A True Crime by Charlotte Barnes

Author:Charlotte Barnes [Barnes, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

‘You can’t just take off whenever you fucking feel like it, Sally!’ Duke’s voice bellowed through the speaker system of my car, so loud that it had me reaching for the volume dial. It was the second time I’d turned him down and yet somehow he persisted.

‘That’s awkward, Duke, because it sort of looks like I have.’

‘Sally, I can’t– You are– This is un-fucking-believable.’

Significantly, Duke wasn’t annoyed that I’d taken off without giving him any advance notice. Duke was annoyed that I’d taken off without giving him advance notice on a day when I was meant to be showing up for a radio interview about the early reception to the book. It was sneaking up the bestseller charts across the board and everyone – apart from me, and Birdy who was also lukewarm about the news – was rapt with excitement about it. I had even caught Lena, unable to sleep in the early hours of that morning, refreshing the pages for one database and then another to see whether the rankings had shifted. I didn’t need to be excited; other people were doing a fine job of it for me.

Apart from Duke, that is, who was merely pissed off.

‘When are you coming home? How long have you taken off for, exactly?’

‘Don’t be so bloody dramatic, Duke. Jesus.’

‘Well, how am I meant to know? You’ve taken the dog with you, you might never come back as far as I know.’ Birdy grumbled in the passenger seat and I imagined her soft smug delight, at being the only thing I would care enough to take if I were ever to abscond from my daily living. ‘Are you back tonight?’

I sighed. ‘Yes, Jesus. I’m literally just going to my parents’.’

‘That’s what Lena said too!’

‘Don’t say it like it’s a conspiracy, Duke, you sound mental.’ I slowed down to exit the junction that would bring me onto the next A-road. ‘I have some stuff that I need to collect from my mum’s,’ I admitted, and then I sweetened the admission further by adding, ‘look, I didn’t want to make a thing but there’s this new project I’ve got in the works.’

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. ‘What, like a new book?’

‘It depends on whether I’ve got the materials for it.’ And whether I can track down the fucker who’s sending me threats via fan mail. There had been another letter, since the flowers. It was hand-delivered to Duke’s office again, with no distinguishable features to make it any different from the outside to any other letter in the bag that Duke’s assistant handed over to me. Yet, when I’d seen the handwriting on the envelope, I’d known:

What will you do when they find out it’s fiction?

‘Duke, are you still there?’ I considered grabbing my empty Twix packet – the breakfast of champions – and crinkling it against the mouthpiece, as though that old trick might still work.

‘Is it a sequel?’ he eventually asked, and I huffed a laugh.

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