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

A shift in the chair, Charlie now looking towards him with something approaching a smirk on his face. ‘Am I going to need a lawyer?’

‘Do you think you need one?’

‘Probably not. Can’t see me being arrested for killing her. Look, we weren’t, like, close or anything. It’s not like I’m not sad that she’s gone, but it’s like if I heard the next-door neighbour had died. I don’t know what to tell you. Emily not being around isn’t really going to have much effect on my life. They’ll still ignore me, act like I’m an annoyance, rather than a member of the family, and that’ll be that. The only thing that’ll be different is that Mum will be talking about it every five seconds.’

Mark took a few moments to work out how to move forward. The lack of empathy, of sympathy, any kind of emotion, rocked him. He wanted to reach out and shake some reality into him. Switch off the computer and try to explain that this was real. Not like one of his video games.

Instead, he breathed in and tried to go on.

‘Look, she was your sister. You don’t have to put up a front with me. I’m not one of your mates. I’m here to help you.’

‘I’m sure you are, but honestly, I’m okay with it. I knew something like this could happen as soon as she didn’t come home in the first twenty-four hours. I guessed after that, well, she was either gonna be dead or never found. It’s not nice, but that’s life, isn’t it? We’ve all got to go some time. I guess this was just hers. I feel bad for my mum. This is going to destroy her. She’ll blame herself, even though it’s not her fault at all. Not her fault Emily’s weak. That’s just the way it is. Princess Stephanie will probably find a way to use it to her advantage. She knows how to use her best features. You know what I’m talking about.’

Mark ignored the sick smile Charlie gave him. ‘The other day, you said something about your uncle. About him and Emily…’

‘I knew that wasn’t going to be the end of it,’ Charlie said, the words emphasised by a teenage sigh. ‘Look, I don’t know what was going on. You’d have to speak to him. It’s not like you can speak to her anymore.’

‘What makes you think something was wrong between them?’