A Dark Secret: Part 3 of 3. Casey Watson

      

Copyright

      This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed or reconstructed.

      HarperElement

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published by HarperElement 2019

      FIRST EDITION

      © Casey Watson 2019

      A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

      Cover image © Clive Nolan/Trigger Image (posed by model)

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

      Casey Watson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable 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 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 e-books.

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      Source ISBN: 9780008298616

      Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008298623

      Version: 2019-03-28

      Contents

      1  Cover

      2  Title Page

      3  Copyright

      4  Contents

      5  Chapter 18

      6 Chapter 19

      7 Chapter 20

      8 Chapter 21

      9 Chapter 22

      10 Chapter 23

      11 Chapter 24

      12  Chapter 25

      13  Epilogue

      14  Also by Casey Watson

      15  Moving Memoirs eNewsletter

      16  About the Publisher

      LandmarksCoverFrontmatterBackmatter

      List of Pagesiiiiv183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227228229230231232233234235236237238239240241242243244245246247248249250251252253254255256257258259260261262263264265266267268269270271272273274275276277278279281

Chapter 18

      It wasn’t usual practice for a social worker to work with the children on their books at the weekends. Not that social work was ever just a nine-to-five job, because there were always occasions when the unexpected happened. But unless a social worker was on call, weekends were free time – well, in theory. They, like us, were always dogged by endless paperwork. It was also Easter weekend, and though we weren’t planning to make any sort of fuss (this year, Riley was going to be away with her in-laws, so it wouldn’t be much more than a quick Easter egg hunt for Dee Dee, at Kieron’s), others did, I knew. So I was extremely grateful when Colin Sampson agreed to help us out with Sam the following Saturday, so that Mike and me could go to Mrs Gallagher’s and talk about the potential upcoming respite.

We decided not to tell Sam where we were going, though. Just that Colin was coming over with an Easter egg, and wanted to spend time with him. It made sense – if either we or Mrs Gallagher changed our minds about Sam staying over with her, ignorance would be bliss; we wouldn’t find ourselves in the position of having built up Sam’s hopes only to dash them again.

      Not that we needed to. Sam was as oblivious to the business of Colin having weekends off from work as he was to the notion that what I did was ‘work’. He was on a high about Colin coming and the ‘big Easter adventure’ they were going on, and if it even crossed his mind that there was a reason for us going off for a few hours he was too busy thinking about his own day to ask me.

      ‘We’re going on a very long journey,’ he told me as he paced the carpet by the front window. He was speaking