doing what?’

‘I was in the loo! What do you think I was doing?’

‘I don’t know. You tell me,’ said Sam.

Angie Bell stared back at her, before finally answering in a low voice, almost a whisper. ‘I was having a fag. Okay? I was having a fag. Donna wouldn’t let anyone smoke around Matthew and I knew I had the whole day cooped up here with him, so I was having a quick fag. That’s when he disappeared, dear God–that’s when someone took him.’

Chapter Twenty

The news headlines were announced. Up until a few days ago, there had still been stories trickling in about the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in which 167 people had died, still tales of the after-effects and of what would take forever for people to recover from. There had been political stories at the top of the hour about the merger between the SDP and the Liberal Party to form the new Social and Liberal Democratic Party and how that already seemed to be falling apart in the same year it had been put together. There were poll tax headlines, reports of a new wonder drug called Prozac–but none of that mattered now. All of it was brushed aside by one national horror. A toddler, Matthew Cook, aged two, had been taken from Edmonton Green bus station two days ago. The police had released footage of the two teenagers they were interested in interviewing in connection with the incident. As in every other household in the country, Sam, Angie and Sheila watched with horror as the little boy was led away. The CCTV camera’s poor-quality black-and-white footage followed the hellish journey. Mouths dried up and tears fell as a nation watched, ashamed, as the little boy’s cry for help was ignored on so many occasions.