The Triumph of Katie Byrne by Barbara Taylor Bradford Page A

door, and her mother peeped in.
    ‘Are you asleep?’ Maureen whispered.
    ‘Still awake, Mom.’
    Maureen crept into the room, sat down on the edge of the bed and smoothed her hand over Katie’s soft young cheek, her eyes overflowing with love for her daughter. ‘I’m so sorry that you’ve had to go through such an awful thing as this. It’s a terrible tragedy.’ Leaning forward, Maureen put her arms around Katie and brought her close. ‘You’re devastated, I know. We all are, but we’ll get through it somehow. You have to be strong, Katie, and very brave. The next few days are not going to be easy for you, nor the coming weeks and months. You’ll be grieving for Denise, and you must grieve. ‘Tis not agood thing to bottle grief up. That’s what I came to say…let your grief come out, take as long as you want to mourn her. And be there for Carly, she’s going to need you, Katie. She’ll need all of us, in fact, and all the help she can get.’
    ‘I know, Mom.’ Her voice was muffled, her head still pressed into her mother’s shoulder.
    ‘And there’s just one other thing…always remember that your father and I are here for you.’
    ‘I know you are, Mom.’
    Maureen released her.
    Katie lay back against her pillows, looking up at her mother, then she reached out, touched her face gently with one finger. ‘I love you, Momma.’
    ‘And I love you too, Katie mine.’
    Her mother quietly slipped out of the room and Katie closed her eyes and willed herself to go to sleep. But for the longest time she could only think about her friends, and disturbing images of them, in distress and needing her, floated around in her head…until at last she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
    Katie awakened with a start.
    She sat up in bed, looking around the room as though there were an intruder within its confines. But she was alone in the darkness, and yet something had made her come awake, sit up like this with a jolt.
    The room was icy cold. The curtains were billowingout from the window, which she had opened earlier. Throwing back the cover, she climbed out of bed and glided across the floor to close it, and then stood for a moment, staring out.
    There was a full moon in the velvet-black sky, which was clear and without clouds, and the stars were crystalbright and sparkling now that the storm had passed. How beautiful her mother’s garden looked, everything washed with silvery moonlight. Closing the window, she turned away, and as she did she thought she saw a dark image darting across the lawn and into the trees.
    Katie froze. She was unable to move, and she began to shake. What was it? A deer? Or a man?
    Not again, she thought, I can’t be seeing things again. She pressed her face against the window, staring out. But of course there was nothing, no one there. She snapped her eyes shut, then swiftly opened them again, and looked down at the garden, scanning it. There was no sign of life; it was totally deserted, filled only with moonlight and shadows.
    She was so cold her teeth were chattering, and she ran back to the bed, climbed in and huddled down, wondering what that dark flash had been. She was not really frightened, because she was here in the safety of her home with her parents and brothers, and she knew that her father had locked every door in the house.
    And yet…a sliver of fear edged its way into hermind. Was someone stalking her? And if so, who? And who had attacked Carly and killed Denise? Was it someone they all knew? She had no answers for herself.

Chapter Twelve
    Mac MacDonald pushed open the door of the autopsy room, went in, and stood just inside the door. ‘Morning, Allegra.’
    Allegra Marsh was bending over a gurney with a body on it, and she looked up, nodded. ‘Good morning, Mac,’ she answered, her voice slightly muffled by the mask she wore. Pulling the sheet up, she covered the body, then stepped away from the gurney, removing her mask and her latex gloves as she did, dropping them