BooksBarbecue
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

There was a future in this room, she thought, feeling the headache spread to the right side of her head. Digging out a tired-looking sheet of pills from an inside pocket, she popped two and swallowed them dry. A future for all three of them – so what had happened to make Georgie’s mum and dad take that future from her?

Two

Nell paused outside the door to the front room, one hand pressed against the cream-painted wood. She stared at the floor, letting her mind go blank, emptying it so the first impression of the parents would be more vivid. She wanted to see what Eve had seen; to find out from the get-go if her instincts mirrored those of the pathologist.

As Nell opened the door she could see Paul in the centre of the room, seated on a threadbare sofa. Opposite him sat Kelly-Anne Wilson and Connor O’Brian on two aged and mismatched chairs.

First thought – why weren’t they sitting together? Nell had never seen bereaved parents do anything other than cling to each other, so tightly they almost appeared to be one rather than two.

Second – Connor was at least twenty years older than Kelly-Anne. Not a problem in itself, but the girl looked barely legal.

Nell took a seat next to Paul.

‘I know this is really upsetting for you,’ he was saying as the young woman silently cried, ‘and I’m sorry to have to ask these questions at a time like this.’

A time like this. If Nell had a pound for every time she’d heard those words. She scanned the room: walls, like the hallway, stained with smoke and age; crumpled cans of lager on the table; an overflowing ashtray, which, despite being next to an open window, left the air heavy with the smell of stale cigarettes. There had been no thought given to the blind hanging loose from its fittings, she concluded, or the table ringed with cup marks, or the sofa Nell now sat on. In fact, the whole room was as devoid of care as the child’s room had been full of it.

She turned back to the parents. Kelly-Anne’s face was blotched red with tears and her hair was scraped up into a high ponytail typical of the teenage girls Nell saw on the estates of Oxford. She wore a light grey vest top that had probably once been white, with a pair of pink towelling shorts, and her bare feet were curled in on themselves, as if hiding. Christ, what was she, seventeen?