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Chapters (44)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Epilogue
  43. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  44. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

His phone rang. With an apologetic glance at me, he answered. ‘Right. Right. Right. I see, yes.’ I waited, staring at the carpet in the living room. Someone had walked in grass, crushed and oozing, and it made me think of the stains on Karen’s face, the leaves in her hair. As if her face had been pushed down into the lawn. He hung up. ‘I’m afraid there’s news from the examination. There’s evidence of semen, as well as signs of force.’

I gasped. But semen didn’t mean . . . it didn’t have to mean . . . ‘I need to speak to him. Mike. Please. I’m allowed to speak to him, aren’t I?’ I’d get him to look me right in the eyes and tell me it wasn’t true, and maybe then this fear that was eating its way up my legs would calm, and I’d be able to help Karen, be there for her like a best friend should. Was it wrong of me to ask? Did it look like I was taking sides?

‘You could take him some clothes to the station. It’s possible you might be able to speak to him, if it wasn’t about the case.’ His face had shut down. I remembered meeting him before, how friendly he’d been, telling me about his mum and how he looked after her. Adam, that was his name, I remembered now. DC Adam Devine. An Irish name, though I guessed at least one of his parents was black. Unusual in this whitewashed, wealthy town. Now he was looking at me as if I was what I felt like – a criminal.

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Mike looked like shit. He probably hadn’t slept much beyond what he’d got passed out on that swing seat, which could only have been a few minutes. I couldn’t get it straight in my head, him doing that to Karen then staggering over to the seat, sitting down cosily and falling asleep. It just couldn’t be true. They had him in the interview room, wearing a sort of cheap grey tracksuit. I imagined they’d had to take his clothes to test them. I’d be allowed to speak to him for five minutes, the duty sergeant said. He made it sound like they were doing me a kindness, because of who and what I was, and I believed it. It was amazing to me how quickly they could commandeer your life. Make it so you couldn’t leave, couldn’t eat, couldn’t go to the loo, couldn’t see your wife without their say-so. It was the same station where I had been, just hours before, a respected member of the community. It gave me whiplash, the speed with which things had changed. How could this be happening?