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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

Remember what I said about nothing being easy? About thinking ahead?

‘Good luck with that,’ I said.

He looked at me. ‘What?’

‘Well, I’m guessing that nobody’s told you about Graham.’ I saw him glance at his list again. ‘About Graham’s . . . issues with being watched all the time.’ Another look towards the window, because I was in no rush. I was proper buzzed up and loving it. ‘What Graham likes to do with leftovers.’

NINE

NINE

With one or two exceptions, the staff on Fleet Ward are pretty decent.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had run-ins with all of them at one time or another, but by and large they’re not a bad lot. Most of the time they’re just doing their jobs, right? It’s meds and meetings. It’s all about your various tests and whether you’re behaving in your classes and if your observation status needs reviewing. Thing is, I’ve had cracking chats with several of them. We’ve shared a few secrets, talked about partners and kids or whatever, but I still wouldn’t say that any of them are . . . friends. End of the day, they can’t ever really be mates, doesn’t matter how well you get on with them. It’s not easy to form that kind of relationship, however nice they might be, because you never know when one of them is going to be holding you down while another one’s jabbing a needle in your arse.

If you might be swinging a punch at one of them.

I think it’s high time you were properly introduced to the men and women responsible for my care, but I’ve decided to mix things up a bit. Nobody needs another list, do they? After the excitement of my interview with DC Seddon, the rest of that Monday was predictably uneventful, so, as I mooched around, I decided to entertain myself by casting the members of staff in rather . . . different roles. Dealing with them at the meds hatch or in the dining room or nattering with them in the hallways, it struck me that, compared to what goes through the heads of some people in here every day, imagining the doctors and nurses in a series of no-holds-barred, to-the-death UFC bouts wasn’t actually that weird. You do need to understand that when people aren’t getting murdered, this place can be seriously boring.

On top of which, I’ve definitely imagined things a whole lot weirder.

So, picture a crowd baying for blood, a microphone descending from the heavens as the fighters are introduced and me in a sparkly bikini prowling the ring between rounds. On second thoughts, best not imagine that if you want to keep your dinner down . . .