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Back The Jump Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. BOOK ONE
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. BOOK TWO
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. BOOK THREE
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Chapter Forty-Three
  51. Chapter Forty-Four
  52. Epilogue

Hearing the whine in his voice, observing the complete shock on his face, Carol snapped. She launched herself at him, seeing the pictures in the books in her mind’s eye, knowing that he’d made those books possible. As she attacked him the venom spewed out of her. She felt a strength born of hatred and resentment spill out and move into her arms. She dragged him, shouting and hollering, along the passageway and opening the front door, she slung him over the step on to the pathway.

She could hear Jamie crying in the background, could hear the lonely sobs of her child as she stood at the top of the stairs, watching all that was going on, woken by the raised voices and frightened of what was happening. But Carol ignored her daughter.

Stalking back into the front room, she picked up the cases and threw them out on to the lawn; Davey’s leather jacket followed suit. Then, with one last look, she slammed the door in his beseeching face and walked steadily up the stairs, where she picked up her youngest daughter and held her tightly.

The child she had had at forty-one to keep Davey at home.

The child she loved more than any of the others.

And sitting at the top of the stairs with Jamie on her lap, she cried bitter tears.

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Two

Georgio was awake long before the rest of the prison stirred.

He lay in his bunk thinking over the events of the day. Twenty-four hours from now, he would be on his way over to Ireland. Vida would be waiting for him, and he would disappear off the face of the earth, his money with him. He smiled in the dimness of the morning light that was trying to force weak tendrils through the curtains on his window. He felt the rush inside himself at the thought of what he was going to do; felt the fear and the excitement welling up inside him.

He heard the clanging of doors that denoted the changeover from night staff to day staff, then the early-morning calls from different cells, the laughter and the coughing fits. The sounds of a prison - sounds he would never forget, and never experience again after today. Knowing this, he almost savoured the noises, capturing them in his memory to keep with him and replay when he was lying on a warm, sun-drenched beach.

He was ready and waiting with his toothbrush when his cell door was opened, and as he ambled along to the shower he grinned pleasantly at Big Ricky, who grinned back, a wide, blank-eyed grin that gave Georgio a feeling of fear which he suppressed. In less than two hours, the day would be turned into a nightmare for screws and nonces alike. He couldn’t wait.