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Back Rabbit Hole Save as PDF
Chapters (73)
  1. Rabbit Hole
  2. Also by Mark Billingham
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Preface
  8. PART ONE
  9. ONE
  10. TWO
  11. THREE
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. SEVEN
  16. EIGHT
  17. NINE
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. THIRTY-TWO
  41. THIRTY-THREE
  42. PART TWO
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. FIFTY
  60. FIFTY-ONE
  61. FIFTY-TWO
  62. FIFTY-THREE
  63. FIFTY-FOUR
  64. FIFTY-FIVE
  65. FIFTY-SIX
  66. FIFTY-SEVEN
  67. FIFTY-EIGHT
  68. PART THREE
  69. FIFTY-NINE
  70. SIXTY
  71. EPILOGUE
  72. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  73. Back Cover

There was a nurse escorting her, of course, a hand on her arm, and it could not have been more perfect. That same mask of concern she’d worn for me the day before. I stared at her, rushing like I’d had a double dose of something, because I knew she was on borrowed time.

As they came alongside us, Lauren reached out a hand and Debbie ushered Clare quickly past. Graham waved and Donna murmured, ‘Nice to meet you.’

‘I’m Ilias,’ shouted Ilias. ‘And you’re not.’

I watched her being led away towards her bedroom and I had to fight the urge to chase her down and tell her to watch herself. Tell her that this place wasn’t safe, whatever it said on her bits of paper. I wanted to point at Debbie and say, ‘I hope for your sake that she wasn’t the one that examined you.’

‘All right,’ George said. ‘Show’s over.’

Lucy and Donna walked away, arms linked, giggling like schoolgirls. Graham took his place at the meds hatch and Lauren wandered over to torment Tony for a while. I stood with Ilias and Bob watching as Debbie opened a bedroom door at the end of the corridor.

‘We going to play chess then?’ Ilias asked.

I told him to get lost and watched Debbie invite Clare to enter.

Bob sidled up and nodded. ‘I did her in a flat in Peckham one time . . . the new bird. She went like a bat in a biscuit tin . . .’

I was thinking about that mask, about how good it would feel to watch it slip, as I saw Debbie follow the new arrival into the room and close the door behind her.

THIRTY

THIRTY

Dr Bakshi said, ‘You look happy, Alice.’

‘Because I am,’ I said. Because I was.

‘That’s very nice to hear.’ She began slowly turning the pages in front of her. ‘And I enjoyed your response to my text message, though I see you haven’t dressed up.’

‘These are my best trackies,’ I said.

It was certainly the most upbeat I’d felt at my Friday-morning assessment session in a dog’s age. I could sense something good was coming. Good for me, at any rate. I’d been hoping that Debbie would be sitting there in the circle, like she had been the week before, but they do these things on rotation, so Malaika was keeping Marcus company today. That tight-lipped trainee from last time wasn’t anywhere to be seen either. Maybe I’d frightened her off.

So, just the four of us. It was cosy.

Marcus made the official introductions and Malaika did the meds report. I was still ‘responding well’ to the regime apparently, which was always nice to hear, even though most of the time their idea of well and mine were very different.

‘By all accounts, you’ve had a productive week.’ Bakshi looked at Marcus, then at me. ‘Would you agree?’