Jessica leant closer to the window. ‘I probably was. I think a combination of you and Adam especially made me realise that other things are important.’
‘I suppose you only get one chance at life.’
Jessica peered at Bex and grinned. ‘Exactly – and I can’t wait.’
She turned back to the window just as Adam pulled out, turning right onto the road. For some reason the car didn’t surge ahead as Jessica would have expected, almost as if his foot had slipped off the accelerator. It came to a halt in the centre of the road outside the house next door. Jessica could only just see the top over the parked vehicles but had a perfect side view of Adam’s confused face. He looked both ways and then checked the mirror.
Jessica stood just as the explosion shredded its way out of the bonnet with a ferocious roar. She didn’t have time to speak, to breathe, before the car was engulfed by an inferno that erupted sideways, tearing through the metal and popping like a tin can in a microwave. The fire leapt to one of the parked vehicles but Jessica only had eyes for one: hers, where another boom signalled a second explosion that made the car bounce half a metre into the air before landing in a crackling, simmering shard of flames.
AFTERWORD
Um. Sorry about that ending. I had plenty of angry emails after I broke Jessica and Adam up in an earlier book, so lordy knows what this will bring.
I just want to make it clear that this ending wasn’t written without plenty of thought beforehand. You’ll have to trust me . . .
It goes without saying that the story here is fictional but I wanted to make that extra clear, simply because the University of Salford really does have a rowing team. Partly to avoid any confusion with reality but also to give the story a marginally better setting from my point of view, I have given them a made-up headquarters in the real Peel Park. It’s not there, so don’t go looking for it.
On a slightly similar note, the explanation of GMP’s structure is also a deliberate blend of truth and fiction.
Other than that, any other mistakes you didn’t notice are entirely mine, as ever. The ones you did spot were added in by a person or persons unknown. Honestly.
There are, as always, lots of people to thank, primarily: Nicola, Trisha, Natasha, Jodie, Susan, Sam, Stuart and Tom – they know why. These books don’t write themselves – I really wish they did – but it takes those people to take my meanderings and make them better.
Finally, a disclaimer: Jessica’s views on workmen, builders, plumbers, golfers and taxi drivers are all hers and definitely not mine. This is especially true if I need the services of a workman, builder, plumber, taxi driver or, erm, golfer.
COMING SOON
FOR RICHER, FOR POORER
The tenth book in the Jessica Daniel series
Three houses have been burgled in five weeks. The robbers barge in through the back, disable any way to contact the outside world, and then ransack everything – before distributing the stolen cash to local charities.
It might be robbing from the rich to give to the poor – but Detective Inspector Jessica Daniel is not a happy bunny. The new DCI has a whiteboard with far too many things on the ‘unsolved’ side and he wants the burglars found. Doesn’t he know Jessica has other things to do?
There’s a lottery winner who’s gone bankrupt, the homeless teenager Jessica’s taken in, a botched drugs raid, a trip to London with DC Archie Davey, and a man-mountain Serbian with a missing wife who’s been pimping out young women.
All the while, someone’s watching from the wings and waiting for Jessica to mess up. Officers are being pensioned off and booted out – with a certain DI Daniel firmly in sight.
COMING SOON
DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
The new Manchester-set crime novel from Kerry Wilkinson
‘I’m going to do you a favour: I’m going to tell you my name and then I’m going to give you thirty seconds to turn and run. If any of you are still here after those thirty seconds, then we’re going to have a problem.’
Jason Green’s life is changed for good after he is saved from a mugging by crime boss, Harry Irwell. He is then drawn into Manchester’s notorious underworld, where smash-and-grab is as normal as making a cup of tea.
But Jason isn’t a casual thug. He has a life plan that doesn’t involve blowing his money on the usual trappings. That is until a woman walks into his life offering the one thing that money can’t buy – salvation.
SCARRED FOR LIFE
Kerry Wilkinson’s debut, Locked In, the first title in the detective Jessica Daniel series, was written as a challenge to himself and went on to become a UK Number One Kindle bestseller within three months of release.
Since then, his Jessica Daniel series has sold over three-quarters of a million copies and he became the first formerly self-published British author to have an ebook Number One and reach the top 20 of the UK paperback chart.
Scarred for Life is the ninth title in the Jessica Daniel series.
Kerry is an occasional sports journalist and can frequently be spotted cycling the hills of Lancashire while trying not to be knocked off. Please drive safely around him. He was born in Somerset but now lives in Lancashire.
For more information about Kerry and his books visit:
www.kerrywilkinson.com or
www.panmacmillan.com
Twitter: twitter.com/kerrywk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JessicaDanielBooks
Or you can email Kerry at [email protected]
By Kerry Wilkinson
The Jessica Daniel series
LOCKED IN
VIGILANTE
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
PLAYING WITH FIRE
THICKER THAN WATER
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
CROSSING THE LINE
SCARRED FOR LIFE
The Andrew Hunter series
SOMETHING WICKED
The Silver Blackthorn Trilogy
RECKONING
First published 2015 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-4791-3
Copyright © Kerry Wilkinson 2015
Cover design © www.blacksheep-uk.com
Photography © Alamy
The right of Kerry Wilkinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.