J. Carter - At Your Door

Published by AVON

A Division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Copyright © J. P. Carter 2019

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Cover photograph © Ellie Rollason/ Arcangel Images (hallway)

Cover photograph © Miguel Sobreira/ Arcangel Images (houses)

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com(man)

Cover photograph © imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo (teddy)

J. P. Carter 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 ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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: 9780008313302

Ebook Edition © July 2019 ISBN: 9780008313319

Version: 2019-06-17

To my three wonderful daughters.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

About the Author

About the Publisher

He was a bag of nerves because he had never disposed of a body before.

He knew that if he made a mistake, or was simply unlucky, then he could be caught red-handed or leave clues for the police to find.

He’d briefly considered driving out of London into the countryside, but had decided against it the moment he’d got behind the wheel. The longer he was in the car the greater the risk of something unforeseen happening. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he’d be pulled over by a couple of bored coppers working the night shift.

And then there were the ubiquitous traffic cameras to take into account. All the routes out of the capital were packed with them, and it was essential he avoided as many as possible.

Having taken all this into consideration he had opted to drive to a spot he was familiar with. It was on the edge of a wooded area on Barnes Common. He would only have to travel another mile or so and he’d be there. By then it’d be well after midnight and the area would hopefully be deserted.

His heart was pumping furiously and beads of sweat pulsed on his forehead. He was struggling to focus and he needed to. He couldn’t afford to slip up. Dumping the body would be the easy part. He knew exactly what he was going to do. The important thing was not to leave any traces of himself behind such as fingerprints, DNA and incriminating fibres. But after she was found things would hot up, become ever more dangerous.

If he had known what was going to happen earlier this evening he would have made plans. And they would have included finding somewhere to bury the corpse. But that was out of the question now. It would take ages to dig a grave even if he had a shovel and the inclination to do so. And he would first have to find a suitable spot that didn’t require him to haul the body any great distance.

Luckily the roads were quiet and the weather calm. But according to the Met Office there would be showers later in the morning to welcome in the first Wednesday of September. He hoped the forecasters were right because it would mess things up for the forensics team when they eventually arrived to examine the ground around the body.

He was past Putney now and the common was up ahead. He could feel the panic rising inside him and he tried to push it down. Hold your nerve, he told himself. Just concentrate and this will soon be over.

A bout of trembling gripped him when he reached the common and turned onto the road that led to his chosen spot. Trees pressed in on either side. He drove for half a mile and passed only two cars coming in the opposite direction.

When he arrived at his destination he slowed down and made sure there were no cars approaching from behind. Then he stopped before reversing onto a short patch of gravel that formed the entrance to a field with dense woodland on one side. In doing so his headlights picked out the gates to an old cemetery on the opposite side of the road.

Once the car was stationary he switched off the engine and the darkness descended. He sat for a full minute as the adrenalin surged through him. Only one car passed during that time and he saw no sign of life around him.

Eventually he sucked in a lungful of air through gritted teeth and put his gloves back on. Then he got out of the car. He had parked at a slight angle so that passing motorists wouldn’t be able to see his number plate. The back of the car was a few feet away from a metal gate that blocked vehicular access to the field. But on one side of it was another smaller gate that opened onto a narrow walking trail.

He walked around and opened the boot, confident that he wasn’t visible from the road. Inside, the body was wrapped in black plastic bin bags that had been taped together.

She only weighed about eight stone so it was easy enough for him to lift her out. He carried her through the small gate and along the trail to the right into the woods. The vegetation between the trees was high and thick and he found the perfect spot after only a short distance. He dropped her onto a bed of ferns and then carefully removed the bin bags so she was lying there naked, her skin pale against the dark undergrowth.

As he stared down at her he realised there were tears in his eyes and a voice inside his head was telling him to stay with her for a while so that he could get off his chest the things he wanted to say to her. But another voice told him not to be stupid and to get away from there as quickly as possible. And it was that voice he listened to.