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

She didn’t think. She could see the confusion playing across the faces of those who were now surrounding her as she continued to scream over and over.

A young woman holding a knife in the air, shouting until her voice was hoarse and sore. Repeating the same thing over and over.

It didn’t take long for the police to arrive.

Thirty-Two

Mark sat in a café, going over his notes as a waitress placed another cup of coffee in front of him.

What he’d learned only served to confuse things further. How had Emily been implicated in this group? What had been the result? And was Joanna Carter a part of this, too?

He didn’t have long to go over things before Natasha joined him, so he quickly tried to make some sense of all he had learned.

Before he had a chance to make some order of his thoughts, his phone started buzzing on the table.

‘Hello?’

The normally calm tone of DI Bennett sounded different. An almost excited feel to her words. ‘Thought you’d like to be updated.’

‘Of course.’

‘We’ve made an arrest in the Joanna Carter murder. Teenage. Female. Looks like she’s had some kind of breakdown.’

Mark sat back in his chair, his free hand reaching the back of his head. ‘That’s… that’s good news. Is it Emily Burns?’

‘Sorry, no.’

‘Who is she then? How did you find her?’

‘She wasn’t really found. She was waving a knife around screaming Joanna’s name as loud as she could. Uniforms first on scene said she made some kind of confession. Same age as Joanna, but didn’t say a lot when she was booked in. Looked relieved, apparently. No solicitor yet, just keeps asking for her mum. Interviewing her soon, so hopefully she just cops to the lot of it and we can close it.’

‘Fingers crossed for you,’ Mark replied, looking for the sugar and opening the packets with one hand. ‘I think Emily Burns needs to be brought up in questioning. We need to know of any connection.’

‘We will, but you should know we’ve discovered quite a bit more about Joanna in the past few hours. Seems like she had some interesting habits, according to fellow students. I think this will be either jealousy or a revenge killing.’

‘What kind of habits?’

‘We’re preparing a report as we speak. I’ll make sure you get a read. How are you getting on?’

Mark sighed, stirring his coffee and placing the spoon quietly down on the surface. ‘Not very far. Looking into a few different things, but not really any closer to an answer. I’ve learned that Emily has been doing some odd things lately. And that there was something called The Huddle – some sort of support group that went downhill. It’s all kinds of messed up.’

‘I like that term. Well, if that’s your final assessment…’