Chapters (68)
- Cover
- Dedication
- NOW
- One
- BEFORE
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- NOW
- Twenty-One
- BEFORE
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- NOW
- Thirty-Nine
- BEFORE
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- NOW
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- AFTER
- Fifty-Six
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
Mark woke to the sound of the vending machine being struck a few times, then a stream of expletives. He rubbed sleep from his eyes, wondering when the thing had been installed in his bedroom. A few moments later, he realised he was sitting upright in the small kitchen next to the incident room at the station.
‘You not got a home to go to?’
Mark blinked in the direction of the voice, squinting at the harsh light that suddenly bothered him so much. ‘I was working late,’ he managed to croak out at the blurred figure of DS Cavanagh.
‘Yeah, I can see that.’
As Mark gained more consciousness, he looked down to what DS Cavanagh was gesturing towards. The memories of the long night before came back to him. He began gathering up the mounds of paperwork he’d been working on overnight.
He didn’t want anyone to see it all just yet.
‘Just some stuff on the case. Came to me late on and I thought I’d get it sorted before the morning. Guess I underestimated how tired I actually was.’
Mark looked at the clock on the wall, seeing that he’d been asleep at least two hours in there. The pain in his neck attested that it hadn’t been all that comfortable.
‘Yeah, well, the boss isn’t in yet,’ Cavanagh said with a smirk, then turned back to the vending machine. ‘So you’ve probably got away with it. She’d go mad if she knew you’d fallen asleep in here and not gone home for the night.’
‘Course, right,’ Mark replied, standing up and shuffling towards the doorway. Pins and needles hit his left leg, but he soldiered on. ‘I need to put this together anyway, before she comes in.’
‘How did it go with the twin?’
‘Some useful stuff. Some not so useful stuff. I think I can say with some certainty that this was a targeted attack and it was from someone she did something to online. She was being made to do something…’
‘I’ve got a feeling that something else has turned up on the uncle,’ Cavanagh said, before Mark had the chance to continue. He looked back from the doorway, seeing Cavanagh leaning against the vending machine, his arms folded across his chest.
‘What?’
‘Not sure, but they’ve interviewed him again this morning already. Clock’s running down. Forensics might have found something.’
‘It wasn’t him.’
‘I think you’re right,’ DS Cavanagh said, then looked at what Mark was carrying. ‘What is all that?’
‘What?’
‘All that stuff,’ Cavanagh said, frowning at him. ‘Doesn’t look like normal paperwork to me. On the wrong paper, for a kick off. Is there evidence there?’