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Back Now You See Me Save as PDF
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. Back Cover Text
  3. Praise
  4. Booklist
  5. Dedication
  6. About the Author
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  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. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. Chapter Forty
  47. Chapter Forty-One
  48. Chapter Forty-Two
  49. Chapter Forty-Three
  50. Chapter Forty-Four
  51. Chapter Forty-Five
  52. Chapter Forty-Six
  53. Chapter Forty-Seven
  54. Chapter Forty-Eight
  55. Chapter Forty-Nine
  56. Chapter Fifty
  57. Chapter Fifty-One
  58. Chapter Fifty-Two
  59. Chapter Fifty-Three
  60. Chapter Fifty-Four
  61. Chapter Fifty-Five
  62. Chapter Fifty-Six
  63. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  64. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  65. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  66. Chapter Sixty
  67. Chapter Sixty-One
  68. Chapter Sixty-Two
  69. Chapter Sixty-Three
  70. Chapter Sixty-Four
  71. Chapter Sixty-Five
  72. Chapter Sixty-Six
  73. Chapter Sixty-Seven
  74. Chapter Sixty-Eight
  75. Chapter Sixty-Nine
  76. Chapter Seventy
  77. Chapter Seventy-One
  78. Chapter Seventy-Two
  79. Chapter Seventy-Three
  80. Chapter Seventy-Four
  81. Acknowledgments

At the bottom of all five About sections, alone, isolated, was the word—

ASCEND.

Chapter Nineteen

“Well, I always liked Matt. We used to hang out back in primary school. We were best friends—until, you know, they came into the picture.” Benny Masterson was moving some very unprepared parts of a dead pig around the closed butchers’ shop and it was very distracting. Robin was standing as far away as possible.

It was the next morning—Tuesday—and Robin had been waiting for the butchers’ to open, when Benny let him in early. The young man seemed almost impossibly friendly, clashing with his gruesome surroundings.

“I saw them a few times. Around the town. Without Matt. So I told him. Didn’t know he was going to ‘go postal,’ did I?”

Robin opened his mouth and some kind of smell entered. He masked a choke and then pressed on with his question. “This was recently that you saw them?”

“Yeah,” Benny said, “I saw them just before the Incident, in the basement of The Hamlet. That was their usual place. Didn’t bother me—kept them out of the way. But yeah, they were there. When I told Matt about it, he went quiet, but I could tell he was fuming. That’s why I didn’t tell him about the other times.”

“The other times?”

Robin had to wait a moment as Benny ducked in the back and brought out a pile of what looked like lambs’ livers. Sure enough, he placed them in the counter display by the very same label. “Yeah, I saw them a few other times too. They were at the Claypaths’ at Christmas, even though Matt had told me over a pint they were all staying at their unis. I went over to give the Chief their Christmas order—turkey the size of Spaceship Earth and all the trimmings. Had to strap it onto my bike just so it wouldn’t bounce off if I hit a curb. Anyways, the Chief opened the door and I could hear them all having a grand old time in the front room. Knew Matt wasn’t there ’cos I’d seen him on the way shoveling snow off Frank Jaegar’s driveway. You know Frank Jaegar? Owns The Grey Fox. Nice guy.

“Anyways, same thing happened when I went to deliver at New Year’s. They were having duck. Who has duck for New Year’s? Not me, at least—not on my wages.” He gave out a great guffaw.

Robin wanted to stay on track. He looked at his watch and saw that Standedge Visitor Centre would be opening soon. “You don’t seem to like the Standedge Five very much.”