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Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for The House of Whispers
  3. Title Page
  4. Note to Readers
  5. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  19. Twelve
  20. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  32. Twenty-One
  33. Twenty-Two
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  37. Twenty-Five
  38. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  39. Twenty-Six
  40. Twenty-Seven
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Thirty-Two
  46. Thirty-Three
  47. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Thirty-Six
  51. Thirty-Seven
  52. Thirty-Eight
  53. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  54. Thirty-Nine
  55. Forty
  56. Forty-One
  57. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  66. Forty-Eight
  67. Transcript of interview with Mr Rohan Allerton, husband of Abigail Allerton: 20 December 2019
  68. Forty-Nine
  69. Fifty
  70. Fifty-One
  71. Fifty-Two
  72. Fifty-Three
  73. Fifty-Four
  74. Fifty-Five
  75. Fifty-Six
  76. Fifty-Seven
  77. Fifty-Eight
  78. Fifty-Nine
  79. Sixty
  80. Priory Hospital North London: 20 December 2019
  81. Acknowledgements
  82. About the Publisher

Then suddenly the air was rent with sirens. A paramedic motorbike roared up, followed by two police cars. The air pulsated with sound. The buildings, the people, the wet road, everything lit with the flash of blue lights. In slow motion, I watched Grace stand up and I saw her mouth move as she spoke to the paramedic, her hand pulling at her hair. A policeman jumped out of one of the cars and herded people away from the bus with his arms spread wide while another marked off the scene with tape, and then it came: the panic spiralled up inside me, pressing down on my heart.

I clutched at my throat and gasped in a breath but the panic was a wave I was unable to suppress. It crushed my chest, and my mouth opened wide as I struggled to suck in air. An ambulance cleaved its way through the stopped traffic and, from the corner of my vision, I saw Grace walk slowly back towards me, her face white and her features tight. She shook her head as she saw me, then the world started to close in: darkness crept in from every angle, and I swayed. The blue lights flicked on and off, on and off. I tugged at Grace’s arm, unable to speak, unable to tell her.

‘Very sad,’ she said, and that was the last thing I heard as the world span around me and I sank to my knees.

‘Grace,’ I gasped. ‘Grace!’

Thirty-Two

When I woke on Sunday morning, my head was still echoing with the trauma of the accident, my grief for the dead woman I’d never known a palpable thing. How old was she? What did she do? Did she have a boyfriend, a husband, children? My thoughts went down the rabbit hole of her life as I pictured where she might have been going, what she was doing; how she came to be at that junction at that time; how she felt when the bus surged way too close to her; the jolt of terror when it brushed her, pushed her, knocked her down and dragged her under. I lay in bed and felt not just for her, but for her family and her friends; and for the shock of her co-workers arriving at work tomorrow to find out that their colleague was dead.