[Detective Rutherford Barnes Mysteries 04] • The Chalk Man

Barnes finally has the family he always longed for. But someone is coming for them . . .

Detective Barnes crouches down by the body near the seafront. Male, mid-twenties. The face is blue-white, mouth stretched open in a silent yawn.

Suddenly his eye is caught by an abrupt movement. A woman has fallen over on the pavement opposite. ‘Looks like someone’s feeling crook,’ says Howlett, his detective constable.

Then Barnes sees another person collapse nearby. A young man, fit. He hasn’t tripped. His body starts to convulse on the ground.

As panic spreads through the crowd, Barnes’s mobile rings. It’s Tamsin, his normally unflappable partner.

‘Barnes . . .’ She sounds frantic. ‘It’s Maggie.’

Barnes goes cold. ‘What about her?’

‘She was supposed to be at rugby practice. But she never showed up. She’s . . . she’s missing.’

Barnes knows his stepdaughter has been taken — and he has a very bad feeling about who’s responsible . . .