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Back The Lucky Eight Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Five Years Later
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-one
  26. Twenty-two
  27. Twenty-three
  28. Twenty-four
  29. Twenty-five
  30. Twenty-six
  31. Twenty-seven
  32. Twenty-eight
  33. Twenty-nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-one
  36. Thirty-two
  37. Thirty-three
  38. Thirty-four
  39. Thirty-five
  40. Thirty-six
  41. Thirty-seven
  42. Thirty-eight
  43. Thirty-nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-one
  46. Forty-two
  47. Forty-three
  48. Forty-four
  49. Forty-five
  50. Forty-six
  51. Forty-seven
  52. Forty-eight
  53. Forty-nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-one
  56. Fifty-two
  57. Fifty-three
  58. Fifty-four
  59. Fifty-five
  60. Epilogue
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Canelo Crime
  63. About the Author
  64. Also by Sheila Bugler

‘If she’s okay, why isn’t she answering her door?’ Clodagh said.

‘How would I know? I’m her neighbour, darling, not her guardian. If she’s not opening the door, maybe you should take the hint and leave her in peace.’

‘Or maybe something’s wrong.’

‘Now you mention it, after what happened to her boyfriend I should have considered she might be in some sort of danger. I’ve actually got a key to her apartment. She’s always losing her stuff, so she keeps a spare key at mine in case she loses hers. Although, she’s a pretty private person. I’m not sure she’d like it if we went in there poking through her things, you know?’

‘We don’t have to tell her.’

‘No. I suppose we don’t.’ The woman gave Clodagh the hint of a smile. ‘Hang on a second, then.’

She disappeared, before returning a few seconds later with a key dangling from her index finger.

‘It’s probably best if you go in first,’ she said, holding the key out. ‘Tara can be a bit tempestuous sometimes. I don’t want to get on the wrong side of her.’

Grabbing the key, Clodagh shoved it into the lock, twisted it, pushed the door open and stepped inside the apartment. Several things hit her at the same time. The open glass door that led onto the balcony. The putrid smell of faeces. Shards of green glass scattered across the white marble tiles. The soles of Tara’s bare feet, white and vulnerable. Her body, sprawled across the cream leather sofa that wasn’t cream any more, but had turned a dirty brown colour from the dead woman’s blood.

Twenty-two

Rachel and Ade sat across the table from Simon Gilbert and the duty solicitor. It was Wednesday evening. Rachel was meeting Grace for dinner later and was willing the interview to end soon so she could get away. Date nights had become a rarity since they’d started saving to buy a house. She wanted to make the most of every moment of this evening.

‘These are copies of your bank statement over the last year,’ she said, laying sheets of paper on the table so Simon could see what was on them. ‘You’ll see several payments – I’ve highlighted the ones I’m talking about – all from the same bank account. You want to tell me who these are from?’

She already knew the payments had come from Nick, but she wanted to see how much Simon would tell her.

‘I’m guessing you already know,’ he said, after a moment. ‘The money was from Nick. So what? He was my brother and he was loaded. He helped me out from time to time. There’s no law against that, is there?’