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Who can you ever really trust?
DI Matt Winston made his name in the force when he solved the terrible murder of toddler Jack Randall. But 5 years on, he is still dealing with the fallout from the case that made his career. Lucy, Jack’s mother, breaks off their relationship, and he finds himself battling with his old demons. But determined to get his career back on track, the Chief puts him on the murder of Kitty Lewis, a local prostitute. Matt assumes it’s another sorry, but all too common, street dispute that has turned nasty. Another nameless girl with no-one to miss her. But as he probes deeper into the case, he starts to uncover potential connections to the paedophile ring that his colleagues thought they had disbanded the previous year. Suddenly his low-profile case has the potential to send shockwaves through a community already devastated by a system that failed to protect the city’s most vulnerable girls. What really happened to Kitty the night she was murdered? There is only one person who was with her just before she died, and unknowingly, she holds the key to everything. But can Matt find her? And will Kitty’s haunting presence help her bring the killer to justice? Also available by Michelle Kelly When I Wasn’t Watching
Eyes Wide Open
Michelle Kelly HQ An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2015 Copyright © Michelle Kelly 2015 Michelle Kelly asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for 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, downloaded, 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. E-book Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9781474035484 Version date: 2018-06-27
MICHELLE KELLY
is a mother, writer and teacher from the West Midlands in the UK. She began writing for a living in 2013 and is the author of three historical romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon, including the Regency story The Rake of Glendir, the Paranormal Investigations Agency series for Xcite Books, and a cosy mystery series for St Martin’s Press in the US, beginning with ‘Downward Facing Death’ in February 2016. Eyes Wide Open is her second crime novel for HQ Digital, following When I Wasn’t Watching in 2014. For Scarlett. Because you’re not alone any more. For Sophie. Because you said those words to me when I most needed to hear them. I love you babygirl.
Contents
Chapter Three
Part Two
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Part Three
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Resources
‘I’m not afraid of the darkness outside. It’s the darkness inside I don’t like.’
(Shelagh Delaney)
You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories
(Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
Coventry, 2014
My heels jab the pavement like knives. Any other girl would be balanced precariously in these boots, tottering unsteadily even without the influence of any illicit substance, but I wear mine like weapons. One of the tools of my trade.
It’s cold out tonight, the wind lashing my thighs under the hem of my ridiculously short skirt. Another tool. For practical purposes as well as image; it makes for easy access. The other women are lined up the road like soldiers, each inhabiting their own particular spot. We all look the same in the dark; interchangeable.
And then I see her. Tottering down the pavement looking lost.
From the distance she could easily be one of us; same outfit, same big hair, too much makeup. Only when she comes closer can I see that she isn’t one of us after all, that she doesn’t have that grubby hollow-eyed look about her, or any faded bruises not quite covered by cheap concealer, or tell-tale marks in the crook of her arm. And anyway, it’s her walk that gives her away. She looks like she’s going somewhere.
I don’t know why I do it. The other girls are looking at this stranger in our ranks as if
