Mo Hayder - Hanging Hill

What if you found yourself divorced and penniless? With no skills and a teenage daughter to support? What if the only way to survive was to do things you never thought possible?

These are questions Sally has never really thought about before. Married to a successful businessman, shes always been a bit of a dreamer. Until now.

Her sister Zoe is her polar opposite. A detective inspector working out of Bath Central, she loves her job, and oozes self-confidence. No one would guess that she hides a crippling secret that dates back twenty years, and which if exposed may destroy her.

Then Sallys daughter gets into difficulties, and Sally finds she needs cash lots of it fast. With no one to help her, she is forced into a criminal world of extreme pornography and illegal drugs; a world in which teenage girls can go missing.

Two sisters intent on survival. Until one does something so terrifying that theres no way back

The funeral was held in an Anglican church on a hill just outside the ancient spa town of Bath. Over a thousand years old, the church was no bigger than a chapel, and its driveway was too small for the reporters and photographers who jostled each other for a good vantage-point. It was a warm day, the smells of grass and honeysuckle drifting across the graveyard as the mourners arrived. Some deer, which were used to coming here in the afternoons to nibble moss from the gravestones, were startled by the activity. They bounded away, leaping the low stone walls and disappearing into the surrounding forests.

As people filed into the church two women stayed outside, sitting motionless on a bench under a white buddleia. Butterflies swatted and flitted around the blooms over their heads but the women didnt raise their eyes to look. They were united in their silence in their numbness and disbelief at the string of events that had led them to this place. Sally and Zo Benedict. Sisters, though no one would know it to look at them. The tall, rangy one was Zo, the elder by a year; her sister Sally, much smaller and more contained, still had the round, uncluttered face of a child. She sat looking down at her small hands and the tissue shed been kneading and tearing into shreds.

Its harder than I expected, she said. I mean I dont know if I can go in. I thought I could, but now Im not so sure.

Me neither, Zo murmured. Me neither.

They sat for a while in silence. One or two people came up the steps people they didnt recognize. Then some of Millies friends: Peter and Nial. Awkward-looking in their formal suits, their formal expressions.

His sisters here, Zo said, after a while. I spoke to her on the steps.

His sister? I didnt know he had one.

He does.

Strange to think hed have a family. What does she look like?

Nothing like him, thank God. But shes asked if she can speak to you.

What does she want?

Zo shrugged. To apologize, I suppose.

What did you say?

What do you think I said? No. Of course the answers no. Shes gone inside. She glanced over her shoulder at the doors to the church. The vicar was standing there, talking in a quiet voice to Steve Finder, Sallys new boyfriend. He was a good man, Zo thought, the sort who could hold Sally together without ever suffocating her. She needed someone like that. He glanced up, caught Zo looking at him and nodded. He held up his wrist, tapping his watch to indicate it was time. The vicar put his hands on the doors, ready to draw them closed. Zo got to her feet. Come on. We may as well get it over with.

Sally didnt move. I need to ask you something, Zo. About what happened.

Zo hesitated. This wasnt the right time to be talking about it. They couldnt change the past by discussing it. But she sat down again. OK.

Its going to sound strange. Sally turned the bits of tissue over and over in her hands. But do you think, looking back do you think you could have seen it coming?

Oh, Sally no. No, I dont. Being a cop doesnt make you a psychic. Whatever the public wish.

I just wondered. Because

Because what?

Because looking back I think I could have seen it. I think I got a warning about it. I know that sounds nuts, but I think I did. A warning. Or a premonition. Or some kind of foresight, whatever you call it.

No, Sally. Thats crazy.

I know and at the time thats what I thought. I thought it was stupid. But now I cant help thinking that if Id been paying attention, if Id foreseen all of this she opened her hands to indicate the church, the hearse pulled up at the bottom of the steps, the outside-broadcast units and the photographers I could have stopped it.

Zo thought about this for a while. There had been a time, not so long ago, when shed have laughed at a statement like that. But now she wasnt so sure. The world was a strange place. She glanced up at Steve and the vicar, then back at her sister. You never told me about a warning. What sort of warning? When did it happen?

When? Sally shook her head. Im not completely sure. But I think it was the day the business with Lorne Wood started.

It had been a spring afternoon in early May, the time of year when the evenings were lengthening, and the primulas and tulips under the trees had long frayed and gone blowsy. The signs of warmer weather had made everyone optimistic, and for the first time in months Sally had come to Isabelles for lunch. The sun was still high in the sky and their teenage children were out in the garden, while the two women opened a bottle of wine and stayed in the kitchen. The windows were open, the gingham curtains fluttering lightly in the breeze, and from her place at the table Sally watched the teenagers. Theyd known each other since nursery, but it wasnt until the last twelve months or so that Millie had shown any interest in coming up here to Isabelles house. Now, however, they were a gang a proper little group two girls, two boys, two years apart in age, but at the same private school, Kingsmead. Sophie, Isabelles youngest at fifteen, was doing handstands in the garden, her dark ringlets bouncing all over the place. Millie, the same age, but a head shorter, was holding her legs up. The girls were dressed in similar jeans and halter-necks, though Millies clothes were faded and threadbare in comparison to Sophies.