BooksBarbecue
Back When I Lost You
Chapters (81)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Prologue
  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. Fifty-six
  61. Fifty-seven
  62. Fifty-eight
  63. Fifty-nine
  64. Sixty
  65. Sixty-one
  66. Sixty-two
  67. Sixty-three
  68. Sixty-four
  69. Sixty-five
  70. Sixty-six
  71. Sixty-seven
  72. Epilogue
  73. Acknowledgments
  74. Read More
  75. Prologue
  76. One
  77. Two
  78. Three
  79. Four
  80. Follow Merilyn online
  81. Dedication

‘Help me lift her,’ he barks, pulling at Aoife’s jumper so her stomach, in all its milky whiteness, is revealed. The baby. I could still save the baby.

I don’t move.

‘Help me,’ he barks and I crawl quickly towards them.

‘We’re taking her to the beach.’ He starts to pull her out of the room, blood smearing the floor as he does so. He gets to the door and reaches to unlock it, and while he does I run to the kitchen and grab the knife from the counter.

Tucking it in the waistband of my skirt, I run to the door. ‘Why are we going to the beach?’

‘To bury her.’

I stand stock-still. He can’t mean that. ‘But she’s alive!’ I go to pull Alf’s arm away from Aoife, but he shakes me off.

‘She won’t be by the time we get there.’

‘But the baby?’ As soon as I say it I wish I hadn’t because it reminds him it’s there.

Alf is holding Aoife’s legs mid-air. ‘We need to get rid of it.’

I look at her swollen stomach. For eight months that baby has grown and grown. We have spent months hiding its shape as Aoife grew its fingers and toes, scared the care-home staff would find out, more terrified Alf would. And we did it, we kept it safe for this long, and so even though I have no idea how I’m going to do it, or even if I can, I’m going to save that baby and I’ll kill Alf if he tries to stop me.

Forty-one

Finding nothing more of interest in O’Brian’s phone bill, Carla was relieved to see an email from the Telephone Unit arrive in her inbox: I got you a bit more historical data, hope it helps.

Attached was call data from all the phones, but from the weeks leading up to Connor’s death rather than the one week she had analysed already. Ordering them again by phone number, she methodically checked for every number she knew: Gloria, Kelly-Anne, Connor, Eve, Joanne and her husband, Ian. Then she checked to see if any number had called this group. Half an hour later she had determined one hadn’t.

Frustrated, she took a more general look at the calls, noting all calls and texts between Gloria and Connor, then those between him and Kelly-Anne. She pictured the messages – where r u? and come home – but call data didn’t give her words, just slowly built a picture in which every piece of the jigsaw remained blurred and uncertain. She double-checked the phone-box number against Gloria’s and Kelly-Anne’s call data, but found nothing.

Switching to Joanne’s call data, she was about to do the same when a number caught her eye. The last four digits were familiar, but after checking them against all the others she drew a blank.