Chapters (55)
- Cover
- ANNA WHARTON
- Dedication page
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Praise
- THE IMPOSTER
Her eyes scan the cutting, and there it is, mentioned over and over again.
Play park where Angie disappeared from
Ferry Meadows Park
Only left her for a minute
Visit to the swings
The words start to move around on the page. She drops the two halves of the cutting and they flutter down either side of her legs. She tips her head back on the mattress, staring up at the artex ceiling. The thought she had on the bus resurfaces. She pushes it away. Blinks, restarts, but it’s still there when she opens her eyes. What other explanation is there?
She sits up straight, grabbing the cuttings once again from the floor. And now when she looks at the photograph – when she really looks at the photograph – she sees something different. She doesn’t see two broken parents, each holding up the other. She sees betrayal. She sees lies. She sees that same haunted expression in Patrick’s eyes that she’d noticed in the photograph Maureen had showed her on her first night in the house. She sees Maureen’s blind faith in him. She sees the gun he keeps secret from her. She sees the room he keeps locked. She sees why he wouldn’t believe Maureen when she insisted Chloe is Angie. Because if he and Angie were never at the park that day, why had he allowed everyone to think that they were? Why had he allowed the police to comb it? Why had he been lying to everyone for nearly three decades? And the only answer Chloe can come up with is because Patrick knows what really happened to Angela Kyle.
FORTY-THREE
‘Chloe . . . is that you? I can’t . . . maybe it’s a bad line. Chloe, are you there?’
The phone lies limply in Chloe’s hand. Hollie sounds worried.
‘Chloe, speak to me. Just let me know you’re OK.’
She wants to talk to her, she really does. But where is she going to start? The beginning of it all feels decades ago now.
‘Hollie,’ Chloe says finally, her voice more of a croak. Hollie is the first person she has spoken to since Patrick dropped her off that morning. It is now nearly one o’clock. She has been sitting on her bedroom floor, combing through the discarded cuttings for hours, trying to find something – anything – that gives her an alternative explanation, one that doesn’t involve Patrick’s guilt.
‘Oh Chloe, I was worried sick for a moment, you sound terrible. Are you OK?’
Chloe nods into the phone.