The Honeymoon: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller

by Rona Halsall

  Ten minutes later he pulled up outside the house, and yanked the handbrake on before getting out and slamming the door. There had to be a logical explanation, he told himself, but he was damned if he could think what it might be. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides and he started to feel a little scared. He knew what he was capable of when he got worked up like this and he couldn’t let that happen again.

  The front door was open and he barged inside, careful not to look at the rusty-coloured stain on the skirting board at the bottom of the stairs.

  ‘Chloe! Chloe!’ he called as he stalked into the kitchen.

  Janelle was standing by the kettle, about to make a cup of tea and she turned, a hand on her chest, looking a bit shocked. ‘Christ, you scared the life out of me,’ she said. ‘What’s got into you?’

  ‘I’m looking for Chloe.’

  Janelle shook her head. ‘I haven’t seen her today. In fact, I was going to pop round later. I’ve got a pile of stuff she needs to look through, see if she wants to keep any of it.’

  Dan realised that his wife and son weren’t there and the reality of the situation hit home. He leant against the worktop, head hanging between his shoulders. ‘They’ve gone,’ he mumbled. He looked up at Janelle. ‘I don’t know what’s happening.’

  Janelle’s mouth dropped open and she covered it with her hands. She looked as flummoxed as he was. ‘What do you mean, gone? Gone where?’

  Dan sighed and walked over to the table, slumped into a chair, his head in his hands. ‘She’s left me.’ The truth of it felt like a massive weight pushing on his back, crushing him. ‘I don’t know why. Everything was about to get so much better. I just I don’t understand.’

  ‘Oh Dan I don’t know what to say.’ Janelle came and sat opposite, putting two mugs of tea on the table. ‘She’s taken her gran’s death quite hard, hasn’t she? Grief does strange things to people.’ She was silent for a moment. ‘Maybe she just needs a bit of space.’

  Dan jerked up his head. ‘Space? I always gave her plenty of space. We had so much to look forward to now, with her gran’s money to give us a boost.’

  Janelle sipped her tea.

  ‘She changed the locks on the flat. What’s that about?’

  Janelle didn’t answer.

  ‘She’s emptied our account. I’ve literally no money.’

  Janelle raised an eyebrow, but still didn’t answer.

  ‘Why is she being so vindictive? How could she do this to me?’

  Janelle put her mug down and gave him a hard stare. ‘Look Dan, it’s probably not for me to say this butI seem to remember you did the same thing to her.’

  ‘What? But that was that was different.’

  Janelle was about to reply when a loud knocking at the door made them both turn.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Dan scowled, Janelle’s words wheedling into his mind, because she was right. And that meant well, he wasn’t sure he wanted to even consider the possibility.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Janelle said, obviously puzzled.

  Dan got up, agitated. ‘I’ve got to go. I’ve got to find her and make her see sense.’

  He stormed down the hallway and flung open the door, to find two men standing on the step. There was something official in their demeanour, like they had a right to be there.

  ‘Mr Daniel Marsden?’ the one on the right asked.

  He nodded, impatient. ‘I’m sorry, I’m in a bit of a rush. Maybe some other time.’ He made to push past them when the man on the right put a hand on his chest to stop him.

  ‘I’m DS Singh and this is DC Bates.’

  Dan’s heart leapt into his mouth. Oh no. Don’t say there’s been an accident. He stopped. They held up their identification and DS Singh continued talking. ‘We want to talk to you about the death of Jean Armitage.’

  The words floated around Dan’s head for a moment before he understood their meaning. Jean Armitage was Chloe’s gran. ‘What? Why?’ His heart thrashed in his chest and he could feel beads of sweat sprouting on his forehead as he looked at his car across the road. His means of escape. ‘I’m sorry, but like I said, I’m in a hurry.’

  ‘We have new evidence that suggests she may have been murdered.’

  He looked from one officer to the other, unsure what to say. How? How can this be happening? Nobody knew. Nobody.

  ‘What? That’s ridiculous. I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’ His response was a moment too late. His pulse raced and his eyes latched onto his car. Can I make a run for it? He discounted the idea as soon as it came. No, he was going to have to bluff this one out. He’d done it before. He could do it again. ‘She fell down the stairs.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘It was an accident. Nothing to do with me.’

  The officers exchanged a glance before DS Singh replied.

  ‘A witness has come forward with new information. We’re re-examining the post-mortem results and will have to also consider exhuming the body to run some additional tests that weren’t carried out during the standard post mortem. Checking for an assailant’s DNA.’

  DS Singh’s eyes locked onto Dan, who felt the blood drain from his face.

  DNA. Under her fingernails. He swallowed and knew that this was it; there was no way out for him now. He could bluster as much as he wanted, but the evidence would be there plain as day.

  He remembered the day it happened. How the old woman’s nails had scratched his arm as she’d tried to stop herself from falling. Chloe had noticed the scratch marks and he’d fobbed her off with an excuse at the time. It had been believable given the type of kids he worked with.

  His chest felt tight. He couldn’t breathe.

  She’s done this. Chloe. She knows.

  He pushed DS Singh out of his way and the man went sprawling to the ground, while Dan made a run for it. A moment too late. He didn’t see the delivery van coming down the road, until he bounced over the bonnet and lay writhing on the road.

  Epilogue

  Seven months later

  Chloe scanned the living room, pleased with how it was shaping up. It was moving in day at last and she was excited about her beautiful new home. They’d been living with Janelle for the last seven months in her mother’s house in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland and although it had been a handy bolt-hole, she was more than ready to have her own space again. With the first part of her legacy, she’d had plenty of money to make a permanent move to Ireland, as well as buy the house of her dreams and furnish it just how she wanted it.

  She sat on her new sofa in the living room, a wall of glass giving her a view of the Atlantic, the restless sea reminding her of what she’d survived.

  ‘Cup of tea?’ Janelle said, as she walked into the room. ‘Jonah’s still asleep in his buggy. Only took twenty minutes to walk up here, so you’re not far away.’ She winked at Chloe. ‘Can’t get rid of us just yet.’

  Chloe laughed. ‘Cup of tea would be lovely, thanks. If you can find the kettle.’

  ‘Grace just rang to see if you needed anything,’ Janelle continued. ‘So I said to bring the kids and come over. She’ll be great for helping to unpack and she said she’d bring something for lunch.’

  Chloe smiled. ‘Brilliant. The more the merrier.’ Janelle’s daughter and her husband were lovely people, who Chloe regarded as friends. No, more than that. She felt that she’d been absorbed into their family since she’d been living in Ireland, with Janelle as a surrogate mother.

  Eventually, she’d get a part-time job, although she had no need to work. To have no worries about money was a rare and precious gift, one that her gran had wanted to bestow on her, even if that gift had come sooner than anticipated. In reality, her gran’s health had been failing fast, and who would want to die slowly? Her death had been quick, more or less instant. She wouldn’t have known anything about it and for that Chloe was grateful. It didn’t stop her feeling angry towards Dan, though. He took the life of someone who was precious to her and that was something she could never forgive. />
  When she’d realised that Dan had killed her gran, she knew she couldn’t stay with him. More than that, though, he needed to be punished. She went for a shock and awe approach, so furious she wanted to lash out and hurt him as much as she possibly could. Ultimately, she’d wanted justice for her gran.

  As soon as he’d gone to work that morning, she knew what she was going to do. She’d been awake all night working out the details. Her first job was to speak to Janelle and ask for her help. Then she went to talk to the police, told them everything she knew. Thankfully, they believed her and when they went through the file, they realised there was some evidence to suggest there might have been suspicious circumstances. There had been bruising on her gran’s chest which they’d put down to the fall, but when they looked closer, the bruises could have been made by fingers. Given Dan’s record, and the feeling that he’d escaped justice in the past, they were always going to be on her side.

  What goes around, comes around, she thought as she watched the sea.

  It was nothing less than he deserved and her plan had worked perfectly, giving her the satisfaction that right was on her side.

  Once he was out of hospital, he was convicted of manslaughter, which he admitted to, as a way to avoid a potential murder charge. He would be out in five years and she hoped he wouldn’t come looking for her and Jonah. He’d never find her, though, she’d made sure of that. She didn’t exist under her previous names and Janelle lived in her mother’s house, under a name he didn’t know. Chloe had written to him in prison and told him that she’d left the country, posted the letter from France and suggested that’s where she was planning to live. She’d left it vague enough for him to realise it would be hopeless to try and track her down.

  If the worst happened and he did find her well, she knew what she was capable of now. He didn’t know that she’d killed a man with her bare hands, deliberately kept him pushed under the water until he stopped thrashing, until his hands stopped grasping for the surface.

  I’m a killer.

  The thought didn’t worry her like she’d imagined it might. There was no guilt. In fact, she felt secure in the knowledge that she had it in her to take a life. To protect herself and Jonah, she knew she’d do it again. If Dan found her, she’d be ready.

  If The Honeymoon had you hooked, then don't miss the gripping Love You Gone, available to buy now.

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  Get it here!

  Love You Gone

  Get it here!

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  ‘Hello? Police? My husband and our children… they’re gone.’

  * * *

  When Mel arrives at the holiday cottage in the Lake District, she expects to find the heating on and her husband Luke and the two children waiting for her. Maybe a bottle of wine open…

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  Instead, there is just a note on the side, saying they’ve gone out for a walk.

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  But they aren’t back several hours later, and Mel knows something is wrong. Really wrong. When a search doesn’t find them, she has to confess to the police that her marriage isn’t all that it seems.

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  Even if that risks her own secrets being revealed…

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  An absolutely incredible, page-turning psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming, for fans of Gone Girl, Behind Closed Doors and Ruth Ware.

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  Order now.

  Hear More from Rona

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  Books by Rona Halsall

  Keep You Safe

  Love You Gone

  The Honeymoon

  A Letter from Rona

  I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Honeymoon. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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  The inspiration for this story came when I was thinking about negative emotions and how some are so much more destructive than others. Guilt is something we all experience at one time or another and I do believe that the burden of guilt is impossible for some people to shrug off. I decided to explore this powerful emotion from different perspectives, in a setting that most of us could relate to, giving the characters dilemmas that any of us may have to face. How would we behave? And how would we live with the consequences?

  I hope you loved The Honeymoon, and if you did, I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.

  I love hearing from my readers – you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter or Goodreads.

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  Thanks,

  Rona Halsall

  Keep You Safe

  A gripping psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming

  Get it here!

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  I have to get my little boy back…

  * * *

  I’ll never forget the feeling of holding him in my arms. The softness of his skin. The sweetness of his smile.

  * * *

  But my husband took our son away. He said it was for the best.

  * * *

  He said he’d keep him safe.

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  And he was always a good father… even if he failed me when I needed him most.

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  I know I should trust him to protect our little boy… so why can’t I?

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  A totally gripping psychological thriller about the power of a mother’s love, and the lengths she will go to to protect her child – perfect for fans of Big Little Lies, The Girl on the Train and C.L. Taylor.

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  Available now.

  Acknowledgements

  Firstly, I would like to thank you, the reader, for choosing my book. I hope you have enjoyed the reading experience as much as I enjoyed the writing.

  As always, I have to thank my wonderful agent, Hayley Steed of Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV and Film Agency, for her constant enthusiasm and support and her super speedy responses to all my stupid questions.

  Massive thanks have to go to everyone at Bookouture who has had an input to the book – and there’s lots of you. In particular, my fantastic editor, Isobel Akenhead, for seeing the potential of the story, when it was only half-formed in my mind and I was making it up as I went along over lunch! This one really has been a joint effort, and I love the way it has shaped up. Amazing clarity, as always, and genius little plot tweaks! And then there’s Noelle Holten and Kim Nash, who are Bookouture’s publicity magicians and seem to work wonders with only twenty-four hours in the day. Love you guys, for all your wizardry and motivational kicks up the bum.

  Talking about motivation and support, I’d be nowhere without the back-up given by my fellow Bookouture authors – thanks for the pep talks, answers to research questions and the laughs; the author’s lounge has got to be my favourite place to procrastinate! And then there’s the Savvy Authors – what a generous, lovely bunch you are, and especially Tracy Buchanan, who set up the Snug, made it the best place to be and taught me so much about the nuts and bolts of being a published author. Quite an education!

  Closer to home, I have to give a shout-out to my friend and first reader of early drafts, Kerry-Ann Mitchell, whose perceptive comments have helped to make this a better book. Also, her mum, Gill Mitchell, and book club friend, Sandra Henderson, for reading and giving feedback on early drafts. In fact, I need to thank all my book club buddies – Clare, Sue, Christine, Voirrey, Gemma and Jenny (not forgetting our recently departed friend, Helen) – for their unfettered enthusiasm for m
y books and their joy at the fact I’m now a published author.

  I have to thank my family for understanding that they should not try and talk to me on certain days and at certain times. And none of this would be possible without my husband, David, who has been ignored for long periods of time during the writing of this book, but has been unfailingly enthusiastic and tolerant.

  Finally, there’s the dogs, Freddie and Molly, who drag me out when I don’t feel like it, take me for walks on beautiful beaches and gorgeous glens and give me space to think.

  Published by Bookouture in 2019

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