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

‘This missing teenager. Everything points to a death, but we have no body yet. Only thing we have is her blood. And not much of that.’

‘The Emily Burns case,’ Mark replied, remembering it from the briefing the previous day. It had been a minor annoyance then – something that uniforms were handling. The blood hadn’t been mentioned. ‘Was wondering what was going on with that one.’

‘Yeah, well, nothing good, that much I can tell you. We’ve got everything but a body at this point and we’re hoping that’s not too far away. Or, you know, that she turns up safe and sound.’

‘Blood, you say?’

‘Found by uniforms earlier on. One of the abandoned work yards down on the front, past the docks. They tracked the girl there on CCTV and went to check it out. Found a pool of blood. That’s it.’

‘What’s the story on the family?’

‘The usual for the estate they’re from,’ Bennett said. Mark closed his eyes briefly, wishing he could just go back to bed.

‘Hoping one of them doesn’t go rogue and tell the media we’re sitting on our backsides doing nothing,’ Bennett continued, a curl of annoyance in her tone. ‘Emily has been missing two days now.’

‘Not that long really…’

‘Apparently it’s massively out of character, blah, blah, blah. Now with this, well, starts to look suspicious, you know? So, it’s no longer for uniforms to deal with. DCI has asked Major Crimes to look into it, with this discovery. So, it’s now on you.’

‘What’s the address?’ Mark said, locating his car keys and looking back into the house, trying to think of anything else he might need.

‘Sefton Street, by the trampoline and Go Karts place. There’s a big patch of land just behind it that hasn’t been built on yet. You know what it’s like around there. Seems strange that the only place with nothing on it is the last place she’s seen.’

‘Not that strange; probably intentional. It’s not like CCTV is well hidden in this city. If someone wants to try and avoid it, they only have to look around for the best places.’

‘Of course, ace detective,’ DI Bennett said, a playfulness to her voice now. He could almost picture the knowing smile playing across her face. ‘Good to know you’re not a total imbecile.’

‘That was up for debate?’

Bennett didn’t respond and Mark realised it probably was.

Four

Things changed so quickly. An hour earlier, in bed with Natasha and her laughter, her eyes. The way he had become lost in them so often, as if he were staring at waves crashing onto the shore. Now, he was plain old Detective Constable Mark Flynn, loitering near a pool of blood.

It was the quiet moments he looked forward to now. None of the horror of his job.