*
It’s morning now, and I haven’t slept a wink. It’s a small house, and Ollie and me went to bed early – Ollie because he was tired, and me because I didn’t want to be in the same room as him.
Jack took my outburst well and barely blinked. Emma, though, looked frightened. I don’t know why.
‘Ava,’ she said, ‘please don’t think that about Jack – even for a second.’
I hate the name Ava now, because he must have chosen it.
‘Don’t call me Ava,’ I say. Emma knows nothing. She wasn’t in the car when my mother called out this man’s name.
Ollie and me slept in the same bedroom, and after a while I realised that Emma wasn’t going to come and take the other bed. There are only two bedrooms, so she must have been sleeping with him. I don’t know how she could.
Before we went to bed, Emma had tried to explain everything to me and had started to talk about what happened with my parents – what my dad did, what happened to my mum. But Jack interrupted her.
‘Leave her, Emma.’ Even he can’t get used to calling her Clare. ‘It’s been a difficult few days for her. Let’s talk in the morning.’
But I don’t want to talk.
I could hear Emma crying again last night. I didn’t catch every word, but I did hear her say, ‘I haven’t got any choice, have I?’ I don’t know what she meant.
When I finally come out of my room and go into the living room, Emma and Jack have their arms around each other, and even Ollie is included. I stand like the spare part I am, but as soon as Emma sees me she lets go of Jack and comes over to hug me. She at least had the sense not to draw me into a hug with him.
She pulls me close and whispers in my ear. ‘It’s okay, Tasha. We don’t have to stay. We’ll find somewhere else.’
I look over her shoulder and see that our bags, what little we had with us, are packed and sitting by the door. For a moment, I feel a sense of victory but I look at Emma’s face and even bring myself to look at Jack and I wonder what on earth I’m doing.
‘Do you want to go?’ I ask.
‘I want whatever you want, Tasha. You deserve to be happy.’
So does Emma. I look at Jack, knowing that my eyes are narrowed and my mouth tight, but I’m not able to change my face. ‘Sort your face out,’ Rory Slater used to say when I looked miserable, angry or stroppy, and then he would clip me round the ear. This time, nobody spoke and nobody hit me.
Jack is looking back at me. He looks sad.
Slowly, I free myself from Emma’s arms.
Still looking at Jack, I say two words. ‘Tell me.’
And he does. He tells me all the stupid things he did when he wasn’t much older than me, and how he got into a mess that he couldn’t get out of. He tells me how he discovered what the plan was for me and Mummy, and how he tried to stop it.
‘Jack was trying to save you both,’ Emma said. ‘And when the gang boss found out …’
She couldn’t finish her sentence, but I knew what she meant.
‘That’s why I had to leave England,’ Jack said, his voice soft. But I couldn’t miss the sadness on his face when he looked at Emma.
I’m quiet for a moment and I remember Mummy’s voice in the car that night. ‘Why can’t I stop?’ she was shouting.
It comes to me, slowly at first and then in a rush. She was going to stop and get out of the car. That must be what they had planned – Finn, Rory and, of course, my dad. Jack had told her not to stop. He was trying to help her. He wanted her to escape, to get away from whatever was about to happen.
She was asking him for help, she was calling to Jack to save her. And because he tried to save us, he had to pretend he had been killed. He had to lose everything and everybody he cared about.
I can’t speak for a moment when he’s finished the story. Everybody’s looking at me, not knowing what I’m going to say. Emma is leaning forwards, towards me, not touching me, but her face looks desperate. I know I have to speak – I have to make this right for everybody, not just for me. But I can only think of one thing to say.
‘What’s for breakfast, Mum?’
I look at the relief on Emma’s face and, for the first time in a very long while, I think I’ve done the right thing.
About the Author
Rachel Abbott was born and raised in Manchester. She trained as a systems analyst before launching her own interactive media company in the early 1980s. After selling her company in 2000, she moved to the Le Marche region of Italy.
When six-foot snowdrifts prevented her from leaving the house for a couple of weeks, she started writing and found she couldn’t stop. Since then her debut thriller, Only the Innocent, has become an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Amazon charts both in the UK and US. This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight and Stranger Child.
In 2015 Rachel Abbott was named the number one bestselling independent author in the UK since Amazon opened the Kindle Store five years ago, and she was also placed fourteenth in the chart which included all authors during the same period. Stranger Child was the most borrowed novel for the Kindle in the first half of 2015.
Rachel Abbott now lives in Alderney and writes full-time. Nowhere Child is a short novel that continues the story of the lead character in Stranger Child.
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Acknowledgements
Whenever I put pen to paper (or more accurately, fingers to keyboard) to start a new story, one of the highlights in the first few weeks is the research. The Internet is, of course, of huge value. But there are always those difficult questions that Google doesn’t seem quite able to answer, and for that I am delighted to have the help and support of a number of enthusiastic experts.
Top of that list has to be Mark Gray, who has once again steered me through some very tricky sections relating to the police and the law in general, only holding back on the advice when I strayed into confidential areas. As always, there are times in this short novel when I had to dispense with reality in the interests of the story, and so any and all inaccuracies are entirely mine. But thank you once again, Mark – without you I would have believed everything I see in TV thrillers.
As a short novel, Nowhere Child has had fewer early readers than usual, but a huge thanks to those who have read it – especially Judith, who read it in one afternoon and came back to me immediately with some insightful and helpful comments.
I would struggle to keep my head above water without my two excellent virtual assistants, Ceri and Alexandra. Who would have thought that VAs in Hertfordshire and Canada could work so well? But both, with their own unique style, have solved so many of the day-to-day problems of being an independently published author, and I don’t know what I would do without them. I am now blessed to have a part-time PA too. Tish helps to organise my office and my life, saves me hours of administration work each week and makes me laugh out loud when I’m supposed to be planning a murder.
I must also give a special thanks to Diana and Stephen Mellor, who have allowed me to take over another room in their wonderful fort – my home in Alderney – agreeing that it could be renovated and made into the best office that anybody could wish for.
Alan Carpenter, my jacket designer, has produced yet another wonderful cover (he knows how much I appreciate him, because I never stop telling him), once again using a photo of the beautiful Alicia – who deserves special thanks for making these jackets stand out, as does Rick Hall for such great photography.
I am often asked why, as a self-published author, I
need an agent. An agent like Lizzy Kremer, supported by the outstanding team at David Higham Associates, is invaluable. Her editorial input is second to none, and she remains an inspiration. Thanks to Clare, Laura, Harriet and Niko for their feedback and all-round support.
I’m also pleased to have a first-class copy editor – David Watson – who not only turned the edit round in record time, but also made some excellent observations that have undoubtedly helped me to polish the story.
It really has been a terrific team effort, and I continue to count myself lucky to be surrounded by the best group of professionals, friends and family there is.
Stranger Child
One Dark Secret. One act of revenge.
When Emma Joseph met her husband David, he was a man shattered by grief. His first wife had been killed outright when her car veered off the road. Just as tragically, their six-year-old daughter mysteriously vanished from the scene of the accident.
Now, six years later, Emma believes the painful years are behind them. She and David have built a new life together and have a beautiful baby son, Ollie.
Then a stranger walks into their lives, and their world tilts on its axis.
Emma's life no longer feels secure. Does she know what really happened all those years ago? And why does she feel so frightened for herself and for her baby?
When a desperate Emma reaches out to her old friend DCI Tom Douglas for help, she puts all their lives in jeopardy. Before long, a web of deceit is revealed that shocks both Emma and Tom to the core.
They say you should never trust a stranger. Maybe they're right.
BUY Stranger Child from Amazon
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
Author’s note
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
Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Stranger Child
One Dark Secret. One act of revenge.
Nowhere Child Page 12