Hold Your Breath

HOLD YOUR BREATH AN UNPUTDOWNABLE, UTTERLY GRIPPING CRIME THRILLER HELEN PHIFER BOOKS BY HELEN PHIFER Detective Morgan Brookes series One Left Alive The Killer’s Girl The Hiding Place First Girl to Die Find the Girl Sleeping Dolls Silent Angel Their Burning Graves Hold Your Breath Beth Adams series The Girl in the Grave The Girls in the Lake Detective Lucy Harwin series Last Light Dark House Dying Breath Standalones Lakeview House Available in Audio Detective Morgan Brookes series One Left Alive (Available in the UK and the US) The Killer’s Girl (Available in the UK and the US) The Hiding Place (Available in the UK and the US) First Girl to Die (Available in the UK and the US) Find the Girl (Available in the UK and the US) Sleeping Dolls (Available in the UK and the US) Silent Angel (Available in the UK and the US) Their Burning Graves (Available in the UK and the US) Beth Adams series The Girl in the Grave (Available in the UK and the US) The Girls in the Lake (Available in the UK and the US) Detective Lucy Harwin series Last Light (Available in the UK and the US) Dark House (Available in the UK and the US) Dying Breath (Available in the UK and the US) Standalones Lakeview House (Available in the UK and the US) CONTENTS Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Hear More from Helen Books by Helen Phifer A Letter from Helen One Left Alive The Killer’s Girl The Hiding Place First Girl to Die Find the Girl Sleeping Dolls Silent Angel Their Burning Graves The Girl in the Grave The Girls in the Lake Last Light Dark House Dying Breath Lakeview House Acknowledgements * PROLOGUE She strained against the ropes as they worked with their back to her, humming softly. She knew the song, it was an eighties hit that still got played on the radio, a lot. Dave liked to listen to some eighties radio station when he worked, but she couldn’t remember the title of it. He’d listened every week for all the years they’d worked together, and yet she just couldn’t think of the name. She pulled against the ropes again. They were firmly tied to the examination chair she was lying on. She moved slowly without distracting them from whatever they were doing. But they had bound her so tight that she was only giving herself friction burns, and it hurt too much trying to twist them free. She could see everything, but couldn’t scream for the awful, stinking piece of material that had been tied tightly around her mouth. It was cutting into the soft flesh of her cheeks. She would scream if she could, she would scream so loud that it would pierce their eardrums. It would serve them right. It was what they deserved, and probably not punishment enough for what they were doing to her. It came to her, they were humming ‘Sweet Dreams’ by the Eurythmics, a song her mum liked to listen to back in the day. She felt her heart break for her mum; she was in her sixties now and all alone, or she would be once they found her body. With their backs to her they looked like any normal person, and it was hard to tell if it was a guy or a girl underneath the balaclava they were wearing. Whoever it was she had no doubt they were busy working on something that was important to them. And she knew that it was going to be painful. Was this how she was going to die? Strapped to a hard chair in a freezing cold garage? She squeezed her eyes shut. They had seemed so kind, and they had nice eyes that you thought you could get to know if you had the chance. Now though, in this place they no longer looked as if you would kiss them under the mistletoe at the office Christmas party, after a glass or two of Prosecco. They turned to face her, and their eyes smiled for the briefest of moments. She realised that she’d been rambling, trying to get lost in her mind, to distract herself from what they were about to do. Now their eyes were small, black glittering orbs that gave not one ounce of warmth. It was the eyes that terrified her because there was no feeling inside of them, only hate; and she knew if she stared at them for long enough, she would die a thousand times. She decided he must be a guy, because a woman wouldn’t be this cruel, surely? He hadn’t spoken to her since she’d woken up, and she had no idea how she’d got here, what time it was or how long he’d had her tied up. It was hard to breathe through her nose now, and the panic inside of her chest made her feel as if she was suffocating, and her heart was thumping hard enough that she could feel every beat. The fear of not knowing if each painful breath may be her last was too much to bear. There was no one to notice she was missing. Her mum had been struggling with depression since her dad had died six months ago, and they didn’t always speak every day, even though they lived in the same house. Her best friend was on