Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Praise for The Missing

Dedication

Thursday 5th February 2015

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Monday 11th August 2014

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Friday 22nd August 2014

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Tuesday 26th August 2014

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Thursday 25th September 2014

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Tuesday 7th October 2014

Chapter 19

Wednesday 8th October 2014

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Friday 10th October 2014

Chapter 23

Friday 24th October 2014

Chapter 24

Monday 3rd November 2014

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Tuesday 4th November 2014

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Saturday 8th November 2014

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Tuesday 25th November 2014

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Thursday 27th November 2014

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Friday 19th December 2014

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Friday 2nd January 2015

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Saturday 3rd January 2015

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Friday 16th January 2015

Chapter 55

Tuesday 27th January 2015

Chapter 56

Tuesday 27th January 2015

Chapter 57

Wednesday 28th January 2015

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

A conversation with C.L. Taylor

Book club questions for The Missing by C.L. Taylor

Acknowledgements

Author Note

About the Author

Also by C.L. Taylor

About the Publisher

Thursday 5th February 2015

Jackdaw44: Do you want to play a game?

ICE9: No.

Jackdaw44: Not sex.

ICE9: What then?

Jackdaw44: Questions. I’m bored. It’s just a bit of fun.

ICE9: …

Jackdaw44: I take it that’s a yes. OK. First question. Would you rather go deaf or blind?

ICE9: You really are bored, aren’t you? Deaf.

Jackdaw44: Would you rather drown in a river or burn in a fire?

ICE9: Neither.

Jackdaw44: You have to choose.

ICE9: Drown in a river.

Jackdaw44: Be buried or cremated?

ICE9: I don’t like this game.

Jackdaw44: It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just trying to get to know you better.

ICE9: Weird way of doing it.

Jackdaw44: I love you. I want to know everything about you.

ICE9: Buried.

Jackdaw44: Be infamous or be forgotten?

ICE9: Forgotten.

Jackdaw44: Seriously???

ICE9: Yes.

Jackdaw44: I’d choose infamy every time.

ICE9: No surprise there.

Jackdaw44: Cry at my funeral or save your tears for private?

ICE9: WHAT?!! Stop being so morbid.

Jackdaw44: I’m not. I’m just preparing you.

ICE9: For what?

ICE9: Hello?

ICE9: HELLO?

Chapter 1

Wednesday 5th August 2015

What do you wear when you peer into the barrel of a camera and plead for someone, anyone, to please, please tell you where your child is? A blouse? A jumper? Armour?

Today is the day of the second television appeal. It’s been six months since my son disappeared. Six months? How can it be that long? The counsellor I started seeing four weeks after he was taken from us told me the pain would lessen, that I would never feel his loss as keenly as I did that first day.

She lied.