Chapters (81)
- Cover
- About the Author
- Dedication
- Prologue
- 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
- Fifty-six
- Fifty-seven
- Fifty-eight
- Fifty-nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-one
- Sixty-two
- Sixty-three
- Sixty-four
- Sixty-five
- Sixty-six
- Sixty-seven
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Read More
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Follow Merilyn online
- Dedication
‘The one to Joanne was, the length of the Connor call suggests not.’
‘So why would the killer be calling Joanne?’ He held up his hand to stop her correcting him. ‘I know. We don’t know it’s the killer yet. But we’ve been working with the assumption that Joanne is in on this somehow, and she wouldn’t call herself.’
‘So maybe she isn’t our killer.’
‘But the killer knows her and Connor. So there’s definitely a link.’
‘Looks that way, yes.’
‘Could she have hired the killer? Maybe the call was to confirm that Joanne wanted her to go ahead?’
Carla considered this for a moment. ‘Could be. I’ll request financial records for her, see if she made any big withdrawals around the time of his death.’
‘Good.’ Bremer looked down at the call data. ‘Anything to link the phone number to someone called Mary?’
‘Impossible to say until I do a check on it. But there are no other calls from this phone to anyone else, so if this is our Mary, she’s very good at covering her tracks.’
‘Not as good as she thinks.’ He pointed to the screen.
‘Yeah, well, that’s the other thing. This investigation has been as sterile as they come. No forensics, limited call data. It looks like whoever murdered Connor knew what they were doing, so why make such an obvious mistake?’
Bremer considered the screen. ‘Run it through the Telephone Unit and tell them to do it on the hurry-up. If this is our killer, I want to know who it is ASAP.’
Thirty-six
Then
It takes us three weeks to pluck up the courage to go and visit Alf. We know he’s been questioned by the police because they told us not to go near him. What we don’t know is what he’s going to do about it.
We hold hands as we walk across the beach.
‘He’s going to be so mad,’ Aoife says.
‘Do you think he’ll …’ I stop talking.
‘Have found other girls?’
I nod.
‘Don’t be silly. He’ll have been pining for us – how could he not!’ She laughs and drags me across the beach towards the wall, where we sit and share the McDonald’s we picked up on the way. Aoife dips chips into my strawberry milkshake while I eat the Filet-O-Fish I only got because it reminds me of Mum. We watch the wind pick up the sea.
‘Do you think he’ll hurt us?’ I ask despite our silent vow not to speak about the things he does to us we don’t like.
Aoife looks unsure and runs her finger over the scar on her wrist. A scar that wasn’t there before Alf.