Karin Slaughter: The Silent Wife

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2020

Copyright © Karin Slaughter 2020

Will Trent is a trademark of Karin Slaughter Publishing LLC.

TROUBLE ME Written by Natalie Merchant and Dennis Drew©1989 Christian Burial Music (ASCAP)All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. International Copyright Secured.

Lyrics from:

“Whistle” (written by Flo Rida, David Edward Glass, Marcus Killian, Justin Franks, Breyan Isaac, Antonio Mobley, Arthur Pingrey and Joshua Ralph)

“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” (written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio)

“The Girl from Ipanema” (written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, English lyrics by Norman Gimbel)

“My Kind of Town” (written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn)

“Funky Cold Medina” (written by Young MC, Matt Dike and Michael Ross)

“Into the Unknown” (written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)

Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020

Cover photograph © Ildiko Neer/ Trevillion Images

Excerpt from False Witness © Karin Slaughter 2021

Karin Slaughter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008303440

Ebook Edition © June 2020 ISBN: 9780008303464

Version: 2021-03-01

For Wednesday

Speak to me.

Let me have a look inside these eyes while I’m learning.

Please don’t hide them just because of tears.

Let me send you off to sleep with a “There, there, now stop your turning and tossing.”

Let me know where the hurt is and how to heal.

Spare me? Don’t spare me anything troubling.

Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.

Speak to me and let our words build a shelter from the storm.

Trouble Me by Natalie Merchant and Dennis Drew, 10,000 Maniacs

Please note that this is a work of fiction. I have taken some liberties with the timeline.

Contents

Cover

Title Page THE SILENT WIFE Karin Slaughter

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue

Chapter 1. Atlanta

Chapter 2

Chapter 3. Grant County—Tuesday

Chapter 4. Atlanta

Chapter 5. Grant County—Tuesday

Chapter 6. Atlanta

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10. Grant County—Wednesday

Chapter 11. Atlanta

Chapter 12. Grant County—Wednesday

Chapter 13. Atlanta

Chapter 14. Grant County—Wednesday

Chapter 15. Atlanta

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18. Grant County—Thursday

Chapter 19. Atlanta

Chapter 20

Chapter 21. Grant County—Thursday

Chapter 22. Atlanta

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25. Grant County—Thursday

Chapter 26. Atlanta

Chapter 27. Grant County—Thursday—One Week Later

Chapter 28. Atlanta

Chapter 29

Chapter 30. One week later

Author’s Note

Keep Reading …

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Karin Slaughter

About the Publisher

Beckey Caterino stared into the darkest corners of the dorm refrigerator. She angrily scanned the food labels, searching for her scrawled initials on anything—cottage cheese, Lunchables, bagel bites, vegan hot dogs, even carrot sticks.

KP, Kayleigh Pierce. DL, Deneshia Lachland. VS, Vanessa Sutter.

“Bitches.” Beckey slammed the fridge door hard enough to make the beer bottles rattle. She kicked the closest thing she could find, which happened to be the trashcan.

Empty yogurt containers tumbled out across the floor. Crumpled bags of Skinny Girl popcorn. Diet Coke-swilled bottles. All with two letters written in black magic marker across the front.