The Silent Friend

Alison Stockham

Description

When it comes to saving yourself, who will you betray?

Louise has a shadowy past that she wants to break free from and when she develops an unlikely friendship with Isabelle, her neighbour, she finally finds the family she’s always yearned for.

But Louise knows more about Isabelle than her new friend realises, more specifically about her imprisoned husband – and the circumstances behind his arrest.

Louise is faced with a choice: to continue lying to her only friend or tell the truth and ruin any chance she has of starting over…

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Policier
• Thriller
• Mashups
• Psychological
• Women Sleuths
• Amateur Sleuth
• Thrillers
• Suspenso
• Reino Unido
• 21st century
• Psychological thriller
• Domestic
• United Kingdom
• Psychology
• Great Britain
• Crime
• Suspense
• Noir
• Fiction
• Royaume-Uni

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781804260043
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE SILENT FRIEND


ALISON STOCKHAM
To Malcolm, for your unending support, patience and encouragement.
CONTENTS



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Epilogue


More From Alison Stockham

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Alison Stockham

The Murder List

About Boldwood Books
1
PRESENT DAY

She was alone. The water was warm and comforting as Louise lay in the bath. She adjusted position, shifting her weight to create ripples in its surface, moving its warmth over her skin in waves. She breathed in.
She listened.
Nothing.
The flat was silent. She breathed out and pushed herself completely under the surface. The sound of her own heartbeat pulsing in her ears reminded her that she was still alive. She might always be alone, but she was still here, albeit out of her depth. Suddenly a spark of terror flickered inside her without warning. She tried so hard to push the anxiety away – that constant creeping sense that something was about to go badly wrong; or had already done so but you have yet to learn exactly what. It was always there, but Louise tried to push it to the very edges of her thoughts.
Everything around you goes wrong, doesn’t it?
She squeezed her closed eyes tighter and hummed to make the voice go away. No. She was not going to let it back in. Not today. Today was going to be a good day. She pushed herself further up until her face was above the water, bobbing around her jawline like a gentle lapping tide. She rested her toes on the still-warm bath tap and sighed. The pale blue shower curtain clung to the side of the bath like a chilled second skin. The whiteness of the tiles reflected the sunshine that was streaming in through the mottled window of the bathroom and the bright blue walls made Louise feel that she was somewhere in Greece – all whites, blues and sunshine. If she thought about it, it was sort of like she was on holiday. Not that she would know. She’d never been on one.
She repositioned herself in the water, moving the not-quite-dissolved bath salt grit away from her. Whoever had lived here before had left the rose-scented bath salts in the cupboard and Louise now wondered how long they’d been there. She lay back and closed her eyes, trying to empty her mind and enjoy the peace, when, at the edges of her hearing, Louise heard a commotion. Shouting. Raised voices – some angry, some strained – shattering her peace. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, pushing herself out of the water. The coolness of the air hit her shoulders where it met the water droplets on her skin, making her shiver. She reached for the cup of tea she had left steaming on the windowsill, and as she did so, her eyes caught a glimpse of flashing blue lights and her breath stuttered as her pulse raced. Tea forgotten, she grabbed her towel, and quickly stepped out of the bath, trying not to slip on the now wet floor. Wrapping the towel around her, she rushed from the bathroom to the bedroom next door and carefully placed herself at an angle to the window where she could see but not be seen.
At a house just across the street was a police squad car, its lights still flashing despite it being stationary, the doors on the street-side flung wide open. Two uniformed officers stood on the pavement outside the house. Louise’s heart rate settled a little as she watched the scene unfold across the road.
On the doorstep was a petite woman, with long blonde hair tied up in a bun. She was talking in an agitated manner to the policewoman, who was obviously trying to calm her down. The policewoman put her hand on the woman’s shoulder only to have it shrugged away roughly. The woman looked behind her as a man, tall and muscular in that all-shoulders-and-no-neck way, was bundled out of the house by another officer, who looked as though he was struggling with this man’s bulk. The man seemed calm, as though he was cooperating with the arresting officer and reassuring the distraught woman, and yet his feet also seemed glued to the ground, making it difficult to steer him towards the waiting car.
The blonde woman looked around her, her head flicking from side to side as if expecting someone to intervene but Louise saw the curtains move at the house next door and the outline of a person step back from the bay window. If this woman was expecting her neighbours to come to her aid, it was not looking likely. Whoever lived next door was clearly interested in what was happening but not interested in getting involved.
Suddenly aware that she had stepped closer towards her own window than she intended, Louise jumped backwards and the movement must have caught the woman’s eye as her face snapped upwards and she looked what felt like directly at her. Louise froze momentarily and then stepped back into the relative darkness of the room.
Not wanting to risk being seen again, Louise walked back to the bathroom instead and surveyed the action through the frosted glass of the window there. It was just clear enough to be able to see the outline of the woman being briefly held by the outline of the man, before they were broken apart by the officers. They bundled the man into the car, placing a hand on his head to guide him into the rear seat, before closing the door, encasing him inside. The woman officer handed something, maybe paperwork or leaflets, to the woman left behind before joining her colleague in the car. They turned off the blue lights and drove away. There was a slight screech as the acceleration of the wheels grabbed at the tarmacked road and then they were gone.
Once the police had left, Louise opened the top window just enough to see better, hoping that in her distress the woman would not notice. Balancing precariously on the edge of the bath, so as to be able to get a good view but keep herself tucked out of sight, she watched as the woman stood, shocked into stillness, on her doorstep. She wrapped her arms around herself, looked up and down the street again but no one came. She looked up again at Louise’s bedroom window but finding no one there, turned and went back into her house. The street fell silent again, only the faint sounds of traffic somewhere nearby, the odd bark of a dog and the tweeting of birds in the trees. It was as if the spectacle had not happened at all.
Louise had intended to try and keep a little distance; her new flat supposed to be a space where she could regroup. She needed to know where to go from here, what to do with her life.
But. What had just happened over the road?
Mind your own business , she told herself. But at the same time, she knew that she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She had to know.
2

Telling herself that she should let the dust settle and keep away, it had been days since Louise had left the house and it showed. She’d done her unpacking, though there hadn’t been much to unpack, and the flat was slowly beginning to look like someone lived there. It didn’t matter though, no one else would see it. It had felt extravagant to buy a set of six matching cups as a house-warming gift to herself, she only needed one at a time. But now, being able to leave a cup wherever, and still have a fresh one ready for her next cuppa felt like freedom to her. She hadn’t noticed the absence of such small things before.
When, unexpectedly, the doorbell rang, Louise, still in the jogging bottoms and T-shirt that she had slept in, hair scrunched into a messy ponytail and with as yet un-cleaned teeth, froze to the spot.
Who? she thought. I don’t know anyone. Or rather no one knows me. Her mind flickered in panic as to who it could be before she realised that she had told no one where she was. The only person who knew was the letting agent and they had to give her notice if they were coming round. She felt her heart rate steady as she realised it’d likely be someone trying to sell her something she had no inclination to buy, whether that be windows or religion, and she could just ignore it until they went away. She turned to pick up last night’s socks, which were still scrunched up on the sofa where she had taken them off while watching some terrible film, when the doorbell rang again. Realising that she’d have to shoo them away, Louise tried to pull herself together. She straightened out her T-shirt, redid her ponytail – hoping it would miraculously make it looked more washed than it was – and went to answer the door.
As she walked down the cheaply carpeted stairs, her feet making the hollow space beneath echo with the reverberations of her stride, she could see the outline of her visitor through the frosted glass of the half-glazed door. It was the woman from across the street. The one whose partner had been hauled off by the police the other day. Louise’s throat went dry. Was she here to tear a strip off her for being nosy? Was she going to ask questions that Louise did not want to answer?
She was holding something that she was shifting in her hands. What was it? Aware that she’d been standing in clear sight of this woman and yet not opening the door, Louise stumbled forward and fumbled with the latch. She swung the door open too enthusiastically, its uPVC door weighing far less than her old home’s heavy wooden one and the effect was as if she had said ‘ta-da!’ as she greeted her guest. The woman smiled a little at this and it put Louise immediately at ease. The smile on her face suggested that she was not here for a fight, and if she had been, her choice of what looked like a tin