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Back When I Lost You Save as PDF
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

Adrian hesitated. ‘I’ve seen lots of people off their faces in my time.’ He gave Nell an apologetic smile. ‘But I didn’t get that sense from her. Sure, she was confused, a little agitated, but it didn’t seem to be because of something she’d taken, it just felt like something was distracting her, like she was worried.’ He gave a slight shrug. ‘Sorry, I can’t explain it. It’s just a gut feeling I had that she wasn’t high or drunk, just disassociated somehow. As if something real was bothering her.’

Nell got it, sometimes you had a feeling about a situation, even if you couldn’t describe why. Hell, it had got her out of enough scraps when she’d sensed things were about to kick off, or made her chase a lead when there was no evidence to say she should. ‘Did she give you any indication of what she was worried about? Any idea of why she might have come to the bar last night in particular?’ Nell didn’t want to lead him to say something he couldn’t naturally recall, but a little nudge in the right direction wouldn’t hurt.

‘She kept asking me if they were here yet.’ He gave another apologetic smile. ‘But that was it. She just kept repeating it, getting more and more agitated when I said I didn’t know what she meant.’ He sighed. ‘She was so small, tiny really. And even though she was dressed in old clothes, you could tell her old life was still there, like she hadn’t quite been able to let it go like the others do.’

Nell frowned. ‘Do you think she was newly homeless then?’

Adrian shook his head. ‘No, she didn’t have the same sense of shock; didn’t seem as lost as they look when they first arrive in Oxford. You know?’

She did. When she’d worked the city centre as a uniform, the thing she hated most was befriending a newly arrived homeless person – fresh with tales of family breakdown, redundancy and divorce – to come across them one month later, barely able to recognise her through the drink and drugs.

‘And she didn’t mention anything else; not a name, anything?’ Nell asked. Adrian’s eyes narrowed, thinking.

‘She said a name, a man’s, I think, but I can’t remember it.’

‘It was definitely a man’s name?’

Adrian shook his head. ‘I can’t be sure, but yes, I think so.’

Nell walked back over to Carla, who was sitting on one of the long benches, staring out at the skyline. She took a seat. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’

Carla nodded.