Part Two
BELLA OSBORNE
Published by Avon an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street,
London, SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018
Copyright © Bella Osborne 2018
Cover illustration © Kim Leo
Cover design © Head Design 2018
Bella Osborne 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: 9780008258153
Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780008258122
Version 2018-05-04
For my mum – thank you.
Table of Contents
Daisy whipped open the bedroom curtains, almost expecting to see someone standing there, but all she saw was the strip of front garden and her old motorbike. What had happened? She scanned the bedside cabinet again, still in disbelief that her precious locket could have been taken. Daisy ran upstairs.
‘Um, Aunt Coral, are you awake?’ she asked hesitantly at her aunt’s bedroom door.
‘Yes, love,’ came the answer from the bathroom behind her making her jump.
‘Have you seen my locket?’ Daisy asked the bathroom door.
‘The book-shaped one you always wear?’
‘Yes,’ Daisy said, rolling her hands over and over in front of her as if trying to hurry Aunt Coral along.
‘Then yes I’ve seen it.’
Daisy felt elated as the relief washed over her. Aunt Coral opened the bathroom door and Daisy was tempted to hug her but she was brushing her teeth.
‘Where is it?’
Aunt Coral looked blank. ‘Last time I saw it you were wearing it. Have you mislaid it?’
‘No,’ said Daisy shaking her head and looking desolate. The awful sense of loss reappeared immediately gripping her insides. ‘I put it on the bedside cabinet last night but this morning it’s not there. I think it’s been stolen.’
Jason arrived quickly with a colleague carrying what looked like a large briefcase. ‘Scene of crime officer,’ he explained. ‘We’ll check the whole house for any fingerprints,
