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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

How come I was the one least qualified to know what was good for me?

I was vaguely aware of Ilias grunting on the other side of the room, so I turned my head still further to see what he was doing. I watched him drop a counter into the Connect Four board, then stand up and move to sit in the chair opposite to plan an opposing move. He clapped a hand to either side of his head, evidently stumped by his own brilliance.

‘Alice? Are you listening?’

I slowly turned back to look at my dad. ‘I’m really tired,’ I said.

He looked like I’d punched him. ‘You want me to go?’

‘Might be best,’ I said. ‘Thanks for the Twixes, though.’

‘Right then.’

It was only when my dad got slowly to his feet that Ilias decided it was high time he joined in. I watched him march purposefully across to my father and stand close to him. My dad didn’t look thrilled about it.

Ilias jerked his head in my direction. ‘You her dad, then?’

‘That’s right.’

Ilias nodded and stepped even closer to my father. ‘Listen, if you procreate with your daughter . . .’ He stopped, seeing the look of disgust on my dad’s face. ‘Yeah, I know, horrible word, right? But if you do . . . you can live for ever.’

I had no idea what to say and could only watch as Ilias, having passed on his pearl of wisdom, strolled from the room. Struggling a bit, I turned back to look up at my dad.

‘This place,’ he said. He picked up his coat and started to cry.

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-ONE

Saturday morning, after a fried breakfast and the usual assortment of meds, I prowled about looking for Shaun, but every member of staff I asked was a bit cagey and none of the patients I spoke to knew where he was. Nobody could remember seeing him since he’d lost it in the TV room on Thursday night. There was no shortage of expert opinions, of course.

‘I don’t think he’s been around all day,’ Lucy told me. ‘Like they spirited him away or something. I heard that he’s not speaking to anybody.’

‘They’re feeding him in his room,’ Donna said, as we walked.

‘They’ve moved him to another ward.’ Ilias whispered and nodded, the fount of all knowledge. ‘Downstairs with the real head cases.’

‘The Thing got him,’ Tony said.

Shaun finally appeared at lunchtime. Mia led him into the dining room, fetched his meal, then sat with him at a table well apart from the rest of us. It didn’t feel like she was sticking that close because Shaun was on Within Arm’s Length obs – though that might well have been the case after such a major wobble – but more that she was there to keep the rest of us away and make sure he had space.