Chapters (43)
- Pronunciation
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- 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
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Acknowledgments
Ceit’s voice was low and husky with emotion, and they could barely hear it now above the sea and the wind. “They had gone about thirty or forty yards, laughing and whooping, when suddenly they stopped and made poor Peter kneel there in the wet sand, the incoming tide washing around his legs. And I saw blades flashing in the moonlight.” She turned to look at them, reliving every awful moment of what she had witnessed that night. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I kept thinking that maybe Johnny and me had met up after all, and made love, and that I was lying sleeping in the grass, and that this was all some dreadful nightmare. I saw Johnny trying to stop them, but one of them hit him, and he fell into the water. And then that man started stabbing Peter. From the front, while the other held him from behind. I saw that blade rise and fall, blood dripping from it each time, and I wanted to scream out loud. I had to stuff my hand in my mouth to stop myself.”
She turned away again to look across the sand towards the water, the moment replaying itself in gut-wrenching detail.
“Then the one behind drew his blade right across Peter’s throat. A single slashing movement, and I saw the blood spurt out of him. Johnny was on his knees in the water screaming. And Peter just knelt there, his head tipped back, until the life had drained out of him. It didn’t take long. And they let him fall, face-first, into the water. Even from here, I could see the froth of the waves turn crimson as they broke. His killers just turned and walked away as if nothing had happened.”
Fin said, “You recognized them?”
Ceit nodded. “The two surviving Kelly brothers from that terrible night on the Dean Bridge in Edinburgh.” She looked at Fin. “You know about it?”
Fin tilted his head. “Not the whole story.”
“The eldest brother fell to his death. Patrick. Danny and Tam blamed Peter. Thought he had pushed him.” She shook her head in despair. “God knows how they found out where we were. But find out, they did. And came looking to avenge their dead brother.” She gazed out across the beach.
Almost as if mirroring the moment, nature turned the sea the colour of blood as the sun sank on the horizon.