The Verdict
‘LOVED LOVED LOVED this!!’ Reader review A cheating wife. An estranged mother. But is she guilty of murder? Please raise your right hand. An affair at work has cost Julia Winter her job and her marriage. There’s no denying she has let her family down. Please remain standing. When a body is discovered on the North Downs, it hits local headlines. But for Julia, the news is doubly shocking because the body was buried just opposite the house she lived in over twenty years ago. And it is one of her former housemates. Please resume your seat. Up on the stand, Julia’s not the only person to have secrets that are unearthed during the trial. But the evidence against her is overwhelming. And yet one question remains: is she the murderer, or the victim? Jurors, you may be excused. Readers, what is your verdict? A gripping thriller perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Claire McGowan and Lucinda Berry What others are saying about The Verdict: ‘LOVED LOVED LOVED this!!’ Reader review ‘WHAM! I got knocked for a loop! Excellent setup which led to a great plot twist’ Reader review ‘Wow! What a book!… an excellent read’ Reader review ‘Absolutely fantastic had me gripped!!! Loved it!’ Reader review ‘A big twist at the end! This book keeps you guessing around each turn. Amazing!’ Reader review ‘It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a book this much! The Verdict is absolutely brilliant!’ Reader review ‘A truly fascinating story. I could not put this book down. Exceptionally well written and paced. Brilliant’ Reader review ‘The Verdict is a explosive must read thriller for the year. I was hooked from the first chapter and could not put it down. Well written and well developed characters. ’ Reader review ‘I was absolutely hooked from the first page… kept me enthralled through the late night and into the early morning. I could not put it down. ’ Reader review
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The Verdict
OLIVIA ISAAC-HENRY
Published by ONE MORE CHAPTER
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Olivia Isaac-Henry 2019
Cover Design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover Photographs © Shutterstock.com
Olivia Isaac-Henry asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © August 2019; ISBN: 9780008317768
Version: 2019-07-19
For Keith
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: 2017 – Central London
Chapter 3: 2017 – Central London
Chapter 5: 2017 – Central London
Chapter 6: 1994 – Archway, London
Chapter 7: 2017 – Archway, London
Chapter 8: 1995 – Archway, London
Chapter 10: 2017 – Archway, London
Chapter 12: 2017 – Archway, London
Chapter 14: 2017 – Archway, London
Chapter 15: 1995 – Archway, London
Chapter 17: 2017 – Archway, London
Chapter 19: 2017 – Maida Vale, London
Chapter 21: 2017 – Central London
Chapter 22: 2001 – Kingston upon Thames
Chapter 24: 2017 – Guildford Police Station
Chapter 26: 2017 – Guildford Police Station
Chapter 28: 2017 – Guildford Police Station
Chapter 30: 2017 – Guildford Police Station
Chapter 32: 2018 – Bronzefield
Chapter 34: 2018 – Bronzefield
Chapter 36: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 38: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 40: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 42: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 44: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 46: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 47: 1995 – Archway, London
Chapter 49: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 51: 2017 – Dulwich, London
Chapter 52: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 54: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 56: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 58: 2017 – Dulwich, London
Chapter 59: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 61: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 63: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Chapter 65: 2018 – Guildford Crown Court
Stumbling down the hill, filthy and too exhausted to even lift the shovels dragging behind them, they looked up to see a red glow starting to stretch along the ridge above. Dawn was breaking.
‘Hurry up,’ he said.
At the bottom of the hill, she managed to haul herself over the stile, only to tumble down the slope on the other side and fall face down in the road, her fingernails bloodstained, her mouth and nose clogged with dirt. She could have fallen asleep there and then, not caring if she were seen.
A hand reached under her armpit and hauled her to her feet.
‘Keep moving.’
What was the point in moving or any attempt at concealment? He wouldn’t lie buried for ever. Someday, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week or next year, someone would find him.
It feels like centuries since I was young. I look around my office; Miranda is scrolling through Tinder while drinking a coffee. Her lithe body falls across a hard-backed wooden chair as if it were a hammock.
Paulo wears mustard-coloured jeans, his feet up on the desk, the soles of his boots splayed towards me. The urge to kick them off becomes so great, I have to look away.
‘Yeah, I know, yeah,’ he drones into his phone, too loud and irritating to tune out.
What right do they have to youth? They do not value it. They will waste it, as I did mine, and one day wake up, middle-aged, in an office full of people who believe them to be obsolete, an irrelevance. They will stare at the calendar and not believe the year – how did we reach 2017 so quickly? And then the day, Wednesday – how many hours until the weekend?
