I didn’t kill any of those people. I’d tell you if I had. I’ve done the work on myself. I’ve owned my past behaviour – it’s the reason I’m here now.

I’ve told you the truth. I’m one of the safe ones.

You can trust me now.

chapter 66

tom

This damn house.

I look up at the spectacular glass facade through the windscreen of my car. There’s no denying it’s an extraordinary property, but it doesn’t exert the same magnetic pull on me as it does on my wife. All this craziness only started when Millie went to view the Glass House four months ago. I suppose it’s fitting if it ends here, too.

I reread the text Millie sent me yesterday. It makes no more sense now than it did last night. I was tired then, so I didn’t question the idea that Millie had taken Peter off on an impromptu road trip to see if she could get him to open up to her about what’s going on in his head, but in the cold light of day I realise she’d never take him out of school without damn good reason. And I have no idea why her phone is located in Abingdon. Maybe Stacey took Peter there for some reason and she went after them, but that makes even less sense.

I slide my phone back into my jeans and climb out of my car. I put on a good front for Harper when she was at panic stations earlier and wanted to call the cops, but I’m rattled. Millie’s never taken Peter on one of her prison breaks before. And now Harper’s gone running off to find them, and if I don’t follow her I’m going to look like a total shit.

My alarm grows as I walk up the road. The door to the Glass House is not just unlocked, but wide open. No one leaves their front door open in London unless they’re literally walking through it – not if they don’t want to be robbed or murdered in their beds. But there’s no sign of Stacey or anyone else going in or out of the house, no signs of life at all: no shopping bags in the hall, no lights on, no TV or radio playing. I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. It just seems off.

I glance back down the street. Stacey’s yellow Mini convertible is parked a couple of houses away, which presumably means she’s here. Maybe she’s upstairs, or out by the pool, and didn’t realise she’d left the door open.

I finally screw up the courage to go inside, bracing myself for some sort of jump scare, like I’m in a teen slasher movie.