Life has been a bumpy ride for Lily Foyle. Orphaned at six, she is adopted by an uncle later convicted of the sex slayings of three women. Detective Neil Slater believes there are more victims. He is convinced that Lily, made a ward of the Crown after the murders, is harbouring terrible knowledge of the crimes. Now a young woman, addicted to drugs and employed in the sex trade, Slater sets out with the aid of a psychologist to find out.
PROLOGUE
Something had woken nine-year-old Lily…a thumping noise and a scream…there it was again, coming from the barn. She grasped her teddy bear for comfort and crept outside. Stars blazed in an inky cavern of a sky. Her bare feet moved silently across grass wet with dew. She held her nose as she passed the pigpen, the stench was awful, she’d never got used to it. The pigs squelched in mud and grunted. The screams were getting louder now, shrill and full of terror. Lily was afraid; she knew something terrible was happening. Should she go back to the house? There was a sudden high-pitched squeal, like a pig makes at the slaughter. Curiosity won out. She crouched down by the broken slat in the barn door and peered in. There are some sights so horrible…so shocking…the human mind can’t take them in. She was found the next day huddled in the woods unable to speak.
