I make my way to the front of the house again and stop when I hear a car in the distance. We live on a lane with no name at the top of the village, there is rarely any traffic, and I wonder if I flag down the driver whether they might be able to help me. But what would I tell them? What could I possibly say that wouldn’t make me sound crazy? What I really need to do is contact the police. There is a small police station in Hope Falls—housed inside a former fisherman’s cottage—but I doubt it is staffed twenty-four hours. This place isn’t exactly a hotbed of crime. Harrison is clearly doing this against his will, which must mean that the woman is dangerous. If I had my phone I’d dial 999, but without it, running to the police station seems like my next best option.
I don’t need to.
The sound I heard was a police car, and something like instinct makes me stay in the shadows as it pulls into the drive. I crouch down in the darkness and watch as a uniformed police officer makes his way to the front door. He looks too young, too handsome, and surely too inexperienced to handle the situation. Like a child playingdress-up. I wait and watch as Harrison opens the door, then I listen to him lie.
“I’m sorry to have called you but we didn’t know what else to do. There was a woman banging on the door, insisting that she lives here,” my husband explains to the police officer. “She seemed confused and unstable. She threatened my wife.”
I’m his wife.
I never knew my husband could lie like this.
Hearing him do so makes me feel unsteady on my feet.
The young officer nods his pretty head, runs his hand through his floppy hair, then scribbles something in his notebook before asking for their names.
“I’m Harrison Woolf and my wife is Eden Fox.”
That’s my name, not hers.
An angry voice inside my head tells me to march over there and say something. Demand that he tell the truth. But a calmer voice tells me to stay hidden, keep quiet for now, try to understand what is going on here.
“And you’ve never seen this woman before?” the officer asks.
“No. Never,” Harrison says, and the lie is so convincing I almost believe it myself. “My wife and I only moved in a few weeks ago and this area felt so safe until now.”
“I assure you Hope Falls is one of the safest places to live in the county. Lowest crime rates in all of Cornwall,” the child police officer tells him proudly, as though he is personally responsible for this statistic. He seems to believe everything Harrison is telling him, but why wouldn’t he? My husband has outsmarted him, but then my husband outsmarts everyone, that’s just who he is.
“Would it be possible to speak to your wife?” the officer asks Harrison then, and I experience a tiny glimmer of hope. “It would be helpful to get a description of the woman from both of you.”
“I’m afraid my wife suffers from migraines and has had to takesome pills and lie down. Tonight was supposed to be a happy occasion—her first art exhibition—but being threatened on her own doorstep by a woman who is clearly unhinged has left her feeling a bit out of sorts.”
The officer nods. “I understand—”
“But in terms of a description, the woman was petite, thirty-something, with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. She was dressed all in black. I only saw her briefly and that’s all I can remember.”
My head is spinning.
My chest hurts as though my heart might actually be breaking.
Why is my own husband pretending not to know me?
“We’ll get to the bottom of this. Try not to worry. Like I said, this is a very safe area, and just to make sure things stay that way, we actually have a new senior detective starting tomorrow,” the officer says.
“Well, perhaps I could talk to him?” Harrison asks. He’s a man who always wants to deal with the most senior person in the room, as though he believes that’s the only one he’ll have anything in common with.
“Of course. Until then, I’m Sergeant Carter and my mobile number is on the back of this card. If the woman comes back, or if you remember anything else in the meantime—”
“There was something,” Harrison says. “This might sound strange, but she didlooka little bit like my wife. Like a younger version of her. And her voice… it was almost as though she was trying to imitate her.”
The officer frowns. “Well, I’ll check around the property, but I want to reassure you, and your wife, that Hope Falls is a safe place. I’ve lived here all my life…”
Says the child police officer.
“… That said, maybe lock all your windows and doors. This sounds personal to me.”
It sounds personal to me too.
I feel like I have fallen down the rabbit hole to a world where I don’t belong.
