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 press conference was wrapped up a few minutes later, more words shared by DI Bennett, information doled out once again. Mark held the door open for Julie and Stephanie as they walked out, away from the media, cameras still snapping pictures as they left.
Stephanie turned to him once the door was closed, wide-eyed and shaking.
‘Did that go okay?’
‘You both did excellently,’ Mark replied, a tight smile shared with them both. ‘Hopefully it’ll jog some people’s memories, get some of them thinking back on that night.’
‘Someone must have seen her,’ Julie said, quieter now, as if all her energy had been expended in there. ‘That’s all I keep thinking. Someone knows something.’
DI Bennett joined them, giving the same words of encouragement Mark had already given them. He liked to think his had a little more conviction than hers did, but by that point, he doubted Julie and Stephanie were even listening.
It was moments like these that they would play over and over in their minds later, when sleep became a distant stranger. Wondering if they could have said more, whether they had said the right things.
Whether they had done enough.
‘The girl they found yesterday near where Emily was last seen,’ Stephanie said, turning to DI Bennett now. ‘Who was she? Did she know Emily? Do you know that yet?’
‘We know who she is,’ DI Bennett replied, treading carefully, Mark felt. ‘We now have someone travelling to identify her for sure.’
‘Is it someone we know, or Emily knew?’
‘Why do you ask?’ DI Bennett said, eyes narrowing a little as she spoke.
‘It just seems weird that someone around the same age, same look, almost, would be found so close to where Emily was seen last.’
‘That’s something we’re looking into,’ DI Bennett said, shooting Mark a quick look. One he couldn’t quite read. ‘We’ll let you know if anything comes up in the investigation that is a possible link. DC Flynn here will still be leading the search for Emily.’
They seemed to buy that explanation easily. As the seconds went by, the minutes, the hours, Mark was believing less and less that there was no link between them. The proximity, the ages, the gender… too much of a coincidence. Mark took them home a little while later, driving in silence as the two women stared out at the disappearing city centre on the journey back to the estate. He didn’t stay with them long.
There were only so many times he could tell them everything was being done to find Emily and make it sound believable.
Mark pulled his car to a stop outside his house after 9 p.m. Worn out, the muscles in his body aching and begging for rest. A flash of guilt washed over him as he remembered the looks on the Burns family earlier. Like rabbits in a hundred pairs of headlights.