Chapters (66)
- Cover
- THE HEATWAVE
- Readers love The Heatwave
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Chapter Thirty-Six
- Chapter Thirty-Seven
- Chapter Thirty-Eight
- Chapter Thirty-Nine
- Chapter Forty
- Chapter Forty-One
- Chapter Forty-Two
- Chapter Forty-Three
- Chapter Forty-Four
- Chapter Forty-Five
- Chapter Forty-Six
- Chapter Forty-Seven
- Chapter Forty-Eight
- Chapter Forty-Nine
- Chapter Fifty
- Chapter Fifty-One
- Acknowledgements
- Keep Reading …
- The second book in Katerina Diamond’s bestselling crime series
- The third book in Katerina Diamond’s bestselling crime series
- The fourth book in Katerina Diamond’s bestselling crime series
- The fifth book in Katerina Diamond’s bestselling crime series
- The sixth book in Katerina Diamond’s bestselling crime series
- About the Author
- Also by Katerina Diamond
- About the Publisher
I change the radio station regularly as I drive, with little tolerance for anything for a prolonged period of time. I finally reach a local Devonshire radio station and my blood runs cold – I’m getting closer. My head begins to throb. I open the glove box and root around for pills of some kind. I usually keep a packet or two in there. I find a pack with just two left and I knock them back with my Coke, even though I know they won’t take the thrumming in my temples away. Nothing will until I am out of this place, until I am on my way home. Inside I already feel like I am never going to get home, that I got lucky the last time I left this place, reluctantly released from its grip into the world with the proviso that I never return. I’m breaking a pact I made with myself sixteen years ago when I first got on that bus out of town. I promised I would never go back. I told the universe that if it just let me get away then I would be a good person, if that was even possible for someone like me.
The road signs become increasingly familiar as I approach my destination. I see houses and streets from my childhood. It’s like walking through that wardrobe and into Narnia – another world entirely, one I am not supposed to be in, one that’s not meant for me. It’s too late now. There is no turning back.
Chapter Six
Time has stopped here. I am glad that the world is sleeping when I finally drive through the winding valley and the crossroads that lead into the actual town. I have walked these pavements until my feet were sore in the past. I’m hit with a wave of nostalgia I wasn’t expecting. I left abruptly and have never made my peace with it, my mind writing the town and its inhabitants off the second I was a few miles away, desperate to forget all of the things that happened, good or bad. The memories come flooding in, something I was afraid of. I drive past a bus stop that I remember sitting in with school friends and a bottle of cider, a smile creeping across my face as I remember a part of my life that I have kept buried for the longest time. I see the turning for a road where we used to live and feel every muscle in my body tense, thankful that I don’t need to drive past the house to get to where I need to go.