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
The inbox contained only a few different message threads. A conversation over a number of weeks with someone called Jack Marland. He tried to scroll to the beginning of it, but it went on for hundreds of messages. It would take longer than he had to go through each of them. Already, he could see some of them were sexual in nature. He scrolled past them for now and went to the end.
cant believe u did dis 2 me
ur messed up
u need help!
no1 does dis 2 me
IF I EVA SEE U UR DEAD AND I NO WHO DIS IS
Emily had never replied, it seemed. The messages simply ended, along with the posts. Mark knew she’d moved on to someone else after that.
He needed a list of all the victims. All of the people Emily had targeted and angered. If Jack’s last message to her was anything to go by, he imagined there’d be more threats to read. More warnings.
As Mark continued to read on, he discovered it wasn’t just romantic catfishing Emily was doing online. She was using information about people to mess with their lives, playing people off against each other, trying to destroy relationships.
It was Machiavellian in nature. All of it.
And now Emily was missing.
He knew the case could disappear within seconds if Emily’s body was found with a likely cause of death being suicide. It would change everything he was looking at.
Mark made his way over to DI Bennett’s office and filled her in on what he’d discovered. She hummed and hawed over the social media information, but seemed to perk up when Emily’s writing in her personal notepad was mentioned again.
‘Go over the notebook in more detail,’ DI Bennett said, motioning towards the book in a new evidence bag on her desk. ‘And also find out who missed it in the first place. Who doesn’t look under the mattress, I ask you? Sometimes I wonder about this lot.’
‘Easy mistake to make, I suppose,’ Mark replied, half-heartedly. It’s not like they were all friends out in the bull-pen, but he imagined there was a nervous sergeant or – more likely – a lowly uniform who had made that mistake. ‘At least we have it now. More likely than not, it’s probably not going to give us much anyway. From a quick scan of it, it’s just private complaints. Nothing to suggest outside involvement or anything like that.’
‘Still, it could prove useful. An insight into her mindset, that type of thing. I don’t think we’re going to get much further tonight. You can knock it on the head for now.’
Mark stood up, turning his back and walking towards the door. He had one hand on the handle before the DI spoke again.