Page 122 of The Silent House

‘Look—’he begins, but she raises a hand to stop him.

‘Goodbye, Daniel.’

The door closes with a click. For a moment, he stares at it in panic. Then he realises and smiles.

Stupid bitch.She didn’t have the sense to remove his phone.

He goes to pull it from his pocket, only to remember, to his horror, that he has left it charging upstairs.

‘Fuck!’ he yells.

He stares at the door in blind panic. It’s locked, and he doesn’t have a key. There’s no way out. He starts to pound on it frantically.

‘Julia, wait. Please. I don’t have my phone!’

Julia drops the unloaded pistol into the carpet bag and quietly closes the front door behind her. No one has seen her arrive or leave.

Later, she’ll slip Donald’s pistol, which he uses at the shooting club, back into the safe. She pulls her phone from the bag and calls the estate agents.

‘Hello, this is Mrs Neal. I’m afraid we won’t be selling the house after all. My ex-husband had no right to put it on the market without my consent. Please remove it from your lists. I’ll collect the key in a few days.’

She knows Jo doesn’t want to bother with a house sale. Not yet.

She starts the car and smiles.

***

‘Did you shoot him?’

Julia, startled, spins around with the gun still in her hand.

‘Donald,’ she says, surprised.

‘I know that I would have done.’

He steps towards her, gently takes the gun from her hand, and places it back in the safe.

‘I didn’t use it,’ she assures him.‘But Daniel Neal won’t bother us again.’

‘You always were more sensible than I am,’he says with a smile.

Julia leans into him, grateful for the warmth of his love.

‘We have Jo, and our gorgeous grandson,’he says softly into her ear.‘That Logan guy, he’s a good chap, a hard worker. I need someone like him to help run the business. I think he’d be perfect.’

Julia smiles. But both Daniel and Donald underestimated her for years.

And the one thing a man should never underestimate is how far a mother will go for her child.

Even if that means murder.