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

‘What about the blood? Or the fact Emily has been missing for three days and we’ve only just found Joanna Carter’s body?’

‘Maybe there was some kind of altercation between the two,’ DI Bennett replied, not seeming sure of anything she was saying now. ‘It’s not that far from where we found this woman. Maybe she kept her on the roof for a day or two, not knowing what to do, before coming up with this… plan. Make it look like suicide. Only, she didn’t think of what would happen next. Lots of options. We just need to find the link. We’re going over Joanna’s personal effects now. Her family will be up here any time now to identify her properly. Let’s hope we’ve got it right this time.’

‘This feels like a rush to cover a mistake,’ Mark said, then instantly regretted it. ‘I mean, we’ve got no evidence to suggest Emily could be a suspect. Right?’

‘What are your theories?’ DI Bennett said, sidestepping the question. ‘If the two are related, that seems to be the most logical outcome.’

Mark blew out a breath and swept a hand through his hair. ‘As I said, I haven’t been working on this long enough to have much to go on. If she’s involved with Joanna’s death, then either she was the only one involved, or there’s more to it. For now, she’s simply a person of interest. Maybe they were in some kind of relationship or something? Or they liked the same bloke and it bubbled over. I don’t know right now. All we do know is that we need to track down Emily and fill in the missing blanks to this story.’

‘You know what we need to do, right?’

‘We need to put the family out in front of the media…’ Mark said, wishing he hadn’t been right in what was coming. Not really understanding why he felt that way. ‘Tricky situation, if what you’re thinking is even close to what has actually happened.’

‘Very true, but we need to flush her out,’ DI Bennett replied. ‘I’ll explain how it should be presented to the family. I don’t want it getting out that there’s possibly a link between the two of them. Just in case there isn’t and we look even worse than we do right now. For the moment, we’ll treat the two cases with a quiet bond. You continue your investigation into Emily’s disappearance and I’ll have DS Cavanagh involved with the Joanna Carter death. See if we can figure out if there’s a connection at all between the two. Everything goes through me and then the DCI and DSI. Whether it’s murder or suicide, hopefully we can find out quickly.’