The House on Cold Hill (35 page)

He shot a glance in the mirror and saw his son’s excited face. ‘This is where we’re going to be living, Connor. We’ll have tons of opportunities to do that bridge again!’

‘Yeahhh! Coolio!’

‘Coolio!’ Seb replied.

He had never felt so happy in all his life. They were now minutes away from their new life.

It was going to be incredible!

Cold Hill House.

They’d already had the headed notepaper printed.
Cold Hill House.

Not bad for a state-school-educated chap, whose dad had been a London postman. Not a bad achievement for a man who had not yet reached his fortieth birthday. Not bad at all, he thought, the grin on his face growing wider by the second.

They drove past a Norman church on their right, with an ornate wooden lychgate, a row of terraced Victorian artisan cottages, then the poshed-up gastropub, Bistrot Tarquin, where, just two months ago, he and Nicola had lunched on Oysters Rockefeller followed by grilled lobster, washed down with a rather fine Pouilly-Fuissé, and made the decision to offer on the house.

They passed a building with a sign, Y
E
O
LDE
T
EA
S
HOPPE
. The road wound steeply uphill, past detached houses and bungalows of various sizes on either side.

The satnav read:
150 yards to destination.
An arrow indicated right.

Seb slowed the car down and flicked the right-turn indicator. ‘Here we are!’

On their right, opposite a red postbox, were two stone pillars, topped with savage-looking ornamental wyverns, and with open, rusted, wrought-iron gates. Below the large Richwards ‘Sold’ board, fixed to the right-hand gatepost, was a smart gold-on-black sign announcing: C
OLD
H
ILL
H
OUSE
.

A minute later they crested the drive, and the house was directly in front of them. Seb’s heart did a little flip at the beauty of the location. ‘We’re here!’ he whooped with joy.

Nicola, peering through the windscreen, said, ‘Who’s that in the house?’

‘Where?’

‘I saw some people – there’s a man, a woman and a young girl up there – in that window above the front door. The one with the Juliet balcony.’

Seb slowed down and stared up to where she was pointing. ‘I can’t see anything.’

‘I must have imagined it,’ she smiled.

‘It looks pretty spooky!’ Leonora shouted.

‘Maybe it’s full of ghosts!’ Connor shrieked. ‘Wooooo . . . wooooo!’

Seb halted the car in front of the porch, and glanced at the house through the windscreen. ‘Just as soon as we get the planning permission through, we’re going to tear the whole place down and build our dream home here!’

Nicola leaned over and kissed him.

A moment later his phone pinged with an incoming text. He looked at the screen and saw the message on it.

OVER MY DEAD BODY.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe an enormous debt of thanks to the Rance family – Matt, Emma and their daughter, Charlie – for allowing me to use the lovely and smart Charlie as the model for my character Jade Harcourt. She and her parents were massively generous in their help and advice and I could never have conjured such a personality out of thin air.

In addition I’d like to thank others who helped so much with my research, including Gary, Rachel and (superstar!) Bailey Kenchington, Jim Banting, Richard Edmondson (Senior Partner, Woolley Bevis Diplock solicitors), Michael Maguire, Robin and Debbie Sheppard, Jason Tingley, and the Reverend Dominic Walker.

I’m fortunate to have a terrific support group, whom we jokingly call Team James, who all provide vital feedback at various stages of the writing process. A massive thank you to Susan Ansell, Graham Bartlett, Martin and Jane Diplock, Anna-Lisa Hancock, Sarah Middle and Helen Shenston. To my agents Carole Blake, Julian Friedmann, Louise Brice, Melis Dagoglu, and to all the team at my UK publishers, Pan Macmillan – including Wayne Brookes, Geoff Duffield, Anna Bond, Sara Lloyd, Toby Watson, Stuart Dwyer, Charlotte Williams, Rob Cox, Fraser Crichton, and my wonderful publicists, Tony Mulliken, Sophie Ransom, Becky Short and Eve Wersocki of Midas.

I need to single out three people above all others – former Detective Chief Superintendent David Gaylor, my model for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who has become my good friend and sometime-slave driver(!);my assistant, Linda Buckley, who has an endless capacity for hard work and helping free up my time for writing, as well as a brilliant eye for detail; and lastly, but also first – my beloved Lara, who is such a wise head and brilliant sounding board, and a constant pillar of support in every possible way. And of course no acknowledgements would be complete without a mention of our wonderful canine friends, Oscar, our Lab/Bull Mastiff/Parson Russell cross rescue dog and our recent arrival – our labradoodle puppy, very appropriately named, for this book, Spook!

As ever, thank you, my wonderful readers! I always love to hear from you, either on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and your comments give me such constant encouragement.

Peter James

Sussex, England

[email protected]

www.peterjames.com

( You can also sign up to my regular

Newsletter – the link is on my website.)

www.facebook.com/peterjames.roygrace

www.twitter.com/peterjamesuk

www.instagram.com/peterjamesuk

By Peter James

The Roy Grace Series

DEAD SIMPLE

LOOKING GOOD DEAD

NOT DEAD ENOUGH

DEAD MAN’S FOOTSTEPS

DEAD TOMORROW

DEAD LIKE YOU

DEAD MAN’S GRIP

NOT DEAD YET

DEAD MAN’S TIME

WANT YOU DEAD

YOU ARE DEAD

Other Novels

DEAD LETTER DROP

ATOM BOMB ANGEL

BILLIONAIRE

POSSESSION

DREAMER

SWEET HEART

TWILIGHT

PROPHECY

ALCHEMIST

HOST

THE TRUTH

DENIAL

FAITH

PERFECT PEOPLE

THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL

Short Story Collection

A TWIST OF THE KNIFE

Children’s Novel

GETTING WIRED!

Novella

THE PERFECT MURDER

First published 2015 by Macmillan

This electronic edition published 2015 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-5592-5

Copyright © Really Scary Books / Peter James 2015

Jacket photograph © Shutterstock
Design and art direction by Neil Lang

Roy Grace®, Grace®, DS Grace® and DI Grace® are registered trademarks of Really Scary Books Limited.

The right of Peter James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Lyric excerpt from ‘Sunny Afternoon’ by The Kinks on
this page
written by Raymond Douglas Davies © Abkco Music Inc., Davray Music Ltd.

Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Floor plan artwork by Hemesh Alles
Gravestone artwork by Atomic Squib

Visit
www.panmacmillan.com
to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.