The Babysitter (eBook)
416 Seiten
Corvus (Verlag)
978-1-83895-974-6 (ISBN)
Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to start writing psychological suspense thrillers. She has published five previous titles with Transworld: One Little Mistake, When I Find You, The Night You Left, Keep Her Quiet and Invite Me In.
Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to start writing psychological suspense thrillers. She has published five previous titles with Transworld: One Little Mistake, When I Find You, The Night You Left, Keep Her Quiet and Invite Me In.
Chapter 1
Ten years later: Monday 23 October 2023
CLAUDIA
The buzzer sounds, the door opens, and Claudia Hartman steps blinking into the outside world, the strobing effect of several cameras flashing at once a sudden and brutish welcome. Clutching a clear plastic bag containing her mobile phone, her keys and the black leather shoulder bag she came in with, she covers her face with the crook of her arm. It’s 6.30 a.m. and still dark. A chill wind whips across the prison car park. She stands with her back to the door and tries to adjust quickly to a change as seismic as birth. For a split second she’s so frightened of what awaits her that she wishes the guard would drag her back in, tell her it’s all been a terrible mistake, she should never have been freed.
The minicab driver doesn’t get out to open the passenger door; instead he waits, windscreen wipers shunting from side to side, headlights picking up the rain. Between Claudia and the car there are at least a dozen journalists, burly in their winter coats, steam puffing from their mouths. They barrel towards her, microphones held aloft, blocking the wind.
‘Claudia! Do you have anything to say to your ex-husband?’
‘Why did you change your plea?’
‘How are you going to survive on the outside when no one wants you?’
That last question comes from someone at the back, and the tone is different; it’s more personal. It’s also a question she has asked herself, a question that cuts right to the heart of her. She has a feeling of being hollowed out as she squints to see who asked it, but the flash bulbs blind her. It was a woman, though. She sees a figure holding a large black umbrella that obscures most of her face. Her chin is swathed in a scarf and she’s standing apart. She doesn’t look as though she belongs with the rest.
Claudia sways, grey with exhaustion. Her last night in the cell was peppered with yells and taunts. No one was happy that she was getting out. The women felt cheated, even though they’d spent years tormenting her. The guards offered little protection, believing middle-class Claudia Hartman considered herself better than them. They would miss the fun of taking her down a peg or two. If only she’d said what her lawyer had advised her to say sooner, it might have taken the heat out of the situation, they might eventually have got used to her and been kinder, but it took a long time to admit defeat and say the words. I am guilty. It still sticks in her craw.
She gasps, feels the cold air in her throat and marches forward, pushing against arms and coats, gagging on breath stinking of coffee and cigarettes, bacon butties and fried eggs. She reaches the car, pulls open the door and dives in.
The driver picks up an envelope from the front seat and reaches back to hand it to her. Then he pulls away, moving deliberately slowly, allowing the few who are fit enough to run alongside the car. Someone raps hard, a pale face coming out of the darkness, and Claudia shies away. Only then does he put his foot down.
He doesn’t speak. Occasionally, he raises his eyes to the rear-view mirror, gives her a hard stare before returning his gaze to the road. Her mother booked him through a local firm, so she assumes he’s used to picking up freed inmates, taking them and their smell and their miserable bags of belongings back to whatever halfway house has been organised. She wonders how many he drops off outside detached houses in neat suburban cul-de-sacs. The man is in his forties and there’s a photograph stuck to his dashboard of two little boys in school uniform.
Claudia turns her head and watches the urban landscape roll by, and her eyes widen, taking it all in, aching from the stimulation. The envelope is on her lap, under her hand. She picks it up. The name on it has been typed. Claudia Hartman. She wrinkles her brow. Could it be an invoice for the cab? That would be odd, unless it was her stepfather, Robert, who organised it and this is him being unpleasant. It would be typical of him to take a dig at her without telling Louisa, her mother. Robert had never warmed to her. Coming into her life three years after the death of Claudia’s father in the car accident that had injured Louisa, he had made her feel like the cuckoo in the nest. Even more so when Jason was born.
She hasn’t heard from her half-brother since before her conviction. In the meantime, he has married and produced two children. She’s seen the pictures: the family together in Shires Close for Christmas, playing in the garden with Grandpa Robert, building sandcastles on a beach in Cornwall. She supposes she and Jason are estranged; at any rate, she’s not going to bother him. She adored him as a child, and it hurts that he can walk away. Louisa maintains it’s his wife, Amelie, who is behind it, but Claudia doesn’t believe that. Her mother is trying to lessen the pain, but prison has a way of letting you know who your real friends are.
She opens the envelope, pulls out an A4 sheet and unfolds it. The note is typed as well. Just the one line.
You were safer inside. Outside you are dead.
She clutches the back of the driver’s seat. ‘Who gave you this?’
‘I don’t know, missus.’
‘Was it a man or a woman?’
‘Woman.’
‘What did she look like?’
‘Dunno. Ordinary. She banged on my window. I opened it and she slipped it through, then she walked away.’
Claudia sits back. Could it have been the woman who seemed out of place amongst the journalists? She folds the note, slips it back into its envelope and puts it in the plastic bag. It’s only to be expected, given that the world has been encouraged to hate her, but even so, this isn’t a good start. Who was it, though? Someone who knows her, or a stranger?
Spits of rain splay across the windscreen and chase each other to the corners. The minicab drives past Hampton Court Palace and through Bushy Park. Workers standing at bus stops look frozen. Cyclists in top-to-toe Lycra zip by. Claudia’s eyes follow the rhythmic flash of their fluorescent detailing, their revolutions matching the beat of the windscreen wipers, round and round, thwack, thwack, thwack. It’s hypnotic, and before she can blink her way back to reality, she’s back in her own car on that day, Tilly strapped in behind her. The rain has gone from steady to torrential in the five minutes since she left home, surprising her and everyone else attempting to pass through Kingston. People are hooting, frustrated. Ahead of her she sees cars climb the pavements. Behind her the traffic is at a standstill. There must be a flood where the road dips beneath the railway line. She considers her options, then swings the steering wheel hard round, grimacing as she takes the last possible left turn, even though it’s no entry, and drives home, into hell.
She mustn’t go back there. She must move forward, make the devastating lie she told worthwhile, make it up to her daughter. The thought of Tilly growing up not knowing she was stolen has always been bittersweet. People say she’s dead, because it’s impossible these days to keep a baby off the radar, but without a body, there’s no proof of that. Claudia has to keep the faith: Tilly is alive; she has been loved and well treated. If she doesn’t believe that, she will collapse under the weight of her own guilt.
She wonders what Joe is doing now. He would have been warned that she was about to be released as a matter of course. She imagines him waking next to his second wife, spooning his body against hers like he used to against Claudia’s. He’ll press his face into the crook of Sara’s neck and shoulder, blocking thoughts of Claudia, but he won’t be able to block Tilly. No matter how much he wants to put the past behind him, their daughter will make her presence felt. He gave up on Tilly, choosing to prioritise his mental well-being, and Claudia will never forgive him for that.
They turn into Shires Close. Behind them, several cars and a motorbike pull into the kerb, not caring if they’re blocking driveways. Doors fly open, men and women swarm with those who are already waiting patiently. Even more than her emergence from prison, this is the money shot: Claudia Hartman arriving at her parents’ home with her tail between her legs. She presses herself rigidly against the back of the seat, her stomach squirming.
The driver twists round. ‘You need to get out.’
She detects a note of sympathy, even though he immediately turns away and starts keying his next ride into the sat nav.
All she has to do is barge past them. They can’t prevent her from going inside. She has the key; her mother dropped it in at reception last week, when they came to visit the day before they left for an extended visit to Robert’s relatives in South Africa.
That had been an unpleasant surprise, but she got it. Robert didn’t want to be in the country when it all kicked off. Anxious to spare her mother anxiety, Claudia had insisted she would prefer to navigate the transition period alone. It was at least partly true.
‘Go on, lady. You’ll make me late.’
‘Yes, okay. I’m going.’
She pulls the handle and pushes the door open. The noise drops off and the silence bulges until it pops like an overblown balloon and they’re all shouting at once.
‘Claudia! How does it feel to be out?’
‘Hey, Claudia, over here! What have you...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 2.10.2023 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Horror |
| Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Krimi / Thriller | |
| Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen | |
| Schlagworte | Adele Parks • Andrea Mara • best thriller books 2024 • Claire Douglas • doctor foster • Domestic Noir • ebook bestseller • invite me in • Jane Corry • jane shemilt • Just between us • lisa jewell • None of This is True • one little mistake • psychological thrillers • psychological thrillers paperback • The Killing Kind • the mother • the night you left • Then She Was Gone • The Undoing • Thriller • thriller books • Thrillers • thrillers kindle books • T M Logan • top ten thriller books • twisty • twisty psychological thriller • when i find you |
| ISBN-10 | 1-83895-974-2 / 1838959742 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-83895-974-6 / 9781838959746 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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