The Missing Husband: a tense psychological suspense full of twists

had to do, to save her family and that was all there was to it. And, as time went on, she had almost made peace with it, had almost found happiness again despite everything, when that knock on the door finally came.

And now she had no idea what she was going to do.

28

Claire and Kate

Six months later

Claire shook the estate agent’s hand. He smiled warmly at her and pocketed the keys that she had just given him.

‘Bonne chance, mademoiselle,’ he said, and she smiled back and turned away.

She had got a decent price for her dad’s house in France. A British couple had fallen in love with it at first sight and had made an offer that same day. They wanted to relocate from London and start a B&B. They were going to live the life that Claire had dreamed of for herself and Pete. But that dream hadn’t come true and she had finally come to accept that it never would. It was time to let go.

At first she had waited for news from the police, convinced that Pete was out there somewhere and would come back to her. She had stayed in that crappy little hotel in north London for three weeks, waiting for answers, but there was nothing. She kept calling for updates, only to be told the same thing each time. They would be in touch if there were any developments. In a moment of madness, she even considered getting in touch with Kate but she knew that it would be pointless – she doubted that she would agree to talk to her. Eventually, she decided to go back to France and wait there instead. Every day she had willed the police to call and say that they had found Pete, that there was an explanation for his disappearance. They had been very kind to her but they had no leads, no clues as to where he might be. He had disappeared off the face of the planet. Eventually they had contacted her to tell her they had not found any suspicious circumstances surrounding his disappearance. He was a grown man who had chosen to disappear. It happened. The case would remain open, they said, and they would be in touch if there were any developments.

Up until then she had still clung on to the hope that he would simply turn up one day and knock on her door, with some crazy explanation for what had happened. Perhaps it had all got too much for him and he needed some time out to think it all through. In her dreams, he always came back to her, not to Kate.

Something still niggled at her, something not quite right about the whole story. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Was it the wife? Did she know more than she was letting on? The police didn’t seem to think so. Dan definitely didn’t think so. They had spoken on the phone a few times and she had called him to tell him that the investigation had reached a dead-end for now.

‘Thanks for letting me know, Claire,’ he’d said. ‘What will you do now?’

‘I don’t know,’ she’d replied. ‘It still doesn’t feel right, there has to be an explanation. A man can’t just disappear off the face of the planet like this.’

Dan had sighed heavily. ‘I understand how you feel, Claire, but I think Pete was a troubled guy, way more troubled than any of us really knew, and he had been living with the guilt of this double life for so long. Perhaps he just ran away from it all.’

‘Have you spoken to Kate?’

‘We’ve been in touch a couple of times. She’s doing as well as can be expected. This whole thing was such a blow to her – she’d only just come to terms with the fact that Pete was leaving her for you and then she had to process this new information.’

‘Do you think she knows more than she’s letting on?’

‘About Pete? No, definitely not. I spoke to her after he first went missing and she was absolutely distraught. There’s no way she could have been pretending, she has no idea where he’s gone – that I know for sure. If that’s what you think, Claire, you’re barking up the wrong tree, I’m telling you now.’

‘Where do you think he went?’

‘I really don’t know. I’ve tried and tried to think but I just can’t.’

‘Do you think he’ll ever come back?’

‘I like to think so, I mean, he’s got two children for goodness’ sake. Surely he’ll see sense eventually and turn up. I really wouldn’t be surprised.’

And that was when she had realised the truth of it all. She was alone – it was Kate who would get everyone’s sympathy and support, not her. And if Pete ever did turn up again it wouldn’t be for her, it would be for his children. All this time she had been waiting for him but she would always be second best. And she didn’t want to be second best. It was time to close the book on the whole sorry story and start afresh. Screw Pete Garland and his midlife crisis. Screw his wife. Screw them all.

So she had put the house on the market and started planning her new life, starting with a one-way ticket to Australia. She was going to go travelling for a while and see where the world took her. She had a very healthy bank balance now thanks to the sale of the house and she had no ties to anywhere. She was done with trying to settle down, it always ended in heartbreak. She had been right all these years to rely only on herself. Pete had been a temporary blip in her life but she was on her own again now, as she had always been. Perhaps she’d bump into him somewhere – maybe on a beach in Thailand or surfing in Byron Bay. Maybe he was