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

His heart began to quicken as he saw her arms extended out in the correct manner. The way she’d been told.

The sequence of photographs shortened, became duller and more difficult to make out. Finally, near the end of the thumbnails that had filled his screen, there was what everyone on the forum had been waiting for, all this time. Since the last one.

His choice.

He clicked play on the video, then made it full screen.

The image was barely clear enough to make out more than a motion of movement, but he could hear her voice. A hand went to his mouth, as he choked back something he hadn’t been aware he was feeling. A sob, a cry of delight at what he had been responsible for creating. A memory.

He watched it again and again, as if each time it was the first time he was seeing it.

On screen, he could hear her breathless chants. The numbers she was reeling off. The movements she was making. In the background, he could hear nothing but the waves and the wind.

The blood.

Then, the screen went black and the video ended.

That was all there was.

She was gone.

Suddenly, his mind was filled with regret and darkness. Thoughts of the family, how they wouldn’t understand. How they would never know the truth.

He would have to watch them grieve, never knowing where she was or what had happened to her.

It was over.

Now, he could move on. Begin a new chapter.

He wasn’t sure what that would be. What he should do. What he should be.

A thought came to his mind, pushing its way to the surface above the noise.

If it’s over for her, is it over for you as well?

He didn’t know the answer.

Forty-three

Mark checked the time and suppressed a yawn. It was late, even as the adrenaline inside him increased. He was getting close, he felt, to something approaching an answer.

‘You don’t think it’s too late?’

Mark shook his head to DS Cavanagh’s question. ‘It’ll be fine. I just want to make sure you’re okay with me talking to her alone.’

‘It should be fine. She trusts you and it’s not an interview under caution. If she’s willing to talk to you now, then I say go for it. I’ll find out where she is and then probably take the boss’s advice and get some rest. See if I can work out what the hell we’re dealing with here.’

‘Thanks,’ Mark replied, pulling out the letter he’d found in the attic of Emily’s house out and reading it over again. He tried to work out how best to tackle what he needed to ask Stephanie.