by Carla Kovach
One Left Behind
A completely gripping and addictive crime thriller with nail-biting suspense
Carla Kovach
Books by Carla Kovach
Detective Gina Harte Series
The Next Girl
Her Final Hour
Her Pretty Bones
The Liar’s House
Her Dark Heart
Her Last Mistake
Their Silent Graves
The Broken Ones
One Left Behind
Meet Me at Marmaris Castle
Whispers Beneath the Pines
To Let
Flame
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
The Next Girl (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Final Hour (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Pretty Bones (Available in the UK and the US)
The Liar’s House (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Dark Heart (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Last Mistake (Available in the UK and the US)
Their Silent Graves (Available in the UK and the US)
The Broken Ones (Available in the UK and the US)
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Epilogue
Hear More from Carla
Books by Carla Kovach
A Letter from Carla
The Next Girl
Her Final Hour
Her Pretty Bones
The Liar’s House
Her Dark Heart
Her Last Mistake
Their Silent Graves
The Broken Ones
Acknowledgements
*
To teenagers and parents of teenagers. As a teen, you’re probably battling your hormones and itching to reach for your adult freedom that is now in sight. As a parent, you may feel that you’re losing your child and you fear the dangers that you know exist in the world. You have the wisdom to advise, they are looking to explore this world in readiness of looming adulthood. This is both a difficult and exciting time for you both. I hope the transition runs as seamlessly as possible.
Prologue
Then
The librarian’s head disappears through the door marked Staff Only. That’s the moment you take your opportunity. That librarian has a bobbing head and she reminds me of one of those nodding dogs that people put on shelves in cars. It’s like her head isn’t properly attached to her shoulders.
My attention goes back to you. You think that no one can see what you’re up to but there’s little me, peering between Roald Dahl’s BFG and Fantastic Mr Fox on a shelf, watching in silence. I stand so still, I can’t even hear my own breath.
Then, you come to life. Charlotte leaves her pencil case and books on the table to go to the toilet. As soon as she’s left the library, your trembling fingers root through her pencil case until you come across her gel pens. You like shiny things: stationery, stickers, fluorescent pens. It’s all that art you do. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you taking other people’s stuff. I hold back a laugh, not wanting you to see me.
As you walk around pretending to look at books, I glance out of the window. It’s a gloomy February. There’s a fog on the horizon and a frost glitters on the ground with no sign or promise of spring. A smell of strawberry gum hangs in the air. I think that was Charlotte’s but it soon fades, only to be replaced with the damp smell that follows you around. I know your family are poor like mine and you sleep on a sofa bed in the living room. I’ve heard the other kids call you names. We have a lot in common really. Both outcasts, definitely unpopular and we both look a bit scruffy.
You pat down your clothes and glance around one more time before leaving just as Charlotte is coming back through the door. I run after you, almost tripping over my own feet to catch you up outside. ‘Hey. I saw what you did.’ With a downturned mouth, you look like you might cry. You go to hand the pens to me but I smile and push your hand away. ‘I won’t tell. I’ll never tell. We’re friends.’ That’s how it started. I don’t think you’d noticed me up until that point.
You tell me about your brother and your family. I tell you that Mum and my sister and I live with my nan at the moment. I feel we know each other better and I don’t want you to go and ignore me next time we see each other at school. I like being with you. It’s fun. ‘Do you want to come to mine for tea tomorrow?’ I know my mum won’t mind, she’s always telling me to make friends.
‘I’d love to. Sounds good. I’ll tell my mum tonight and maybe I can walk home with you after school.’ She bites her bottom lip. ‘Please promise me you won’t say anything to Charlotte. She’s so popular, if anyone finds out the whole school will be out to get me.’
‘Never.’ I make a zip motion with my finger across my lips. ‘Best friend’s pinkie promise.’ I beam a smile as we hold our little fingers up, link them and shake them. Now we’re bound together forever and I like that. It makes me feel all fuzzy. I’ve never had a proper best friend, one that I can tell everything to.
The other kids can be nasty, especially about my hand-me-downs but I like you a lot, and I don’t want to lose you, ever. You’re my new best friend and you’ll always be my best friend. I want someone to play games with, someone who’ll come over for tea and maybe sleepovers. I’ve never had a slumber party before. Maybe I’ll get to draw with your new gel pens.
‘Why didn’t you tell Charlotte about me?’ She scrunches up her nose.
‘Because you’re my
best friend and if anyone finds out they won’t talk to me either for being your best friend. The other kids hate me. They wouldn’t care that I didn’t do it, they’d blame me anyway. It’s not just that though, friends don’t tell on each other and they look out for each other. I won’t tell on you ever but you can’t tell on me either.’ I find myself staring hard at her, then I look away quickly. ‘Say it. I will never tell on you.’
She presses her lips together before speaking in her sweet voice that now shakes a little. ‘I won’t tell.’
‘Say promise.’ I stand even closer to her.
‘Okay, I do.’
‘Say it.’ Why has she gone quiet on me now?
She swallows. ‘I promise.’
I smile. ‘See, that was easy, now you have to be my best friend forever.’
One
Sunday, 1 August
The gentle sound of chirping birds sent a sharp stabbing pain through Naomi’s skull. Already it was sweltering hot and lying in a sealed canvas tent was making her stickier. She almost heaved as she inhaled the smell of vomit on the tissue that she still clutched from the night before. Never again. It had been fun at the time – so much fun. We’re going to have the best party ever, Oscar had exclaimed as he’d emptied the shopping bag of several bottles of cider. Some he’d stolen from his father’s stash and the rest had been bought from a small shop on the estate, a shop they all knew would serve them without question. They’d pooled their funds, determined to have the best night ever.
As her stomach turned, Naomi reached for her phone in an attempt to try to push the nausea from her mind but the sour taste in her mouth wouldn’t let her forget too easily. She reached into the tight pocket of her jeans and smiled as she pulled out a packet of mints and popped one into her mouth. The relief was instant. Her heart hummed as she swallowed. That crack on her phone screen wasn’t there last night. She pressed the button on the side of the phone to turn it on. Great. Not only had she broken her new iPhone, she’d used all the battery up too. Her mum was going to freak like never before. That present was only a week old and it was a reward for all her study in the run up to taking her GCSEs.
Reaching for the tent zip with shaky hands, she peered out at the ashen grass where they’d lit a small fire last night and she wondered if the others were awake. She spotted Jordan scratching his bottom, hand down the back of his trousers before he peed up a tree. She needed to pee and it was getting more urgent by the second. As she swallowed again, the roof of her mouth almost stuck to her dry tongue. Reaching for her water bottle, she shook it and threw it. Empty was no good to her. She reached into her yellow handbag, no water in there either. A glint of sunshine reflected from one of their empty bottles, almost blinding her. She knew she needed water but her bladder told her she needed to pee more. Maybe one of the others had something to drink.
‘Good morning, lazy ass.’ Jordan zipped up his fly as he headed back towards the tents.
‘What time is it? My phone has run out of charge.’ She didn’t mention that it was damaged too, opting to have it out with everyone when they were all awake. Someone must know how it happened.
‘About nine. The others are still out of it.’ He grinned. ‘You were so wasted last night, it was hilarious, especially when you tried to strip off. Elsa had to fight you to keep your clothes on.’ He scratched the ginger stubble on his chin.
She had no memory of stripping off and her clothes were intact now. As the sun beamed through a broken cloud, she winced and covered her eyes with her arm, resisting the urge to heave. Rolling the mint around her tongue, she spread its flavour all over.
‘Hangover?’ Jordan bent down and laughed as he pretended to vomit in a comedic way. ‘That was you last night. It was like that scene in The Exorcist.’ He burst into laughter. ‘So embarrassing. You kept begging Elsa to not let you get it in your hair. She was trying to hold it back as you ran around in circles like some deranged headless chicken. I filmed it. Do you want to see?’
‘Shut up and no, I don’t. Delete it now.’ She felt her face flush. A flash of recollection came back to her. Had she been crying at one point? There had been an argument and then there were the eyes in the bushes. A shiver ran through her body. She forced her fingers through her long tangled blonde hair but it didn’t make her feel more human, they simply got tangled in the lugs.
‘Soz, I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘I’m not upset and you’re not sorry.’
‘So are.’ He wasn’t, she could tell. Then he laughed and continued to make mocking vomit noises.
Naomi shook her head and shoved past him, knocking into his firm arm as she hurried towards the bushes. ‘And don’t follow me. I’m going for a piss. If I see you lurking, I’ll…’ She held up her fist and scrunched her nose. ‘I’ll break your face and that’s a promise.’ She wouldn’t have a hope in hell of hurting her rugby-playing friend but he knew she was serious. How dare he film her when she’d been suffering? That was the biggest breach of trust going. What happened at the parties was meant to stay at the parties. They weren’t meant to collect evidence of what had gone on.
His smiling eyes creased at the side. ‘Why would I want to watch you taking a piss? I already saw that last night when you pissed just there,’ he said, nodding towards her tent. He shrugged and winked before turning back to where they’d lit the fire. It was nothing more than a charred hole in the ground where they’d attempted to toast marshmallows.
Although the sun had come out bright and early, the ground was slightly dewy, or was it a little bit cold? Her flip-flop cladded feet were chilly and she felt a shiver under her vest top. Crows cawed just beyond the line of trees that surrounded them, obviously disturbed by her movement into denser woodland. She stepped over a line of ants that were disappearing into a crack in the earth below and glanced around one more time, making sure that no one was lurking. She’d already put on enough of a show last night.
This was where she’d take a pee, a few steps away from the ants. Backing into the bush a little, she took one last glance. The coast was clear.
Pulling her jeans down, she squatted and felt instant relief as the remains of last night’s cider drained out of her body. Crack – that was a branch. She stiffened. It had come from just behind a mass of foliage to her left. ‘Jordan. Shove off will you!’ Fuming, she pulled up her jeans and parted the leaves and branches but he was nowhere to be seen. ‘This isn’t funny. Come out now.’
Pushing through the branches, Naomi took another step and all she could see were close-knitted trees and bushes. Maybe she didn’t hear anything.
Another crack. Her heart battered against her ribcage. Someone had been watching her and now they were running away. Her head jolted to the left, then to the right as she swiftly sobered up. That’s when she saw something fleshy in the undergrowth. ‘Leah.’ She recognised the pink and black trainers and ran over. ‘What the hell are you doing here? Did you sleep here all night?’ Her freezing cold friend felt stiff and heavy as Naomi tried to pull her by the legs from in the dip, under the bush. Giving up, she dropped the girl’s legs and swallowed. ‘Leah?’ Kneeling down, the branches shredded her bare arms as she pushed through, then she let out a scream when she saw the blank pale face of her friend. Eyes open and protruding, a pallor to her skin and her tongue lolling and swollen. Leah wasn’t breathing.
Bile spurted from her mouth as she quickly turned to the side, then she began screaming as loud as she could. No one was coming, then there was that cracking sound again. Stumbling back, she fell onto her bottom and tried to peer through gaps in the leaves. ‘Please don’t hurt me.’ Tears began to spill down her face. She wished she hadn’t come to the party. Someone had killed Leah and now they were watching her.
Digging her nails into the hard earth, she managed to stand on her jellied legs then she ran as fast as she could, entering their makeshift camp where she screamed at the top of her voice. Oscar had now woken up. He threw his stub end to the ground and pu
ffed the last of the smoke from his mouth and then she spotted Jordan’s ginger hair emerging through the bushes.
‘What’s up with you? I bet she saw a spider.’ Oscar burst into laughter. A clump of his brown hair was kinked from where he’d slept. ‘Want a smoke?’ He offered her one of his roll-ups.
Naomi pushed the packet away. ‘I need a phone, now. It’s Leah, she’s dead.’
Two
Gina jolted awake from a deep sleep, heart pounding in time with her buzzing mobile phone that was about to fall from her bedside table. It was Sunday and she wasn’t scheduled in at work. Saving it just in time, she snatched it up and placed it to her ear. ‘DI Harte.’ Flinching at the booming of the voice, she moved it away from her ear a little.
