Fragile Minds
Trust no-one – not even yourself…'I think I might have done something bad. Last Friday.'When a bomb explodes outside the Royal Academy of Ballet in the heart of London, the police initially suspect a terrorist group. But the pieces don't fit and DCI Silver is struggling to find any suspects.Still recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a terrible tragedy, Claudie fears that her recent black-outs are a sign that her symptoms are returning. When her friend Tessa dies in the explosion, Claudie is gripped by the inexplicable certainty that she is involved in some way – if only she could remember.Meanwhile, Silver is shocked to find that one of the dancers from the academy – now missing in the aftermath of the explosion – is linked to his past, and the lines between his personal and professional life are starting to blur. Can Claudie and Silver get to the heart of what is real and what isn't before something terrifying happens again?A compelling read for fans of Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.
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Claire Seeber
Fragile Minds
Copyright
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.
AVON
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
FRAGILE MINDS Copyright © Claire Seeber 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable 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 ebooks.
Claire Seeber 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
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9781847562074
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2011 ISBN: 9780007334704 Version 2018-06-18
Dedication
For Fenn and Raffi, again.
All my love, always.
And in memory of my beloved grandpa,
Roy Livingstone Holmes.
Lemonade lollies forever.
Epigraph
‘Whoever takes one life, takes the world entire,
Whoever saves a single life, saves the world entire.’
The Talmud
‘No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
The natural fool of fortune. Use me well.’
King Lear, Act IV, Scene VI
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
Thursday 13th July Claudie
Thursday 13th July Silver
Thursday 13th July Claudie
Friday 14th July Claudie
Friday 14th July Kenton
Friday 14th July Claudie
Friday 14th July Kenton
Friday 14th July Claudie
Friday 14th July Silver
Friday 14th July Claudie
Friday 14th July Kenton
Monday 17th July Claudie
Tuesday 18th July Silver
Tuesday 18th July Claudie
Tuesday 18th July Kenton
Tuesday 18th July Claudie
Tuesday 18th July Silver
Tuesday 18th July Claudie
Wednesday 19th July Silver
Wednesday 19th July Claudie
Wednesday 19th July Silver
Wednesday 19th July Claudie
Wednesday 19th July Silver
Wednesday 19th July Lana
Thursday 20th July Claudie
Thursday 20th July Silver
Thursday 20th July Claudie
Thursday 20th July Silver
Thursday 20th July Claudie
Friday 21st July Silver
Friday 21st July Claudie
Friday 21st July Silver
Friday 21st July Claudie
Friday 21st July Silver
Friday 21st July Claudie
Friday 21st July Kenton
Friday 21st July Silver
Friday 21st July Claudie
Friday 21st July Silver
Friday 21st July Claudie
Friday 21st July Kenton
Friday 21st July Claudie
Saturday 22nd July Silver
Saturday 22nd July Kenton
Saturday 22nd July Claudie
Saturday 22nd July Silver
Saturday 22nd July Claudie
Saturday 22nd July Silver
Saturday 22nd July Claudie
Saturday 22nd July Silver
Sunday 23rd July Kenton
Sunday 23rd July Silver
Saturday 22nd July Claudie
Sunday 23rd July Silver
Sunday 23rd July Claudie
Sunday 23rd July Silver
Monday 24th July Claudie
Monday 24th July Silver
Monday 24th July Claudie
Monday 24th July Silver
Monday 24th July Claudie
Monday 24th July Silver
Monday 24th July Claudie
Monday 24th July Silver
Monday 24th July Claudie
Monday 24th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Claudie
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Tuesday 25th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Claudie
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Thursday 24th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Claudie
Thursday Night, 13th July Claudie
Friday 14th July: The Berkeley Square Bomb Claudie
Tuesday 25th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Tuesday 25th July Claudie
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Tuesday 25th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Tuesday 25th July Kenton
Tuesday 25th July Silver
Claudie
Read on for an exclusive short story by Claire Seeber
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Claire Seeber
PROLOGUE
There are plenty of beginnings, but only one end to my story.
At the police station in the small country town, they brought me tea and toast, but I didn’t touch it; I pushed it away. I didn’t trust them. Any of them, any more.
My feet were cut and bleeding; I didn’t care. They matched my sore hands. In my head I was still running, and the road was cold and rough beneath my naked feet and I didn’t care. The pain pushed me on. I was a streak of white light in a black surround, and then you were beside me, only you couldn’t keep up, so I leant down and carried you, light as thistledown, in my arms. No one could stop us; I would run and run and run—
Someone was behind me. I could feel my heart beating, I could hear the blood thumping in my ears, I could feel the breath squeezing through my ribs and out of me; I couldn’t outrun them.
My feet were hurting badly now and I no longer felt invincible, I could hear the sobs pushing out of me as the car slowed and a blue light flickered across the road between the sand dunes, and the sea hissed to the left of me: ‘Don’t stop, Claudie, or they will get you.’ But I was weak now, too weak—
