The Burning Air (31 page)

Kerry hung up the phone then ran from the study, slamming the door behind her. The only noises inside the flat were her ragged breath and the relentless churn of the washing machine. She opened the window for the company of city sounds. A light breeze sifted the torn pages and sent them floating to the floor. She knelt to retrieve them, then impulsively clawed the paper to fragments which she gathered in her hands and carried in a loose nest to the toilet. There she let them fall. Tatters floated in the bowl, ink leaching into water and leaving trails like slow, sad smoke. She pressed the lever. The words blurred, bled blue, and were gone.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you

Pamela Dorman, Kristen O’Toole, Julie Miesionczek, Sonya Cheuse, Jennifer Tait, Langan Kingsley, Ervin Serrano, and Rachelle Mandik.

Sarah Ballard, Zoe Pagnamenta, Jessica Craig, Lara Hughes-Young, Zoe Ross, and Jane Willis.

Mike and Marnie, Dad and Sue, Mum and Jude, Helen Treacy and Jennifer Whitehead Chadwick.

I’m grateful to Phyllis and Derek at the Ottery St Mary tourist office for the warm welcome and the coffee. I hope they and their neighbors will forgive the various liberties I have taken with their beautiful town and their beloved festival, in particular breaking with hundreds of years of tradition and holding it on a Sunday to fit within the claustrophobic confines of one weekend.

Above all, heartfelt thanks to all the readers who took the time to write to me while I was working on this novel. You are the reason I finished it.

ALSO BY ERIN KELLY

The Poison Tree

The Dark Rose