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

DI Bennett was already turning towards him, her face suddenly drawn.

‘What is this?’

Mark wished he could answer the question.

Thirty-Four

It had only been a couple of days since Mark had asked the family to identify the wrong body, but it felt much longer. As if time had ceased to follow its normal rhythm.

Now he was standing in the same spot in the bowels of the Royal Hospital, the air somehow cooler and more still, watching Emily’s body being unveiled. The same spot where Joanna Carter had been revealed and the relief which had come next for Julie and Stephanie.

It wouldn’t be that way this time.

He had tried to prepare the women for that, but he could tell in the car journey over that they still thought that was a possible outcome. Julie almost chanting it over and over again.

They’ve made a mistake again. They’ve made a mistake again.

‘Ready?’ Mark said, as if this could be avoided if it needed to be. He watched as Julie stared at the window and said nothing. Stephanie stared at him, willing him to say something else. As if he could change what was about to happen.

Stephanie shook her head and muttered under her breath. ‘It’s not her, it’s not her.’

Julie showed no sign of having heard her daughter talk. Mark turned to the window and nodded towards the coroner’s assistant inside the room. He bowed his head and lifted back the sheet covering the body.

Mark forced himself to look in the same direction as the two women. Emily’s body was covered for the most part, only her face on display. They were only a few feet away, separated by glass, but the effect wasn’t diminished in any way.

Her face was discoloured, distended. Her features were all there, but just different enough to hammer home the fact she wasn’t there anymore. That they were looking only at a shell of a person.

He turned to the two women beside him; they were staring intently at the body, searching the small visible area for dissimilarities.

The quiet was suffocating. The tick of a clock somewhere down the corridor broke it, sounding insufferably loud suddenly.

It’s her,’ Stephanie said, her voice flat and lifeless. Back to stoic mode, holding on to her mother as Julie staggered back in the corridor. A noise rumbled within her, before a howl escaped her lips, echoing off the walls as it increased in volume. Mark felt his body tense at the sound of it, watching as Stephanie gripped her mother harder trying to quieten her. With little effect.

It had been ten hours since he’d been sitting at their kitchen table, watching Stephanie break down. Now, he was watching her try to comfort her mother. This time, she knew. They both did.

Emily was gone.