Were they genuine? It was her handwriting, no question. They must have blackmailed her. I heard Leggit’s words in the pub: “Old Bill are all over us.” Standing up, I felt nauseous and swallowed hard. Then I leant against the gate and vomited. My stomach was empty, the painful contractions yielding nothing but yellow bile. I looked around, wiping my mouth with my sleeve. Charlotte had reached the car. She glanced up before opening the door.
“Charlotte!” I yelled, but the car was turning around on the grass next to the stream. My cry echoed down the valley. I picked up the file and ran down the slope, slipping and falling as I went. When I reached the track I stopped, shoulders heaving. The Daimler had already disappeared around the far corner. The valley fell quiet. The barren gorse-land seemed less reassuring now, threatening even. Annalese had so often talked about this place, thick with uranium.
*
Annalese. The name was already resonating differently, a metallic hiss tarnishing its softness. You were the only woman I have ever loved, the first person to betray me. I felt very cold as I walked back down the track to the cliff edge, cold and hollow. Far beneath me the Atlantic was boiling. Seagulls were riding the up currents, close enough to touch.
Using fingers clumsy with cold, I pulled out a photo taken on the barge, and looked at it for a moment, searching her face for an explanation, for something to tell me it wasn’t true. “She was left with no choice,” Charlotte had said. “It’s important you hold on to that.” I screwed the picture up into a ball, so tight my nails dug into my palms. Slowly, one by one, I pulled out the other sheets and photos, ripped them up, and threw each one to the wind and sea.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
Acknowledgements
About J.S. Monroe
Also by J.S. Monroe
J.S. Monroe writing as Jon Stock
An Invitation from the Publisher
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Mike D for sharing his knowledge of the City, Dinah and Stewart McLennan for the Nook in Cornwall, where this book was written, and Peggy, for her lasting generosity.
JON STOCK (also known as J.S. MONROE) read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. Monroe is the author of six novels, including the international bestseller Find Me.
Find me on Twitter
Also by J.S. Monroe
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
J.S. Monroe writing as Jon Stock
Find out more
Find out more
Visit Head of Zeus now
An Invitation from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
Get in touch: hello@headofzeus.com
Visit Head of Zeus now
Find us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
Find us on BookGrail
First published in 1997 by Serpent’s Tail
This eBook edition first published in the UK in 2018 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Jon Stock (J.S. Monroe), 2018
The moral right of J.S. Monroe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
ISBN (E) 9781788548632
Author Photo: Hilary Stock
Head of Zeus Ltd
First Floor East
5–8 Hardwick Street
London EC1R 4RG
Visit Head of Zeus now