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

Mark was standing in the corridor outside the bathroom, trying to forget the words from his co-workers. Eventually, he put his head down and made his way back into the main office.

Hearing that had made him feel determined to prove that he belonged there. He would keep going, keep doing the job.

Show them that they were wrong about him.

And he would start by finding out what happened to Emily Burns.

Nine

The rest of the work day disappeared in a blink of a few hours. Requests for more information about Emily’s social media, trying to track down her father. It had been time to leave before Mark knew it.

Now, sitting in his car, mobile phone in hand, his finger was hovering over the call button of Natasha’s contact details. The screen dimmed, then finally turned to black, as he hesitated. The sky outside was darkening and his stomach rumbled, as he tried to decide whether to call her. Or eat first. Or grow a backbone instead.

He brought the phone back to life and swiped his passcode over the screen. Stared at the contact name a little longer, then shook his head. He was about to place it back in his pocket, wondering what he’d eat, when a knock at his window nearly gave him a heart attack.

‘Are you coming out or what?’

Natasha’s voice was muffled by the window, but her smile wasn’t. He placed a hand across his chest and then opened the car door. ‘Scared the life out of me.’

‘I was getting bored of waiting for you to decide to call me,’ Natasha replied, walking away from him and towards his house. ‘That’s what you were going to do, right?’

Mark didn’t answer as he caught up to her and opened the front door.

They didn’t exchange much further conversation once the door closed behind them.

Later, scrolling through a food delivery app trying to find something that looked appetising, Mark felt the inevitable slide from personal life back to thinking about the missing girl. Wondering if while he was smiling, satisfied, she was out there waiting for him to be interested in her again.

This was happening more often. It had once been easy to close his door and forget about the job as soon as he was at home. Lately, that had become more difficult. The more horror he witnessed – even in those short periods of time the job wasn’t mind-numbingly boring – the more difficult it became to forget. The things people did to each other… It was enough to make him wonder how the human race had made it this far.

‘I want something quick and greasy,’ Natasha said, shaking him out of his thoughts. She was already getting dressed and sitting beside where he lay. ‘I’m starving.’