by A J McDine
After negotiating an additional ten percent and an assurance that Templemans would keep on all our staff - just because I suffered from the odd panic attack didn’t mean I’d lost my killer business instinct - I put the offer to Stuart and Melanie.
‘Are you sure you won’t regret this?’ Stuart said with a frown. ‘The company means everything to you.’
‘It used to,’ I corrected him. ‘Not any more. Mel?’
She glanced at Stuart and then smiled. ‘I’m more than happy to take the money and run.’
And so we accepted the offer, and while I sat in traffic waiting for the level crossing barriers to rise, Dave Templeman, Melanie and Stuart were waiting in our small conference room with the Templemans’ lawyer and our accountant drinking coffee and eating shortbread until I arrived and we could sign the contracts. As of ten o’clock this morning, the company would no longer be mine.
It was the end of an era. Because FoodWrapped wasn’t just a business to me. With Bill by my side, I’d created it from nothing, sacrificing so much along the way. My blood, sweat and tears were built into the fabric of the company and I’d always thought that without it I’d be cut adrift with no anchor, no goal.
But I’d ignored the toll the constant pressure had taken on me. The feeling that I wasn’t good enough at anything: a good enough businesswoman, good enough wife, good enough mum.
And so Stuart was wrong. I had no regrets. Just an intense feeling of relief mixed in with a hefty dose of excitement at what the future held. By lunchtime, I’d have a stupid amount of money sitting in my bank account. Financial independence bought security and freedom. And time. Time to spend with the kids, to make memories, to heal ourselves. I could kick back a little, take it easy. Buy a campervan and take the kids to Europe every summer, like Stuart and I had always promised ourselves we would when we were students. Buy a castle on a Scottish Isle. Fuck it, with the money I’d have in the bank, I could probably buy the entire island.
The contracts signed, Emily appeared with a fresh pot of coffee.
‘I think this calls for something stronger, don’t you?’ I said. ‘There’s champagne in the fridge.’
‘I’ll fetch it,’ she said.
‘No, you take a seat. I’ll do it,’ I told her.
I found a tray and glasses and the two bottles of Moët I’d bought for the occasion and carried them through to the conference room. Stuart jumped to his feet and took the champagne. ‘Let me,’ he said, expertly popping the cork and filling our glasses.
I held mine aloft. ‘To the end of a chapter.’
‘And the beginning of another,’ Dave Templeman said, clinking his flute against mine.
‘Look after the place for me.’
‘I will,’ he promised. ‘And if you miss it too much, there’s always a job for you at Templemans. I could do with someone like you on the board.’
I laughed. ‘Kind of you to offer, but I won’t miss a thing.’
Once Dave, his lawyer and our accountant had left, Emily headed back to her desk, leaving Stuart, Melanie and me alone.
‘What time’s the viewing?’ Stuart asked.
‘One o’clock,’ I said. ‘They’re cash buyers from London, looking for their forever home.’
‘Like we were,’ Stuart said.
‘Like I was,’ I corrected him. ‘Stour House was always my dream. I talked you into thinking it was yours, too.’
‘Maybe you’re right. But we were happy there.’
‘Until we weren’t,’ I said. ‘What about you guys? Will you keep the barn?’
Melanie shuddered. ‘Too many memories. And I’d like somewhere with a bigger garden for when this one comes along.’ She rubbed her tiny bump and shared a smile with Stuart. Apparently, she’d suspected she was pregnant when Immy went missing. To be fair, she hadn’t told Stuart about the baby until I’d made it clear I still wanted a divorce, and I respected her for that. What she’d have done if I’d changed my mind was another matter, but it was pointless speculating. Because whenever I pictured my future, it was me, Nate and Immy. Stuart would always be a hands-on dad, and that gladdened my heart, but our marriage was over.
We were silent for a moment, and then Stuart poured the rest of the champagne and said, ‘We should drink another toast. To absent friends.’
Melanie and I smiled, raised our glasses, and echoed, ‘Absent friends.’
As I sipped my champagne, my thoughts drifted, as they so often did, to Sheila. Her body was never found. The police’s best guess was that she’d been swept out to sea by the swollen River Stour. Sometimes bodies washed up on beaches either side of the Channel months later. Sometimes they stayed on the seabed where fish, crabs and sea lice nibbled away at the flesh until only the bones were left.
A lungful of water, the difference between life and death.
Everyone told me that no one could have survived in those conditions.
Sometimes I believed them.
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed No One I Knew. It would be great if you could spare a couple of minutes to write a quick review on Amazon or Goodreads. I’d love your feedback!
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Acknowledgments
Once again I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and support everyone has shown as No One I Knew grew from a small seed of an idea to a fully-fledged novel.
First of all, I would like to thank my team of experts: Terry Chuter, Gary Connors and Dr Penny Davies, for their advice on police, business and medical matters respectively.
Thanks so much for answering my weird questions on everything from police search procedures and the sedative effects of painkillers to the difference between cost of stock and working capital.
Any mistakes are my own.
Thanks, also, to my small but trusty team of first readers: Sarah Hawes, Natalie Spain, Sue McDine, Pauline Cowell and Di Connors.
You guys rock!
A massive thank you to Stuart and Natasha Bache from Books Covered for the totally awesome cover, and to Aeryn for being the perfect model.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Adrian, my husband and fellow psychological thriller author, for being my sounding board and reading the early drafts. I hate to admit it, but your input makes the books better every single time.
Thanks to all you lovely readers, bloggers and reviewers for taking the time to dip into my books. I hope you enjoyed number three. It’s been two years now since I became a full-time author and it’s been a blast - mainly thanks to you.
I’m excited to see what the future holds.
Finally, I would like to thank little Luna, our rescue kitten and writer’s cat in training, without whom this book would probably have been completed a whole two months earlier.
About the Author
A J McDine lives in Kent with her husband and two teenage sons.
She worked as a journalist and police press officer before becoming a full-time author in 2019.
Endlessly fascinated by people and their fears and foibles, she loves to discover what makes them tick.
She writes dark, domestic thrillers about ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
When she’s not writing, playing tennis or attempting to run a 5K, she can usually be found people-watching in her favourite café.
A J McDine is the author of three psychological thrillers: When She Finds You, Should Have Known Better and No One I Knew.
Also by A J McDine
When She Finds You
Sophie Saunders has the perfect life.
Happily married to handsome Matt and expecting her first baby, she is the envy of her childhood friend, Lou.
Lou’s family has splintered. Her husband is dead and her son has left home. She would give anything to turn back the clock.
But there’s a secret buried deep in their past that the two friends can never forget.
And when Sophie’s world
starts spiralling out of control, it’s her new friend Roz to whom she turns.
Trouble is, secrets have a habit of unravelling. And when they do, you can kiss your perfect life goodbye.
Sometimes, it’s better when the truth stays hidden.
When She Finds You is the gripping debut psychological thriller by A J McDine.
AVAILABLE IN THE AMAZON STORE
Should Have Known Better
The perfect boyfriend… or the perfect liar?
It’s the moment single-mum Kate has been dreading.
With her only daughter, Chloe, about to leave home, she’s terrified of being left on her own.
That is until she meets charming lawyer, Adam.
He could be the perfect catch – if only it wasn’t for his clingy son.
Because Ben has a crush on Chloe. A crush that is fast becoming an obsession.
Flattered by the attention, Chloe is happy to string him along – for now at least.
But Kate can see the danger signs, even if her daughter is blind to them.
And when Chloe’s life begins spiralling out of control, Kate must make a choice - trust her instincts or lose her daughter forever…
Should Have Known Better is the tense new psychological thriller by A J McDine.
AVAILABLE IN THE AMAZON STORE
Also by Cherry Tree Publishing
His Wife’s Sister
He stole her childhood. Now she wants it back.
A woman is found wandering through woodland, confused and severely undernourished.
Police identify her as Mara Sitwell, who was just eleven years old when she vanished from her home nineteen years earlier.
She says she was abducted and held captive in an underground cell for all that time.
Her escape seems to prove miracles can happen - but not everyone is convinced.
Tortured by guilt, Mara’s sister Lucia insists on taking her in.
But Lucia’s husband, Damian is not so sure it’s a good idea.
He suspects Mara is hiding a terrible secret – and fears the whole family could be in danger.
AVAILABLE IN THE AMAZON STORE
Between the Lies
By A J Wills
He thought he was living the perfect life – until he discovered he was living with a perfect stranger.
Jez believed he'd finally found happiness when he met the alluring Alice Grey.
She's elegant, stylish and beautiful, the kind of woman he never imagined would look at him twice.
But his life’s shattered when Alice goes missing with her young daughter– and the police accuse him their murders.
The only way to prove his innocence is to find them alive.
But that's not so easy when Alice is running from a dark family secret and doesn't want to be found.
At least without any evidence he's killed them, it'll be hard for the police to charge him.
Unless they discover the body Alice asked him to hide…
AVAILABLE IN THE AMAZON STORE
