The Catch

by T.M. Logan

And I knew it then, as I looked Ryan in the eyes. That was the moment I realised there was something not quite right about my daughter’s new boyfriend.

‘Ryan volunteers, as a special,’ Abbie told her grandmother. ‘A special constable, with the police.’

‘I’d love to ask Abbie to marry me.’

I had just over a year to figure this guy out: enough time to find out if he was hiding anything, to be sure if my instincts were right.

I’ve got a seriously bad feeling about our daughter’s fiancé

There’s a void behind his eyes, something hidden there, something bad. I feel it in my gut.

Joyce’s excited words came back to me. A catch.

Because I’ve been stalking him online.

and I can’t believe Dad’s crying wolf again.

And yet George had now disappeared.

Having your psycho-dad stalking your fiancé and paying a private detective to dig for dirt on him.

I had lost my daughter’s trust, lost my job, and was on the way to losing my wife.

I had always taken the view that a person’s bookshelves revealed a lot about them and what kind of person they were.

it was less than two minutes from him slipping away to the moment he ran out into traffic on Central Avenue.

‘Everyone has their breaking point, Mrs Collier. Most of us won’t even know where ours falls until we’ve already crossed it.’

Almost under Ed’s feet, the moment when he had taken his last breath.

Ed had lapped it up, as Ryan knew he would.

The bitter irony of that fact would never fade, Abbie thought. Not when her dad had suspected Ryan right from the start.