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

He wanted to run away from it all, but his body wouldn’t let him. Maybe, that was what being a detective was really about. Wanting to run, but continuing on in spite of that.

‘I think it’s best you inform the family,’ DI Bennett said, turning back to him and pocketing her phone. ‘You have a relationship with them already and they’ll be more willing to trust that this time it’s for real. They’ll be expecting it to come from you, given you’ve been the one leading the investigation.’

‘What happens next?’

‘They identify her, we confirm cause of death, we arrest the uncle. Hopefully he confesses and we’re back to domestic violence cases and scrambler bike deaths by the end of the week.’

Mark didn’t reply, sighing almost inaudibly and crossing his arms against his chest. One of the officers walked towards them, holding a camera. He didn’t want to see, but knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.

He stood at DI Bennett’s shoulder as the officer flicked through the photographs that had been taken, leaving each image on the screen for a few seconds. At first, you could be mistaken for not knowing what you were looking at. Then she came into view properly.

There was anger bubbling up inside him as he watched the slideshow of horror. She was lying on her side, wearing the clothes they’d seen on the CCTV images. Her body had bloated somewhat, the decomposition period settling in. Mark glanced up at the tech officer, seeing only blankness in his eyes. No sign of what he’d seen and experienced having any effect at all.

Mark envied him.

The photographs became more graphic, closer-up images of her face, her neck. There was angry red and purple bruising to her neck, blackened in places. He could see her face, round and discoloured. Lines of red bursting from the surface as the capillaries fought to break out.

It was her.

Mark wanted to take the camera and throw it as far away as he could.

Instead, he continued to stand almost at attention, watching as the photos of Emily Burns’s dead body flicked past the screen.

‘We good?’ the officer said, looking towards DI Bennett. She gave him a nod and he was gone before her head had returned to centre.

‘Look, I know you wanted a better outcome here,’ DI Bennett said, moving closer to him and tilting her head sideways as she looked up at him. ‘This one got a little bigger than I was expecting, so it’s my fault you’ve been dealing with it on your own. I also know it’s not your first suspicious death, or even murder. We don’t always save them, Mark. Sometimes we’re too late, sometimes we don’t have enough. We learn and we move on. We try to make sure we help the next people.’