The Burning Quotes
"Fumbling for it in the dark, I sideswiped it and managed to push it off the table."
"I got it at last and stabbed at the buttons until it stopped making a noise, trying to read the screen."
"I squeezed my eyes closed and wished I hadn’t added it up. Somehow, knowing the numbers made me feel worse."
"My heart was pounding. If he was dead, that was it. No answers. No trial. No justice."
"I sighed. That wasn’t great news. We hadn’t even been close to catching him, then."
"‘I hate the way they whistle and you come running.’ He sounded wide awake now, and cross. My heart sank."
"I suppressed the impulse to push him back onto his own side and hauled the sheet up instead, tucking him in."
"I was looking for shoes, my medium-heeled courts that didn’t so much as nod to fashion but hey, I could wear them from now until midnight without a twinge of complaint from my feet."
"The night air was harsh and I shivered as I hurried down the road, my hair cold against my neck."
"Somewhere an engine revved as a neighbour drove away; traffic noise was building already, even at that early hour."
"‘I’ll be there in half an hour,’ I said before I’d thought about it properly."
"I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, sighing."
"I leaned across the bed and planted a kiss on the bit of Ian’s chin I could reach easily."
"I was glad of the coat Ian had bought me, full-length and caramel-coloured in fine wool."
"‘What am I doing? What the hell am I doing?’ I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and I wasn’t talking about work."
"Her face was so very much herself in it, so very much alive, that I had always kept it as a reminder of how she’d been when I first knew her."
"Martine, my secretary. Thirty years of experience, eight shades of red in her hair."
"Martine had got the idea that I was some sort of religious zealot."
"I found myself telling her that no, I hadn’t been able to reach her, and what did she think I should do?"
"This was real. This was happening now. To me."
"She gave affection unquestioningly and unstintingly, like a dog. I couldn’t respect her because she didn’t respect herself."
"The sense of fast movement that it gave me; the sense, above all, of joy. That was her, not me."
"Who lets themselves into someone else’s flat—someone they haven’t seen for over a month—and tidies up?"
"I couldn’t imagine how he was coping with the strain."
"I could never really understand why Bex and Louise were still friends. They didn’t have much in common any more."
"She was for a good time, not a long time, if you know what I mean."
"I never liked being second best in a friendship, myself."
"I had fallen in love with it. But, in a strange way, I had never felt it was really mine."
"We were supposed to go for a drink last month. I cancelled. Couldn’t face it in the end."
"I don’t want to make the press suspicious that there are two killers—they might be if I handed it over to another SIO."
"We had a look at Mr Cope but he’s in the clear."
"Nicola didn’t catch the last tube, she got the night bus instead."
"The park isn’t on the most direct route from the bus stop to her home."
"No sign of a sexual assault but he did take a trophy—a heart-shaped locket."
"She was a nice girl, by all accounts. Gentle."
"Seventy-five, actually. And the nearest ones are here."
"He’s got to have some trick. Like Ted Bundy had the fake broken arm."
"She was killed between eleven o'clock and midnight."
"I can’t believe I’m never going to see her again."
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"It wasn't just sex—it was the lack of fuss. Seeing her was fun. Being with her was fun. It was like a holiday from the real world."
"We had been going out for a few months. Everything was going really well. He was so attentive and kind, and he's unbelievably clever."
"She said she'd tell my wife what had been going on. I realized later that getting money from me must have been her intention from the start."
"She was one of those people who was more alive than everyone else. She just glowed."
"I mean, it’s not as if I didn’t know who it was. I took him straight into my bedroom, because I wasn’t sure if Sonia was going to go back to bed."
"It’s quite a bacchanal. The roots of the celebration go right back to pagan times."
"I had an email from her when the results came out. Of course, she was disappointed with her class of degree."
"I thought she was getting a buzz out of being with me again. I mean, the sex was great. Mindblowing."
"I never, ever thought she would die before that could happen."
"Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust."
"The effort I had put in was all worth it as soon as I opened the door and saw the surprise on Gil’s face."
"I might not have felt confident, but I looked it, and that was all that mattered."
"‘It was just dinner, but then you opened the door looking like that.’ He stared down at me. ‘I’m not going to let you go, Louise.’"
"I love them. You’ll have to get to like them."
"You never accept a no if it’s not the answer you want to hear, do you?"
"‘Your promise.’ He leaned forward. ‘You are beautiful, Louise. Really, truly beautiful. Especially now that you’re not hiding behind your friend anymore."
"‘I think the truth about Rebecca was that even she didn’t know who the real Rebecca was. She was lost.'"
"‘I’ve always liked cats.’ He reached across the table, and I let him take my hand."
"‘Sometimes fear can be useful,’ I said softly. ‘Sometimes you have to run away for your own good.’"
"You’re not exactly built for the four-minute mile, are you? And Maeve has an unfair advantage with those legs."
"We’re just going to talk to her but we were right beside the park, and I’d taken out the stun gun when I saw her."
"I might just do that. I started to walk away."
"I thought you might have had enough by now. Prolonged exposure to Mum will do that for a person."
"I’ve been thinking about it before I saw her. And I’d brought the stuff with me, you know. The things I needed."
"You know all about needing to work, don’t you?"
"It was like something took over my body and I saw myself put out my hand with the stun gun in it."
"He had his fun; I had mine. Now take a hint and get lost."
"It was family only for the first bit. I came as soon as I could."
"I didn’t want to kill Rebecca, though—I need to make that clear from the start. It wasn’t a thrill for me. It wasn’t fun. I had to do it, to save myself."
"I went to great lengths to be perfect for you, to make you fall in love with me, and I think it worked, as far as you’re capable of loving anyone but yourself."
"I did laugh at that, the sound harsh and jarring even to me."
"I had never seen anything as fine as the time-worn carving on the faces of college buildings, the arc of the High Street that had the perfect curve of a strung bow, the river running grey-green under Magdalen Bridge."
"I realised very quickly, though, that I did need cash—more than I had at my disposal—to buy everything else, like clothes that didn’t make me stand out."
"She had tried everything that was available and never threw anything out. I had seen it just as more old-lady clutter but now it looked more like an untapped resource."
"And I was at Oxford, living a life I’d never dared dream of, doing something I loved."
"She broke hearts without meaning to; everyone adored her."
"I did justify it to myself on the grounds that she was in a lot of pain, all the time, as well as moon-faced from steroids, shuffling around the flat like a little grey-haired troll, snapping at the world."
"People were strange. Love was stranger still."
"Move on. Get over it in your own time and put it down to experience. There’s nothing you can do legally to punish him. He’s too clever."
"I watched him all night from behind the bar, pouring him drink after drink, seeing him flirt and freeze alternately."
"I slept well, afterwards. It was a victimless crime."
"I don’t want to talk about killing her. It was horrible."
"I went to Rebecca’s flat the next day... I didn’t want any recent contact between us."
"But I knew Rebecca’s friends thought I was her slave."
"I thought the pills would work. Why didn’t they work?"