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Back The Village Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PROLOGUE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  61. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  62. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

‘What was that all about?’ Naomi seemed as mystified as her.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Morgan said. But had Dawn’s father arrived just ten minutes later, perhaps she would have found out.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Lloyd walked around the place with careful deliberation. He knew every inch of Ivy Cottage. Every creaky floorboard, each crack in the plasterwork. The pipes that rattled when the heating was turned on and the draughts that filtered through the tiny windowpanes. But the kitchen was different now. He cast his eyes over the new designer cupboards and felt a sense of unease. It should have been a good thing, wiping away old memories, but it didn’t feel that way. If he stopped and stared for long enough, he could still see the room exactly how it had been that day. He remembered how he had checked it for blood stains, and it had lit up like a Christmas tree beneath the luminol and ultraviolet light. Not visible to the naked eye, but there just the same. At least, they had been, until he and Joanne took care of them. This was the biggest room in the house, and witness to the worst of the violence. There was more to this building than bricks and mortar. It carried a life of its own. Not one soul who’d lived here was happy, and most who left it couldn’t go quick enough. So why hadn’t the Ward family packed their bags by now? He ran his hand over the breakfast bar’s granite worktop, which was cool beneath his touch.

The vision of Susan’s marbled skin flourished in his memory, deep grooves in his psyche that could never be healed. He’d thought he knew her. In reality, she had been as much of a stranger to him as he’d been to her.

He stood in the centre of the kitchen, gazing at the bar of moonlight spilling on the newly tiled floor. At last, the storm had abated, and Lloyd’s focus floated to the past. That day, the room had been filled with the smell of baking, mingled with the tang of freshly shed blood. Did they gather here, the ghosts of the past? Crying out for a final resting place? He knew one thing. The Ward family would not sleep so easily in their beds if they knew what had happened under this roof. His breath accelerated, his chest tightening as he relived that day. The past and present were so intermingled now, it was hard to tell what was real. His hand fell to his gun. That felt real enough to him.