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

At least it hadn’t been face first, Mark thought. It would have been a much longer wait to find out it wasn’t Emily. He wondered what the family of the actual victim was going through now. Whether they even knew their daughter, their sister, their granddaughter, was missing and now dead.

Mark felt there would have to be some kind of link between the two women, but he didn’t think it would prove easy to find. Especially considering they didn’t currently know who the dead girl was.

Thoughts shot through his mind, even as Stephanie continued to lean in between him and the driver. He could feel the pull of the investigation – wanting to get back on the streets, back in the office, working out what the answers to all of this were. Even as another part of him wished to be back at home, in relative safety.

‘It doesn’t explain the blood,’ Stephanie said quietly, almost mumbling it under her breath. ‘Unless it’s not Emily’s, but this other girl’s? I guess this isn’t over yet. Probably got way ahead of ourselves.’

‘There’s a long way to go, yes,’ Mark replied. Stephanie looked away, but didn’t lean back into her seat. ‘Best thing to do is stay positive. I’m sure things will change now. More answers will be coming.’

Stephanie seemed to accept this, flopping back in her seat. She began gnawing away on one of her painted fingernails, Mark watching her for a second or two before settling back into his seat.

He wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but he knew it wouldn’t be anything good.

It’ll be media, he thought. A circus, from now on. One missing, one dead. The way Mark thought now, there were only two options. Either this was a massive coincidence, or the missing Emily and unknown dead woman were connected.

That threw up two more options. Either Emily was still in danger or there was another scenario. That Emily’s blood was there following an altercation with whoever ended up at the bottom of that building.

That Emily was on the run.

Not enough evidence for that yet, Mark thought, but it was another wrinkle to an already pretty screwed-up picture that was forming.

Either way, he needed to find Emily. And that meant media. It meant people looking for her. It meant her face being shared by everyone in the area. It would have been one of the next steps anyway, even before the body had been found. With her family reporting her missing, it made sense to get them out in front of the cameras, just as the media glare was trained on the story. It would lodge in the minds of people watching.

You can’t hide for long when the world is looking for you.

Fifteen