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Back The Imposter Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. ANNA WHARTON
  3. Dedication page
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  54. Praise
  55. THE IMPOSTER

It’s not as if Chloe hasn’t tried to look for an innocent explanation. She wondered perhaps if the police had deliberately thrown the public off the scent. Perhaps Maureen and Patrick were somehow complicit in a cat and mouse game between the police and the abductor? But she knows enough about searches for missing children from her time at the newspaper to know that information made public is the only way of ensuring their return. That is, if they are searching in the right place to start with.

Chloe had also considered that it might have been an innocent mistake. Perhaps trauma had left Patrick with some kind of amnesia – you hear about these things, she figured. But whatever had impaired his thinking then had clearly worn off now. It didn’t add up; how could he play the devoted, heartbroken father and not tell the police something so vital that might bring back his child? She thinks about their friend Josie – did she have a hunch that he had been lying all these years? Is that why she didn’t seem to like him? Chloe wonders if she could speak to her, and then remembers how unfriendly she’d been to Chloe, too.

Whatever way she looked at it, she was always left with the most sinister supposition of all: Patrick had lied to conceal his daughter’s murder. And he was allowing Chloe to pretend to be her in order to cover up the truth.

Elm House slowly comes closer. Chloe swallows. Once, twice. Her mouth feels dry. She has tried to run through the conversation she could have with Maureen, of course she has. But what’s to say Maureen would even believe her? After Angie disappeared, Patrick was her rock. Why would she believe Chloe over a man she’s been married to for nearly four decades? Chloe tells herself that if she truly believes she is her missing daughter, then she will. She has to. And then she ties herself up in knots all over again because of course she won’t, not if Chloe tells her what she’s really thinking.

Her hatred for Patrick swells inside each step. He’s done this. If she keeps his secret, he will make her as guilty as he is. She hates him for that. Hates him and fears him because if these thoughts – these suspicions – are correct, Patrick is guilty of infanticide. He is his own daughter’s killer.