The Couple at No. 9(105)

Because, you see, I no longer trust the woman I love. I found out tonight that she’d manipulated and lied to me in the worst way, and I think she has throughout our relationship. She said she loved me and, in her own twisted way, I think she does. And I have no doubt that she loves you. But tonight she has sunk to a new low. I fear that nobody walks away from Daphne Hartall with their life.

I’m writing this next to your bed as you sleep, your toadstool night-light glowing in the darkness, your eyelids flickering as you dream. I don’t want to leave you, my precious daughter. The thought of being without you hurts so much. And I never would willingly be apart from you, please know that.

Just now, after the fireworks, I thought Victor had found me. But I was wrong. When I felt brave enough to look again out of your bedroom window, I saw that the man on my lawn wasn’t Victor at all. I recognized him from the fireworks display. It was Sean. And in that moment it hit me what a fool I’d been to trust her. He resembled Victor from afar, as Daphne no doubt knew. And I suspect Daphne had told him to stand there to frighten me, to make me think Victor had found me. I think she also sent him to Melissa’s café, knowing Melissa would tell me someone was looking for me. Maybe she wanted my fear to bring us closer together, to push me into moving to the city with her. I think she knew I was having doubts about her. That I was on the verge of telling her to leave.

And I am – as they say – between a rock and a hard place. Because to involve the police would mean I’d be arrested for the murder of Neil Lewisham and you’d be taken away from me. So I have decided to stay and fight.

And if it goes wrong, if I don’t win that fight, I want you to know how much I love you. I love you more than anything in the whole world. I really have tried to be the best mother I could be. To keep you safe. I’ve made some stupid decisions. But I’m not a bad person, please believe me.

Be strong, my darling, my girl. You are not a product of me or Victor. You are your own person. Be the woman I wish I could have been, my beautiful Lolly.

All my love, for ever,

Mummy x





Acknowledgements





I started writing The Couple at No. 9 during the first lockdown when everything was so uncertain and scary. I was homeschooling two children and wondered if I would ever be able to concentrate long enough to finish a novel. The decision to set this story in 2018 when we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic, and having this other world to escape to helped me mentally, and for that it and the characters of Saffy, Lorna, Theo, Rose and Daphne will always be special to me.

This book wouldn’t have been possible without the following people. First, Juliet Mushens who is not only a brilliant, intelligent (and best-dressed) agent, but a special person, friend and fellow cat lover! There has been no one better to help steer my writing career and I feel very lucky to be part of Team Mushens. Also I’m indebted to Liza DeBlock at Mushens Entertainment for being so patient with my lack of organization!

To Maxine Hitchcock, my wonderful editor, who has made this book a thousand times better than it would have been, with her thoughtful, clever and insightful editing, her encouragement and kindness. I can’t wait for another Bath meet-up! And also to Clare Bowron – the cutting queen – for all the help on the second and third edits. A huge thank you also to the rest of the brilliant team at Michael Joseph: Rebecca Hilsdon, Bea McIntyre, Hazel Orme, Lucy Hall, Ella Watkins and everyone in Sales, Marketing and Art for all their hard work and creativity. I’m so grateful for everything you all do.

To my foreign publishers, particularly Penguin Verlag in Germany, Harper in the US, Nord in Italy and Foksal in Poland for their continued belief in me.

To my brilliant writing friends, the West Country crew, Tim Weaver and Gilly Macmillan for the Zoom calls, pub lunches, texts, laughs and advice, and to Gillian McAllister, Liz Tipping and Joanna Barnard for the funny memes and WhatsApp messages and encouragement. And to my other friends for all your continued support – I won’t list you all here for fear of missing someone out but I’m looking forward to those nights out in the future!

Thank you as always to my family and my in-laws, especially to my mum and sister for reading my drafts before they are published and my mum’s meticulous proofreading! To my husband Ty for brainstorming plot points with me and being totally honest when he feels something won’t work, and my two children, Claudia and Isaac, who I’m so very proud of. Love you all so much.

A massive thank you to Stuart Gibbon at Gib Consultancy for patiently answering my questions on police procedures surrounding decades-old buried bodies, and how detectives would treat a vulnerable suspect.

To all my readers. Thank you so much for buying, borrowing and recommending my books, and for all the social-media messages. It brightens my day to hear from you.

To the bloggers and reviewers for all your support, for the blog-tours and for taking time to read and review my books. I’m so grateful.

And finally to three amazing women who are sadly no longer with us. My great-grandmother Elizabeth Lane, my grandmother Rhoda Douglas and my great-aunty June Kennedy. All three were important women in my life and all sadly ended up with the cruel disease Alzheimer’s. And although – I’m pleased to say – they never had bodies buried in their gardens, their strength and spirit inspired me to write about Rose.





THEN