The Facts of Life and Death (39 page)

Ruby tried her best never to think of John Trick, because whenever she did, it was of his bloody teeth bared as he hissed in her face,
I’m not your Daddy.

Eventually, she hoped that that was true.

She did think a lot about Miss Sharpe and the little horseshoe on her charm bracelet. Without it, she would never have
just known
that Daddy was a killer. She might still have believed that he would come home and take care of them.

She might even have waited with Mummy for him to do just that …

She thought about Steffi Cole too – giving her five pounds before she was murdered, just because they both loved ponies. And about Frannie Hatton, taking her nose ring out and dropping it in the car-door pocket – hoping it might help somebody else, even though she knew that she was beyond help.

And it
had
helped, thought Ruby. It had helped
her.
They had
all
helped her in their own ways – living and dead – just the way Mummy had always helped her. She could see that now.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, Ruby Trick started to think that ending up as a woman might not be so terrible after all.

Every day, she felt a little bit better, a little bit safer. A little bit more grown up.

But at night …

At night the Gut swarmed with dark sharks, and the Gore loomed, black and shiny, out of the deep green sea.

At night she woke in terror from blood-soaked dreams.

At night Ruby Trick wondered where the Devil was now.

I wrote this book during a difficult year, and would not have been able to do so without the support and kindness of Jane Gregory, Bill Scott-Kerr and Larry Finlay. Many thanks, too, to Claire Ward, Kate Samano and Stephanie Glencross for their skill and hard work, and in particular to my editor, Sarah Adams, whose enthusiasm and insight gave me hope.

Belinda Bauer
grew 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. With her first novel,
Blacklands
, Belinda won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. In 2013 she won the CWA Dagger in the Library for her entire body of work. With her fourth novel,
Rubbernecker
, she was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Belinda lives in Wales.

Blacklands
Darkside
Finders Keepers
Rubbernecker

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First published in Great Britain
in 2014 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright © Belinda Bauer 2014

Belinda Bauer has asserted her right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448170593
ISBNs 9780593072783 (hb)
9780593072790 (tpb)

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