BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

‘No,’ Mark replied, shaking his head. ‘I heard a few days later that it had been passed to CID. I kept up to date with the case, though. Think it was the look on her mum’s face that did it for me. Like she couldn’t work out why this had happened to her. Anyway, they found her bag a day or so later. Whatever money she’d had in it had gone, along with her phone, but other stuff was in there. You start fearing the worst then. They said as much – the detectives working it, I mean – when I asked, that they were probably looking for a body. The bag was found in a park somewhere, can’t remember now. They found a piece of clothing, torn off, hanging from a bush. The mum thought it looked like something her daughter had been wearing.’

‘As bad as blood, I imagine,’ Stephanie said quietly, staring at Mark as he continued to talk.

‘Numerous calls came in. Someone had seen her being dragged off the street, another person saw her hitchhiking out the city. Talking to men who had angry looks on their faces, or wandering the streets late at night, looking the worse for wear. It seemed like everyone and no one had seen her. The family went on telly, like you did, and I remember watching it thinking, this story is only going to end one way.’

‘And it didn’t?’

‘No,’ Mark replied, attempting a half-smile across the table at Stephanie. ‘She knocked on the door a week later, like nothing had happened. She’d gone to a house party on a whim. Didn’t really know anyone there, except some lad she’d been chatting to online. Lost her bag while she was drunk, but was having too good a time to care. Drink and drugs involved, and the attention of a good-looking older lad. Spent a week getting off her head and whatever else you can imagine in this lad’s bedsit. No contact with the outside world at all. The lad didn’t have a TV, no internet. Basically, they stayed in that room for a week – eating pot noodles, smoking weed, and getting drunk and… well, you can imagine. She – they – had no idea anyone was even looking for her. She was as shocked as anyone when she came back to police being involved and all that.’

‘That doesn’t sound like something Emily would… could do.’