Sarah J. Harris - The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018

Copyright © Sarah J. Harris 2018

Cover design: Claire Ward © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018

Cover photograph @ Shutterstock.com

Sarah J. Harris asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008256371

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008256388

Version: 2018-11-28

For Darren, James and Luke

Love also to Mum, Dad and Rachel

‘I could tell you my adventures – beginning from this morning,’ said Alice a little timidly: ‘but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.’

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Lewis Carroll

synaesthesia

noun

1.physiology a sensation experienced in a part of the body other than the part stimulated

2.psychology the subjective sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated. For example, a sound may evoke sensations of colour

Collins English Dictionary

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

1. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Afternoon

2. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Still That Afternoon

3. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Evening

4. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Still That Evening

5. 17 January, 7.02 A.M.: Blood Orange Attacks Brilliant Blue And Violet Circles on canvas

6. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Later That Evening

7. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Morning

8. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Later That Morning

9. Mum’s Story

10. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Afternoon

11. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Still That Afternoon

12. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Still That Afternoon

13. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Later That Afternoon

14. 18 January, 6.50 A.M.: Marmalade With Cobalt Blue And Crimson Stars on paper

15. 18 January, 3.31 P.M.: Sky Blue Meets Cool Blue on canvas

16. Nan’s Story

17. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Evening

18. 18 January, 9.02 P.M.: Out With The Old And In With The New on paper

19. Wednesday (Toothpaste White): Later That Evening

20. Thursday (Apple Green): Morning

21. 19 January, 3.18 P.M.: Award-Winning Sky Blue on paper

22. 22 January, 7.02 A.M.: Pandemonium on canvas

23. Thursday (Apple Green): Afternoon

24. 22 January: Dirty Sap Circles on paper

25. 27 January, 4.30 P.M.: Blue Teal And Fir Tree Green on canvas

26. Thursday (Apple Green): Still That Afternoon

27. Thursday (Apple Green): Still That Afternoon

28. 28 January, 5.03 P.M.: Sky Blue Saving Blue Teal on paper

29. Thursday (Apple Green): Still That Afternoon

30. 6 February, 10.04 A.M.: Sky Blue With Muddy Ochre, Cool Blue And Sapphire on canvas

31. 8 February, 9.13 A.M.: Finding Blue Teal Ruined By Aluminium Giggles on paper

32. Thursday (Apple Green): Later That Afternoon

33. 12 February, 7.39 P.M.: Glittering Neon Tubes Harassed By Scratchy Red on canvas

34. Friday (Indigo Blue): Morning

35. 13 February, 8.22 A.M.: Parakeets Disturbed on paper

36. Friday (Indigo Blue): Still That Morning

37. 12 March, 2.23 P.M.: Parakeets Feeding Babies on canvas

38. 24 March, 7.02 P.M.: The Death on paper

39. Friday (Indigo Blue): Afternoon

40. 31 March, 8.01 A.M.: Baby Parakeets on paper

41. Friday (Indigo Blue): Evening

42. 5 April, 1.32 P.M.: Blue Teal Mist Paints Over Sky Blue on paper

43. 6 April, 5.13 P.M.: Sky Blue Paints Over Cool Blue on paper

44. Saturday (Turquoise): Morning

45. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 10.30 A.M.

46. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 10.43 A.M.

47. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 11.01 A.M.

48. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 11.23 A.M.

49. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 11.39 A.M.

50. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 12.15 P.M.

51. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 2 P.M.

52. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 3.10 P.M.

53. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 3.43 P.M.

54. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 4.10 P.M.

55. Interview: Saturday 16 April, 4.24 P.M.

56. Dad’s Story

57. Sunday (Apricot): Morning

58. Sunday (Apricot): Afternoon

59. Monday (Scarlet): Morning

60. Monday (Scarlet): Afternoon

61. Monday (Scarlet): Later That Afternoon

62. Monday (Scarlet): Still That Afternoon

63. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Morning

64. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Afternoon

65. Tuesday (Bottle Green): Later That Afternoon

Epilogue: Three Months Later

References

Acknowledgements

Discover more

About the Author

About the Publisher

BEE LARKHAM’S MURDER WAS ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged, silver icicles.

That’s what I told the first officer we met at the police station, before Dad could stop me. I wanted to confess and get it over and done with. But he can’t have understood what I said or he forgot to pass on the message to his colleague who’s interviewing me now.

This man’s asked me questions for the last five minutes and twenty-two seconds that have nothing to do with what happened to my neighbour, Bee Larkham, on Friday night.

He says he’s a detective, but I’m not 100 per cent convinced. He’s wearing a white shirt and grey trousers instead of a uniform and we’re sitting on stained crimson sofas, surrounded by cream-coloured walls. A mirror’s on the wall to my left and a camera’s fixed in the right-hand corner of the ceiling.