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

Carla stared at him. Was he serious? She knew he hadn’t minded causing a few stirs in his six months with them, but this was a whole other level.

‘Do you have a problem with Carla meeting Joanne?’ Bremer held Nell’s stare and the office atmosphere shifted. Nell put the keys on the desk.

‘With all due respect, analysts don’t go out on jobs, they stay here and do our research.’

Carla flinched inwardly. What Nell had said was true, in part, but it didn’t stop the tone she’d delivered it in from stinging. Carla had been out on jobs – looking at crime scenes so she could better judge the evidence she was to analyse – but she hadn’t sat in on an interview, merely watched an untold number via video link. But then Bremer was new to Thames Valley, arriving after ten years in the Met, and maybe they did things differently in London; maybe it was standard procedure to take an analyst along for the ride? But then this wasn’t the Met and Carla wasn’t in London.

‘I think Nell’s right. I’ll just stay here and do some digging on Joanne, Kelly-Anne and Connor.’

Bremer swung his eyes to her. ‘I want an analyst’s eye on the Fowler woman, so what better way than to be there with me?’ His eyes held a challenge Carla didn’t feel she could match. If he wanted to buck the trend of all other DCIs she’d worked for, then so be it, but she was damn well going to have a cigarette first.

She picked up her bag, stuffed her tobacco pouch in it, and said, ‘I’ll meet you by the car, shall I?’ Carla felt Nell’s eyes on her as she walked towards the door, but what was she supposed to do, refuse? Her palms were sweaty before she’d even left the building, and as she pulled out a cigarette paper she realised her hands were shaking.

‘Get it together, Brown,’ she said into the empty stairwell and by the time she’d surfaced into the blistering heat, she’d half convinced herself it was all going to be fine. She licked the paper and rolled her cigarette in a single move. Squinting in the glare of the sun, she put her sunglasses on, lit up, and waited for Bremer.

The car ride to Joanne’s home address was awkward. At least, for Carla anyway. As the green field by the airport – behind which was tucked an asylum detention centre – turned into a long, bare village sliced in half by a dual carriageway, Carla tried to ignore the silence and wondered what it was going to be like to meet the woman she’d researched.