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

It was because the first was unplanned. A random act of violence from someone who didn’t have a way of controlling himself.

Not yet.

The timing.

He heard DI Bennett’s voice in the background, but he wasn’t focusing on that any longer. Her increasing pleas to be answered only distracted him. ‘I’ve got to go,’ he mumbled, ending the call and switching off his phone in one movement, as his mind continued to turn.

When Holly Edwards had rejected John Redwood for the last time. When she had stopped answering his messages, his pleas.

He didn’t need to check to make sure. He was almost positive it would have been mere days before Steven Hallet had been killed.

‘My parents took me to the Lake District to get my mind off it. Just a snap decision they made to take me up to the cottage we have up there. It was night by the time we arrived.’

They would have stopped at the services. John, filled with anger and rage. Chances upon Steven Hallet and beats him to death.

Enjoys it. Feels satisfaction from what he’s done.

‘You bastard…’

Mark looked at the images on screen, knowing what each represented, all except for one.

One he recognised.

It was his last shot. He might be too late, he knew that, but he had to try.

The laptop finally died, so he took it from his knees and placed in the passenger footwell. Turned his phone back on for a few seconds and checked the map. Memorised the route back to the motorway, then turned it off again. Turned the engine on and blinked as light entered the world around him once more.

It was time to end this.

Fifty-Four

It had been a long time since he’d last been at the place. Mark had at one time been a regular visitor – when he’d first moved over to Liverpool, on his days away from the police training. Walking and taking in the beauty that could be found there.

Sefton Park. Only it was more like a different world. Over two hundred acres in size, Mark had discovered new things every time he’d visited. He hadn’t been for a while, but still remembered parts of it vividly. Others were a little less memorable, but he knew where he was going. He knew the way.

The place that had been in an image on John’s laptop screen. A statue and fountain. Modelled on Eros, the Greek god of love, or attraction. He had walked past it years earlier. He might have ignored it completely if he hadn’t been struck by how much it had reminded him of a similar statue in London. Turned out, when Mark had investigated a little further, the two statues were in fact related. The Liverpool version had been created by the same people behind the capital’s version.