Alex Lake - Seven Days

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Copyright © Alex Lake 2019

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Cover photograph © Laura Kate Bradley / Trevillion Images

Alex Lake 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: 9780008272364

Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008272388

Version: 2020-04-21

To Norman: we miss you.

Rest in peace, old friend.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Saturday, 16 June 2018: Seven Days to Go

Twelve Years Earlier, 7 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Sunday, 17 June 2018: Six Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Twelve Years Earlier, 7 July 2006: Evening

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Twelve Years Earlier, 7 July 2006: Evening

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Monday, 18 June 2018: Five Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Twelve Years Earlier, 9 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Twelve Years Earlier, 9 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Twelve Years Earlier, 9 July 2006: Evening

Chapter 1

Tuesday, 19 June 2018: Four Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Twelve Years Earlier, 29 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Twelve Years Earlier, 30 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Twelve Years Earlier, 31 July 2006

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Wednesday, 20 June 2018: Three Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Eleven Years Earlier: Sunday Morning, 1 July 2007

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Eleven Years Earlier: Sunday Morning, 1 July 2007: Maggie

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Thursday, 21 June 2018: Two Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Eight Years Earlier: Friday, 18 June 2010

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Eight Years Earlier: Sunday, 27 June 2010

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Eight Years Earlier: Thursday, 1 July 2010

Chapter 1

Eight Years Earlier: Thursday, 1 July 2010

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Eight Years Earlier: Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Friday, 22 June 2018: One Day to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: James

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: DI Wynne

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: Martin

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: Maggie

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: Sandra

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: James

Chapter 1

Four Years Earlier: July 2014: Maggie

Chapter 1

Saturday, 23 June 2018: No Days to Go

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Saturday, 23 June 2018: James

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Martin

DI Wynne

Sandra

Maggie

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Martin

Maggie

James

Maggie

DI Wynne

Martin

Wynne

Martin

Wynne

Martin

Wynne

Martin

Wynne

Sandra

Wynne

Martin

James

Wynne

Saturday, 23 June 2018: Evening

Maggie

Wynne

PC Oliver Reid

Maggie

PC Oliver Reid

Maggie

Maggie

Maggie

Martin

Epilogue: Six months later

Read on for a sneak preview of Alex Lake’s new novel

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

About the Author

Also by Alex Lake

About the Publisher

Suddenly it was so close.

Max’s birthday – his third birthday, the one that counted – was right below the date she had just crossed out.

Which meant it was one week until the twenty-third of June.

Seven days away. That was all. Seven more days until it happened. She had been trying to ignore it, but seeing it there, the very next Saturday, made that impossible.

It was a wonder she had the calendar at all. She had started keeping it on the fifth day after she had been locked in this basement. If she hadn’t, there was no doubt she would have completely lost track of how long she’d been held captive. There had been times – terrible, terrible times – when she had been unable to record the passing days and weeks as accurately as she would have liked. But as it was, she knew more or less how much time had passed, how many years – eleven, soon to be twelve – since she had seen her parents and brother and older cousin, Anne, who she had been on the way to meet when she made the mistake of speaking to the man in the car that slowed to a stop next to her.

When she’d started the calendar, she’d had no idea that more than a decade later she would still be using it. She’d expected – foolishly, as it turned out – to be back with her family and friends well before this much time had gone by, although even after five days she was starting to understand that this might be something that lasted longer than she could have ever anticipated. She was glad she had the calendar though, glad she had asked for some paper and a pencil – the pencil was a short, yellow one from Ikea, she recalled – and sketched out a calendar in tiny figures on one side. It was her only link to the outside world. Even though it was not totally accurate, on the days she thought were the birthdays and anniversaries of her friends and relatives, she imagined them having parties and opening presents, and in doing so, she felt, in a way, that she was with them.