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
After the detectives left on Monday, she’d fallen apart. When the police liaison officer had turned up later that afternoon, Tara had been relieved to see her. But the next day, she couldn’t stand having her in the apartment and she’d sent her away. The last thing she’d needed was some nosy police officer watching her while she sobbed and ranted.
The trauma never left her. The fear and anxiety and suffocating guilt was always there, lying beneath the surface, waiting. As soon as she let her guard down and started to believe she could move forward with her life, it resurfaced. Instinctively, her fingers trailed the scar that ran from her knee to midway up her thigh. A legacy of the crash that had also left her with a slight limp. The only outward sign of what had happened.
There’d been no warning, no sign at all that the plane was about to crash. As they were coming in to land, there was the normal announcement from the cockpit: ‘cabin crew prepare to land.’ The seatbelt lights came on and the plane started its descent. The first moment of uncertainty came when it rose abruptly, instead of landing. Tara remembered looking at the other passengers, wondering if any of them had noticed something was wrong. But none of them seemed too bothered. Then the plane circled and came back into land a second time. And the screaming began.
Tara had been on holiday with her two best friends, Monica and Jessie. Three privileged girls from wealthy families with good genes and wealth and a lifetime of privilege to look forward to. Then, suddenly, all of it was gone in the blink of an eye.
She lifted her glass, the wine golden and green in the afternoon sunshine. She’d been drinking solidly for the last hour. So far, the alcohol had done nothing to take away the emptiness of her grief or the burning heat of her anger. All of it underpinned with fear. She’d got used to having someone in her life to take care of her. With Nick gone, she was alone again and the idea terrified her. She didn’t have a job, and the little bit of money she had saved up wouldn’t last more than a few months. Her parents had made it clear that she couldn’t live off them forever. It wasn’t fair. All this unnecessary anxiety because someone had killed the one person who really loved her and wanted to look after her.