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
‘I’m in trouble, Clodagh. The TV show has been axed. The producers aren’t willing to go ahead until the killer’s been found and charged. That’s why I was back early yesterday. I’d gone to London for one last-ditch attempt to get them to change their mind. They wouldn’t budge. No one wants to work with me with this cloud hanging over our heads.’
‘You’re hurting me,’ she said. ‘You need to let go of my arm.’
He looked down, as if he hadn’t realised he was holding her.
‘Sorry.’ He dropped his hand and took a step back. ‘All the way home yesterday, I’d been thinking of how I was going to tell you. When you weren’t there, I started to panic that I was going to lose you along with everything else.’
‘You haven’t lost everything else,’ she said. ‘It’s one TV programme, Adam. So what?’
‘It’s not just that. My publisher isn’t returning any of my calls or emails. I’m due to renew my contract next month. I don’t think that’s going to happen. My next three live events have been cancelled. Everything I’ve worked so hard for; it’s all crumbling down around me. I’m scared.’
He looked wretched, but that wasn’t her problem any longer.
‘Things will work out,’ she said. ‘I’m sure they will.’
‘You really think so?’
‘Adam, you need to take a good look at yourself. You already have so much. If your work dries up for a bit, it’s not the end of the world. Take a break, relax and make the most of it. Who knows? If you stopped chasing so hard after the next thing, you might start to work out what it is you really want from life.’
‘I hate to say this,’ he said, after a moment, ‘but you talk a whole lot of sense sometimes, you know that?’
‘I know.’
‘I really think we could give things another go,’ he said. ‘We’ve got something special here, Clodagh. I don’t want to lose it.’
‘Don’t say that. Please. You promised you wouldn’t try to get me to change my mind.’
She didn’t want to be alone with him, out here on a desolate stretch of beach with no one else around.
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s head back.’
She thought he was going to refuse, but after a moment he sighed.
‘Okay. If that’s what you want.’
Back at the busy part of the beach, he insisted on ordering food and hot drinks from the cafe.
‘It’s the least I can do,’ he said, ‘after all I’ve put you through.’
She didn’t want to sit and eat with him, but it seemed churlish to refuse so she told him she’d have a bacon sandwich and some tea.