Oh, Nick was good, I had to give him that. In another world, I would have admired him. I had done similar things. I too had been the eyes watching from the shadows, a victim of the relationship between my husband and his wife. I too had conspired, and sneaked, and manipulated. But only in the hot bloodlust of grieving revenge. Not this cold-blooded calculation. I wondered how far back his plan stretched. Getting her out of London, that was surely part of it. Maybe he’d even thought it would work, the move. Make her realise what she had with him, make her love him again. Or did the possibility of this plan graze his mind even then, in case she didn’t comply?

I pulled aside my curtains and gazed across the lane at Willow Cottage. How well do any of us know our neighbours, what goes on behind those lighted windows and locked doors? I hadn’t even known the man I shared my life with. I thought I knew about Suzi, but in truth so much of her life was obscured to me. I had tried to know Nick, to ferret out his secrets, but there he was just feet away and I couldn’t reach him. More snow was falling, obscuring the cold air, fogging up the glass. Soon the lane would be impassable again, and that meant Nick might not go to work. Which meant I couldn’t get in to help Suzi. She was over there, I was sure, locked up in the dark hole of the earth, her screams soundproofed away. He needn’t have bothered with that. Aside from me, who was there to hear? Who would even miss her if she didn’t leave the cellar for months? He’d managed to make sure she had no one even looking for her.

Oh, I had to hand it to him, he was really very good indeed.

Suzi

Suzi

Upstairs, the light of the house hurt my eyes. I felt like some mole creature, pulled from the ground. The bathroom was so clean, with not a drop of water or a stray hair anywhere. Perhaps Nick wanted to show me how easy it was to house-keep.

‘Five minutes,’ he said, trying to sound tough. ‘Just a quick one.’

‘My hair takes longer,’ I pointed out. ‘Look how greasy it is.’

The thick red mop was already matted and dirty. I felt disgusting. Nick had marched me to the door of the bathroom, so there had been no time to grab anything, and anyway, there was nothing lying about. The hall table was empty, the vases and pots that normally sat there gone. Perhaps he knew what I’d been planning. Despair hit me – how could I out-think someone like this, who’d watched my every move for months now?