Belinda Bauer - Darkside

This is the job you were meant to do, Jonas .

He closed his eyes and swayed.

Marvel was to receive a posthumous Queen’s Commendation for bravery.

‘He was drunk, of course,’ added Reynolds from the hallway. ‘But they’re hushing that up.’

Here was the bed where he would sleep alone for ever.

Here was the bathroom, all nice and shiny.

Here was the laundry basket. Empty.

Here was the mirror.

Jonas stopped his slow inspection and stared at himself.

Lucy had said there was somebody inside him who wanted her dead.

He couldn’t see it in his eyes. He turned his head towards the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the intruder while he wasn’t looking directly at himself.

Nothing.

He went downstairs.

‘Thanks,’ he told Reynolds.

‘Will you be OK?’

Never, thought Jonas, and said that he would.

Jonas remembered how to say goodbye and held out his hand. Reynolds shook it, looking suddenly tearful. He leaned forward and pulled Jonas into a clumsy embrace, slapping his back awkwardly.

‘We’ll get him, Jonas,’ he said vehemently. ‘Don’t you worry. We’ll get him.’

No, thought Jonas. You won’t.

Many thanks to Gill Bauer and Simon Cryer for being my first and best readers.

Also to Sarah Adams, Marysue Rucci and Stephanie Glencross for their invaluable editorial input, and my agent, Jane Gregory, for her support and boundless enthusiasm.

If you would like to know more about the strange world explored by Darkside , please visit my website,

www.belindabauer.co.uk

Belinda Bauergrew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters. Darkside follows Belinda’s critically acclaimed debut, Blacklands , winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She lives in Wales and is currently working on her third novel.