The Witch Elm: A Novel

by Tana French

  ALSO BY TANA FRENCH

  The Trespasser

  The Secret Place

  Broken Harbor

  Faithful Place

  The Likeness

  In the Woods

  VIKING

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street

  New York, New York 10014

  penguinrandomhouse.com

  Copyright © 2018 by Tana French

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Names: French, Tana, author.

  Title: The Witch Elm : a novel / Tana French.

  Description: New York, New York : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2018] |

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018022167 (print) | LCCN 2018022719 (ebook) | ISBN 9780735224629 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780735224636 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984877604 (international edition)

  Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Suspense. | FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Crime. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction. | Mystery fiction.

  Classification: LCC PR6106.R457 (ebook) | LCC PR6106.R457 W58 2018 (print) | DDC 823/.92—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022167

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  For Kristina

  Contents

  Also by Tana French

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  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

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet

  One

  I’ve always considered myself to be, basically, a lucky person. I don’t mean I’m one of those people who pick multi-million-euro lotto numbers on a whim, or show up seconds too late for flights that go on to crash with no survivors. I just mean that I managed to go through life without any of the standard misfortunes you hear about. I wasn’t abused as a kid, or bullied in school; my parents didn’t split up or die or have addiction problems or even get into any but the most trivial arguments; none of my girlfriends ever cheated on me, at least as far as I know, or dumped me in traumatic ways; I never got hit by a car or caught anything worse than chicken pox or even had to wear braces. Not that I spent much time thinking about this, but when it occurred to me, it was with a satisfying sense that everything was going exactly as it should.

  And of course there was the Ivy House. I don’t think anyone could convince me, even now, that I was anything other than lucky to have the Ivy House. I know it wasn’t that simple, I know all the reasons in intimate, serrated detail; I can lay them out in a neat line, stark and runic as black twigs on snow, and stare at them till I almost convince myself; but all it takes is one whiff of the right smell—jasmine, lapsang souchong, a specific old-fashioned soap that I’ve never been able to identify—or one sideways shaft of afternoon light at a particular angle, and I’m lost, in thrall all over again.

  Not long ago I actually rang my cousins about it—it was almost Christmas, I was a little drunk on mulled wine from some godawful work party, or I would never have rung them, or at any rate not to ask their opinions, or their advice, or whatever it is I thought I was looking for. Susanna clearly felt it was a silly question—“Well, yeah, obviously we were lucky. It was an amazing place.” And into my silence: “If you’re getting hung up on all the other stuff, then personally”—long deft slice of scissors through paper, choirboys sweet and buoyant in the background, she was wrapping presents—“I wouldn’t. I know that’s easier said, but seriously, Toby, picking at it after how many years, what’s the point? But you do you.” Leon, who at first had sounded genuinely pleased to hear from me, tightened up instantly: “How am I supposed to know? Oh, listen, while I have you, I meant to email you, I’m thinking of coming home for a bit at Easter, are you going to be—” I got mildly belligerent and demanded an answer, which I knew perfectly well has always been the wrong way to deal with Leon, and he pretended his reception had gone and hung up on me.

  And yet; and yet. It matters; matters, as far as I can see—for whatever that’s worth, at this point—more than anything. It’s taken me this long to start thinking about what luck can be, how smoothly and deliciously deceptive, how relentlessly twisted and knotted in on its own hidden places, and how lethal.

  * * *

  That night. I know there are an infinite number of places to begin any story, and I’m well aware that everyone else involved in this one would take issue with my choice—I can just see the wry lift at the corner of Susanna’s mouth, hear Leon’s snort of pure derision. But I can’t help it: for me it all goes back to that night, the dark corroded hinge between before and after, the slipped-in sheet of trick glass that tints everything on one side in its own murky colors and leaves everything on the other luminous, achingly close, untouched and untouchable. Even though it’s demonstrably nonsense—the skull had already been tucked away in its cranny for years by that point, after all, and I think it’s pretty clear that it would have resurfaced that summer regardless—I can’t help believing, at some level deeper than logic, that none of this would ever have happened without that night.

  It started out feeling like a good night; a great night, actually. It was a Friday in April, the first day that had really felt like spring, and I was out with my two best mates from school. Hogan’s was buzzing, all the girls’ hair softened to flightiness by the day’s warmth and the guys’ sleeves rolled up, layers of talk and laughter packing the air till the music was just a subliminal cheery reggae boom boom boom coming up from the floor into your feet. I was high as a kite—not on coke or anything; there had been a bit of hassle at work earlier that week, but that day I had sorted it all out and the triumph was making me a little giddy, I kept catching myself talking too fast or knocking back a swallow of my pint with a flourish. An extremely pretty brunette at the next table was checking me out, giving me just a second too much smile when my eye happened to land on her; I wasn’t going to do anything about it—I had a really great girlfriend and no intention of cheating on her—but it was fun to know I hadn’t lost my touch.

  “She fancies you,” Declan said, nodding sideways at the brunette, who was throwing her head back extravagantly as she laughed at her friend’s joke.

  “She’s got good taste.”

  “How’s Melissa?” Sean asked, which I thought was unnecessary. Even if it hadn’t been for Melissa, the brunette wasn’t my type; sh
e had dramatic curves barely contained by a tight retro red dress, and she looked like she would have been happier in some Gauloise-ridden bistro watching several guys have a knife fight over her.

  “Great,” I said, which was true. “As always.” Melissa was the opposite of the brunette: small, sweet-faced, with ruffled blond hair and a sprinkle of freckles, drawn by nature towards things that made her and everyone around her happy—bright flowered dresses in soft cotton, baking her own bread, dancing to whatever came on the radio, picnics with cloth napkins and ridiculous cheeses. It had been days since I’d seen her and the thought of her made me crave everything about her, her laugh, her nose burrowing into my neck, the honeysuckle smell of her hair.

  “She is great,” Sean told me, a little too meaningfully.

  “She is, yeah. I’m the one who just said she’s great. I’m the one going out with her; I know she’s great. She’s great.”

  “Are you speeding?” Dec wanted to know.

  “I’m high on your company. You, dude, you’re the human equivalent of the purest, whitest Colombian—”

  “You are speeding. Share. You stingy bastard.”

  “I’m clean as a baby’s arse. You scrounging git.”

  “Then what are you doing eyeing up your woman?”

  “She’s beautiful. A man can appreciate a thing of beauty without—”

  “Too much coffee,” Sean said. “Get more of that down you; that’ll sort you out.”

  He was pointing at my pint. “Anything for you,” I said, and sank most of what was left. “Ahhh.”

  “She is only gorgeous,” Dec said, eyeing the brunette wistfully. “What a waste.”

  “Go for it,” I said. He wouldn’t; he never did.

  “Right.”

  “Go on. While she’s looking over.”

  “She’s not looking at me. She’s looking at you. As usual.” Dec was stocky and tightly wound, with glasses and a mop of unruly copper hair; he was actually OK-looking, but somewhere along the way he had convinced himself that he wasn’t, with predictable consequences.

  “Hey,” Sean said, mock-wounded. “Birds look at me.”

  “They do, yeah. They’re wondering if you’re blind, or if you’re wearing that shirt on a dare.”

  “Jealousy,” Sean said sadly, shaking his head. Sean was a big guy, six foot two, with a broad open face and his rugby muscle only starting to soften; he did in fact get plenty of female attention, although that was wasted too, since he had been happily with the same girl since school. “It’s an ugly thing.”

  “Don’t worry,” I reassured Dec. “It’s all about to change for you. With the . . .” I nodded subtly in the direction of his head.

  “The what?”

  “You know. Those.” I darted a quick point at my hairline.

  “What’re you on about?”

  Leaning in discreetly across the table, keeping my voice down: “The plugs. Fair play to you, man.”

  “I don’t have fucking hair plugs!”

  “They’re nothing to be ashamed of. All the big stars are getting them these days. Robbie Williams. Bono.”

  Which of course outraged Dec even more. “There’s nothing wrong with my bleeding hair!”

  “That’s what I’m saying. They look great.”

  “They’re not obvious,” Sean reassured him. “Not saying they’re obvious. Just nice, you know?”

  “They’re not obvious because they don’t exist. I don’t have—”

  “Come on,” I said. “I can see them. Here, and—”

  “Get off me!”

  “I know. Let’s ask your woman what she thinks.” I started to signal to the brunette.

  “No. No no no. Toby, I’m serious, I’m going to actually kill you—” Dec was grabbing at my waving hand. I dodged.

  “It’s the perfect conversation starter,” Sean pointed out. “You didn’t know how to get talking to her, right? Here’s your chance.”

  “Fuck yous,” Dec told us, abandoning the attempt to catch my hand and standing up. “You’re a pair of shitehawks. Do you know that?”

  “Ah, Dec,” I said. “Don’t leave us.”

  “I’m going to the jacks. To give you two a chance to pull yourselves together. You, Chuckles”—to Sean—“it’s your round.”

  “Checking that they’re all in place,” Sean told me, aside, motioning to his hairline. “You messed them up. See that one there, it’s gone all—” Dec gave us both the finger and started off through the crowd towards the jacks, trying to stay dignified as he edged between buttocks and waving pints, and concentrating hard on ignoring both our burst of laughter and the brunette.

  “He actually fell for that, for a minute there,” Sean said. “Eejit. Same again?” and he headed up to the bar.

  While I had a moment to myself I texted Melissa: Having a few with the guys. Ring you later. Love you. She texted me back straightaway: I sold the mad steampunk armchair!!! and a bunch of firework emojis. The designer was so happy she cried on the phone and I was so happy for her I almost did too :-) Say hi to the guys from me. I love you too xxx. Melissa ran a tiny shop in Temple Bar that sold quirky Irish-designed stuff, funny little sets of interconnected china vases, cashmere blankets in zingy neon colors, hand-carved drawer knobs shaped like sleeping squirrels or spreading trees. She had been trying to sell that armchair for years. I texted her back Congratulations! You sales demon you.

  Sean came back with the pints and Dec came back from the jacks, looking a lot more composed but still intently avoiding the brunette’s eye. “We asked your woman what she thinks,” Sean told him. “She says the plugs are lovely.”

  “She says she’s been admiring them all night,” I said.

  “She wants to know can she touch them.”

  “She wants to know can she lick them.”

  “Stick it up your holes. I’ll tell you why she keeps looking over at you, anyway, fuckfeatures,” Dec said to me, pulling up his stool. “It’s not because she fancies you. It’s only because she saw your smarmy mug in the paper, and she’s trying to remember were you in there for conning a granny out of her savings or shagging a fifteen-year-old.”

  “Which she wouldn’t care about either way unless she fancied me.”

  “In your dreams. Fame’s gone to your head.”

  My picture had been in the paper a couple of weeks earlier—the social pages, which had netted me a ferocious amount of slagging—because I had happened to be chatting to a long-serving soap actress at a work thing, an exhibition opening. At the time I did the PR and marketing for a medium-sized, fairly prestigious art gallery in the center of town, just a few laneways and shortcuts away from Grafton Street. It wasn’t what I’d had in mind when I was finishing college; I had been planning on one of the big PR firms, I’d only gone to the interview for the practice. Once I got there, though, I found myself unexpectedly liking the place, the tall barely renovated Georgian house with all the floors at weird angles, Richard the owner peering at me through his lopsided glasses and inquiring about my favorite Irish artists (luckily I had prepped for the interview, so I could actually come up with semi-sensible answers, and we had a long happy conversation about le Brocquy and Pauline Bewick and various other people I had barely heard of before that week). I liked the idea of having a free hand, too. In a big firm I would have spent my first couple of years huddled in front of a computer obediently watering and pruning other people’s ideas of brilliant social media campaigns, dithering over whether to delete racist troll comments about some horrifying new flavor of crisp or leave them up to generate buzz; at the gallery I could try out whatever I wanted and patch up my learner’s mistakes on the fly, without anyone hanging over my shoulder—Richard wasn’t entirely sure what Twitter was, although he knew he really should have some, and he clearly wasn’t the micromanaging type. When, to my faint surprise, I was
offered the job, I barely hesitated. A few years, I figured, a few nice publicity coups to make my CV sparkle, and I could make the leap to one of the big firms at a level I would actually enjoy.

  It had been five years now, and I was starting to put out feelers, to a gratifying level of response. I was going to miss the gallery—I had ended up enjoying not just the freedom but the work itself, the artists with their goofy levels of perfectionism, the satisfaction of gradually picking up enough to understand why Richard leaped on one artist and turned another one down flat. But I was twenty-eight, Melissa and I were talking about getting a place together, the gallery paid OK but nowhere near as well as the big firms; I felt like it was time to get serious.

  All of that had come pretty close to going up in smoke, over the past week, but my luck had held. My mind was bouncing and dashing like a border collie and it was infectious, Sean and Dec were bent over the table laughing—we were planning a guys’ holiday for that summer but couldn’t decide where, Thailand? hang on, when’s the monsoon season?, phones coming out, when’s the coup season?—Dec kept insisting on Fiji for some reason, has to be Fiji, we’ll never get another chance, not after—and a fake-subtle tilt of his head at Sean. Sean was getting married at Christmas, and while after twelve years it was hardly unexpected, it still felt like a startling and gratuitous thing to do and the mention of it inevitably led into slaggings: The minute you say “I do” you’re on borrowed time, man, before you know it you’ll have a kid and then that’s it, your life’s over . . . Here’s to Sean’s last holiday! Here’s to Sean’s last night out! Here’s to Sean’s last blowie! Actually Dec and I both liked Audrey a lot, and the wry grin on Sean—mock-annoyed, secretly pleased as punch with himself—got me thinking about Melissa and we’d been together three years now and maybe I should think about proposing, and all that talk of last chances made me glance across at the brunette who was telling some anecdote and using her hands a lot, scarlet nails, and something in the angle of her neck told me she knew perfectly well that I was looking and that it had nothing to do with the newspaper picture— We’ll get you seen to in Thailand, Sean, don’t worry— Here’s to Sean’s first ladyboy!