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
I’m on the floor. I try to tell Joanne I can’t breathe, but all I can do is cough up sand, over and over until the beach is underneath me.
An arm is round me. Aoife? I move my head a little and there she is, wrapping the blanket over my shoulders, saying soothing words I can’t hear but whose sound feels like a lullaby.
‘Forgive me, Aoife?’ I ask.
‘I forgive you,’ a voice whispers in my ear. Tears fall onto the sand, the cold steps back a little, and in the sound of her voice I close my eyes.
Sixty-three
‘I need to know the dates Eve Graham had off for maternity leave or sickness.’
The HR officer listed four occasions when Eve had spent time off work, then read out a fifth.
‘Oh, no, cancel that one. It was wrongly inputted as sickness rather than firearms training.’
Carla stopped writing. ‘Firearms training?’
‘Yeah, but it was four years ago, so she wouldn’t be authorised to have a gun now.’
‘Why would a forensic specialist need firearms training?’ She said it more to herself, but he replied.
‘How should I know? All it says was it was authorised and she spent three days in training.’
‘Which officer authorised it?’
‘Um, hold on. OK, here it is. PS Graham.’
Oh God, Gerry, what did you do?
What possible need could Eve have had for firearms training? Unless he’d felt Mary was such a threat to her that he wanted to make sure she could protect herself? And then, of course, what point would there be in training to use a firearm without having one to fire?
‘Bremer?’
Bremer came to his office door. ‘Helicopter arrived?’
‘I don’t know, but I think we may have a problem. I think Gerry or Eve may have access to a firearm—’
Before she had finished speaking, Bremer was on the radio to Nell.
‘DS Jackson?’
‘Come in, Control.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Still in the OP.’
‘OK, don’t leave until I get you armed backup. Carla has found reason to believe there may be a firearm at the address. You are not to enter the premises until armed response have arrived. I repeat, you are not to enter the Graham address until I give the go-ahead.’
‘But, sir –’ the whir of helicopter blades sounded in the distance, ‘– the helicopter has arrived. If we’ve only got five minutes of light to work with, we won’t have time to wait for armed response.’
‘Armed response will be there in five minutes. You are not to enter, whatever happens.’ Bremer’s face was tense. ‘Do you understand, Sergeant?’