by Amy Lloyd
‘I kind of missed this,’ Sam said.
‘Missed what?’ Dennis said.
‘This.’ She gestured to the visiting room. ‘I always loved coming to visit you.’ It felt safe, she thought, but didn’t say. ‘And it’s good we can touch here.’
‘Yeah,’ Dennis said, looking down. ‘They want me to make a plea deal: confess to killing the girls and get life imprisonment without parole.’
‘Oh?’ said Sam. She hoped he would take it. If he fought the charges and lost, Death Row was inevitable. Here he could take his GED, maybe enrol on a college course. His cheeks were bronzed from his hours in the exercise yard.
There were still those who believed he hadn’t killed the girls. Carrie’s faith had never wavered. Carrie loved him, just as Howard and Lindsay had. And that, Sam realised, was how he controlled them. How he had controlled her.
Carrie swore that she’d seen Lindsay raise her gun before Dennis took the shot. To her, he was a hero.
Sam’s own memory of that final evening was vague, but she knew Lindsay hadn’t raised the gun. When she held Dennis after he’d pulled the trigger, she’d rested her head against his chest and listened to his heart beat as slowly and steadily as if he were asleep. It made her cold. Colder still when she noticed the tooth missing from the pool of blood in which it had rested.
‘They don’t have anything,’ Dennis was saying. Sam realised she hadn’t been listening.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘My lawyer says there’s nothing to tie me to the bodies in the Harries’s yard. They’ve got nothing.’
Sam felt sick. When she thought about him being released, her hand moved instinctively to her stomach, to the baby growing inside of her. What if it’s a girl? she thought. No. If she needed them, she always had the pictures. They couldn’t make her testify against Dennis, not while they were married, but she could say that she found the photographs while she was sorting his things.
She noticed Dennis staring at her growing bump and she smiled. He blushed and looked away. It wasn’t something they talked about. Dennis, so much more at ease with the dead than the living.
Sam wished he would do what was best for him. What was best for them.
‘Take the plea deal, Dennis,’ she said, taking his hand across the table.
Dennis squeezed her hand tighter and leaned in to her. ‘But when I’m out we can be together. Anywhere you want. New York, anywhere.’ He searched her face for a sign she believed him. ‘Please,’ he added. ‘Samantha.’
Sam stared into his eyes, so blue they still took her breath away.
‘I’ll always visit,’ she said.
And she meant it. This was the way they worked, she thought, lacing her fingers with his. It had always been better like this.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the judges of the Daily Mail First Novel competition, Simon Kernick and Sandra Parsons, for your early support of The Innocent Wife.
Luigi and Selina, thank you for believing in the book and for all your advice and guidance. I have been so lucky to work with you both. Many thanks too to Alison whose opinion I value greatly, and to everyone at Cornerstone who continues to work so hard for The Innocent Wife: Sonny, Clare, Hattie, Matt, Khan, Pippa, Kelly, Catherine and everyone who has shown so much enthusiasm for this book.
Thank you Glenn for the beautiful cover. I absolutely adore it.
Peter Joseph, my book is much stronger for all your fantastic advice. Also thanks to Kayla King and everyone else at Hanover Square Press for your work.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work with supportive and understanding colleagues who have helped me to balance my day job with the commitments of my book. I would particularly like to thank Emma Crocker, who was so kind and encouraging when I needed it most.
Thank you to my Bampi! If you hadn’t wrestled me into school I might be illiterate today.
Rhys, thank you for always being honest enough that I can trust your opinion, but not so honest that it stings. I hope that one day I can find the right balance.
Finally, thank you to my dad and to my mum, for always supporting my choices and encouraging me. When I wanted to live as a dog called Rover for several months you made it possible and when, perhaps even more improbably, I wanted to be a writer, you always believed that I could. I love you both.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN: 9781473538986
Version 1.0
Published by Century 2016
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Copyright © Amy Lloyd 2018
Cover © Arcangel
Amy Lloyd has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Century
Century
The Penguin Random House Group Limited
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA
www.penguin.co.uk
Century is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781780898117
Two
fn1 Taken from caseworker notes, 1981.
fn2 Statement from caseworker during investigation into practices, 1991.
fn3 Taken from court transcripts, May 1993.
fn4 Court transcripts.
fn5 Framing the Truth. Florida: Carrie Atwood, Patrick Garrity, 1993. VHS.
Four
fn1 Interview, telephone, June 1996.
fn2 Anonymous sources close to the subject, June 1996.
fn3 Statement taken in Red River High School, anonymous, March 1990.
fn4 Interview with Mrs Knox, Channel One News, April 1990.
Six
fn1 Interview, Altoona Prison, 1996.
fn2 Conversations loosely recorded in Harries’s notes, 1992.
fn3 Red River Tribune, 1993.
fn4 Anonymous source, 1996.
fn5 Interview, Altoona Prison, 1996.
fn6 Interview with eye witness, Jeff Bailey, 1996.
fn7 Framing the Truth. Florida: Carrie Atwood, Patrick Garrity, 1993. VHS.
fn8 Interview with Harries in Red River Tribune, 1992.
Eight
fn1 Florida Legislature, 1993.
fn2 Transcribed from recording of statement made in October 1992.
fn3 Taken from court transcripts, April 1993.
fn4 Interview, Altoona Prison, 1996.
fn5 Court transcripts, closing statement, July 1993.
fn6 Framing the Truth. Florida: Carrie Atwood, Patrick Garrity, 1993. VHS.
fn7 Framing the Truth, Atwood, Garrity.
Table of Contents
Contents
About the Book
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Altoona
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
New York
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Red River
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-thr
ee
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Thirty-one
Thirty-two
Thirty-three
Thirty-four
Thirty-five
Thirty-six
Thirty-seven
Thirty-eight
Thirty-nine
Forty
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Copyright
