BooksBarbecue
Back Ghosted
Chapters (61)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. Books by Emily Barr
  4. DEDICATION
  5. Prologue
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. 31
  37. 32
  38. 33
  39. 34
  40. 35
  41. 36
  42. 37
  43. 38
  44. 39
  45. 40
  46. 41
  47. 42
  48. 43
  49. 44
  50. 45
  51. 46
  52. 47
  53. 48
  54. 49
  55. 50
  56. 51
  57. Epilogue
  58. Acknowledgements
  59. Read on for an extract from …
  60. 12 December
  61. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Pete. Security guard, 65ish? Mean. Was on duty, but says he didn’t see/notice Joe. Thinks he killed himself. Didn’t want to talk. Is he telling the truth? Probably. Will he talk to me again? Not if he can help it.

‘If you think I’m going to tell you something the Devon and Cornwall police didn’t manage to get out of me back in the day then you’re very wrong.’ Suspicious thing to say? But people say strange things.

NB: Cousin thing held up because I could talk about Gus and the girls. For some reason I told him I was called Alice??? Panicked. Better than Ariel, I guess, as less memorable.

It was my first piece of evidence and it was thin. I put on my bravest face and decided to stake out Joe’s old house.

This was a difficult move because I was going to need to find out who lived there without looking weird. If Joe’s dad was still in this house Gus or Abby or the girls might be visiting, and it would be difficult to explain why the new babysitter was knocking on the door with some kind of spurious question. It was daytime, though, and I was banking on everyone being at work or school.

I thought I’d just watch the house and see what happened, though I knew that I’d probably spend hours staring at absolutely nothing. Maybe that was how stake-outs worked. I could see why the police did this with a car and some doughnuts, on TV shows at least.

It was a nice terraced house with a grassy front garden, and it was up on the hill where you could see the sea. We lived halfway down this hill on the other side, in a bigger semi-detached house, because a year ago we were a normal family with two parents who each earned a good salary. It would take about ten minutes to walk from Joe’s house to mine. Twenty years and ten minutes.

I took photos of the front of the house. The curtains were all open and there were no lights on. The parking up here was on the street so I couldn’t tell if there was a car belonging to the house. No one moved. A cat walked across the garden and jumped on to the fence, but that didn’t mean anything because cats thought they owned everything.