Chapters (64)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Five Years Later
- 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
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Fifty-two
- Fifty-three
- Fifty-four
- Fifty-five
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Canelo Crime
- About the Author
- Also by Sheila Bugler
She hadn’t expected to fall in love with Sussex. When she first moved here from London, she missed the city. She still did, some days. But there was something about this place that tugged at her, made her feel grounded in a way she hadn’t for a long time. The soft curves of the South Downs, the white chalk cliffs, the grey-stoned shingle beaches and the strange stillness of the little country churchyards with their Commonwealth graves and squat, flint-stoned churches. She couldn’t imagine ever not wanting to live here.
She lay on her back, her face turned towards the sun and closed her eyes. As her body relaxed, she became aware of the different sounds around her. The whooshing of feathers on air when a bird flew past, the gurgling of the river and the whispering sound of the soft breeze as it rustled through the reeds on the banks of the river. All of it brutally interrupted when her phone started to ring.
She sat up and looked at the screen. If it was Adam she wasn’t going to answer. But it wasn’t Adam calling her.
‘Hey, lady. You have been missing me?’
Clodagh took two deep breaths before answering.
‘Where are you?’
‘Back home in Worthing. You want to come and visit? I am bored out of my head today. There’s nothing to do, and I spent most of my day at the police station answering their stupid questions. Now, I am alone and I’m twiddling my fingers wondering how to spend the rest of the day without going crazy out of my head. And then I think, I know what I’ll do. I’ll call my good friend Clodagh and tell her she needs to come and see me. So, you’ll come?’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you knew Robbie before the crash?’
‘Ah lady, that is a long story and not one to have over the phone. It’s why I need to see you.’
‘I can’t come today,’ she said. ‘It’s too late and I’ve got something I need to do here. Where have you been, Ivan? I’ve been worried sick about you. You can’t just disappear like that and not reply to my texts or phone calls.’
‘Ah, but I am back now and desperate to see my favourite Irish girl. If you can’t do today, how about tomorrow?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Maybe means yes. You can come to Worthing?’
‘What time?’
‘The afternoon. I’m going out tonight and will need my beauty sleep tomorrow morning.’
‘And when I see you, you’ll tell me what’s been going on with you?’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’