BooksBarbecue
Back The Missing Wife Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. THE MISSING WIFE
  2. PRAISE FOR SAM CARRINGTON
  3. Dedication
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. 38
  42. 39
  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
  46. 43
  47. 44
  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. 49
  53. 50
  54. 51
  55. 52
  56. 53
  57. THE EPILOGUE
  58. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  59. Prologue
  60. Chapter One
  61. Chapter Two
  62. About the Author
  63. By the same author
  64. About the Publisher

An hour later and Louisa was hot, bothered and disappointed. She’d found zero evidence of a young woman disappearing around the time of the accident, or the year prior to it. Noah squirmed in his pram next to her – she only had another five, maybe ten minutes before he turned from cute baby into screaming devil child. She needed to get to the library’s café so she could warm his bottle. If he settled after, she might be able to come back and search through the archives for different years – perhaps Oliver had remembered it wrongly.

Or, perhaps Oliver had purposely given her false information. He’d said they’d agreed never to dig up the past, and now Louisa was trying to do just that. Oliver might’ve known she’d go looking. Maybe even now he knew more about her than she knew about herself.

31

THE PHOTO

Louisa had admitted defeat when she’d still failed to find evidence of a woman going missing in the Devon area during the years she’d searched – and time had run out, together with Noah’s patience, which meant she’d been unable to check other dates. Deflated from a wasted afternoon, she’d made the trip home on the bus and was now sitting on the sofa, coffee in hand, scrolling through her Facebook feed, despite promising herself she wouldn’t go on it again.

At first, she was horrified to find that she’d been tagged in a few photos from her fortieth birthday evening – inwardly cringing at the thought of what state she’d look – but then curiosity took over and she clicked on them. She studied each picture with an eye to finding Melissa in at least one of them. According to Oliver, the police said they’d looked at all the known photographs of that night and hadn’t found any with Melissa in, but she felt compelled to check herself. Her calls to a few of the people on her friends list hadn’t borne fruit – three of them saying they hadn’t seen Oliver or Melissa, two saying that they’d assumed Oliver was alone as he was so flirty. Louisa’s face had burned with what she thought was anger, but then burned further with the embarrassment that it was actually jealousy. The thought of Oliver openly chatting up her friends – or non-friends – had annoyed her.

Then there was Tiff.

Not only had Oliver been all over her that night, but she knew he’d also been to her house doing God knows what. Although she’d only seen him there yesterday, that didn’t mean that was his first visit.

It was certainly a hell of a way for a newly married man to behave – let alone one whose wife was missing. It just didn’t add up. Louisa typed out a Facebook message to Tiff:

Need to speak to you urgently.