Love Me to Death
Page 26
On Cage Hill, the thick grasses glistened with dew and a small clay figure sat up among the long grasses on the side of the hill. It was dressed in an olive-green satin shirt and black stitched trousers, and the blonde hair glinted under the first shaft of morning light. The wind moved in waves through the grasses and over the fields, taking hair from the little doll with it. It was as much a part of this place now as the tiny purple flowers that peppered the landscape. The clay figure stared at Mr Anderson with unblinking eyes as he looked down at it from the hill.
It had watched Paula Garrity’s final moments too, sat in a chair in the corner of the cellar – the hate and acceptance in her eyes as he’d taken out his tools to complete his work. The pale mouth and cherry lips were slightly open and the eyes wide, frozen in a moment. The detail was precise, even down to a single painted freckle on the neck and the chipped crimson nails.
Now, as Mr Anderson stood high up on the ridge of the medieval deer park he knew that this was his best work. It was everything he’d wanted and more, and as the first light cast a shadow on sundials of The Cage, he felt a sense of completion.
Mr Anderson breathed in the air, fresh with the scents of spring, before he walked back across the ridge. He smiled with satisfaction as he turned his back on the clay figure on the ground, the tuft of blonde hair, barely visible among the thick coarse grasses.
Mr Anderson walked down the hill, towards the lime trees that lined the road and glanced over his shoulder at the old hunting lodge before it disappeared from view. The sky was crimson, and the sunrise had tinted the side of The Cage in shades of pink. Before he left, he stood for a moment to remember the beautiful picnic with his mother and wondered if this would have made her happy. He hoped so, although he’d never be sure. As he made his way out of the park and caught sight of the deer through the trees, there was one thing that Mr Anderson could be certain of. Family was everything.
Acknowledgements
I’ve got lots of good memories from times spent at Lyme Park over the years, so a big thanks goes to all the people who make it such a wonderful place to visit.
I would like to thank my agent, Luigi Bonomi, and all at LBA Books for your support and guidance.
Thanks too go to everyone at Aria Fiction, in particular to my editor, Rhea Kurien, for all her help and invaluable insight. Much appreciation goes to Dushi Horti for all her work on the copy edits, to Claire Rushbrook for the proofread and to all the team at Aria who have worked so hard on this book.
To the wonderful friends, colleagues and family who have encouraged and supported me with my writing – of which there are so many – I am hugely grateful to you all. Special thanks go to Jane Wolfenden and Derek Luddem for keeping me going.
Thank you to all my writer friends. Thanks in particular to Lou Minns for listening to my ramblings and for helping me through the writing process.
My biggest thanks of course, go to Paul (for everything) and to my two favourite people in the world, Mary and Sam, for always making me smile. I love you very much.
About the Author
SUSAN GEE is a crime writer from the North West, and lives in Stockport with her husband and two children.
She was a finalist in the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition and the Daily Mail ‘Write a Best Seller’ Competition. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester University.
Love Me to Death is her second novel.
To see more from Susan, you can find her on Twitter @SusanGeeWriter.
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