At Your Door
What happens when the past comes back to kill you? When DCI Anna Tate is called to the gruesome discovery of a dead woman found on Barnes Common, she is plunged into a high‐profile investigation involving a prominent MP. London is baying for blood – but is there more to Holly’s death than at first meets the eye? Meanwhile, the hunt is on for Anna’s missing daughter Chloe, who vanished ten years ago when her father kidnapped her. The case has been cold for what feels like forever – but a phone call brings a brand new lead… Can Anna solve the murder case whilst dealing with her own personal demons? Or is someone from the past planning to get in her way? An addictive new thriller from J. P. Carter, perfect for fans of Heidi Perks and D. S. Butler. Readers love the DCI Anna Tate series: ‘Anna Tate is a worthy protagonist; but it's the complex and gripping plot and equally engrossing subplot that is the true star of the show. ’ Lynne Patrick, Mystery People ‘A fantastic book had me reading frantically’ Amazon reviewer ‘Nothing in this book happened as I expected and I loved it’ Amazon reviewer ‘A fast, pacy book, full of suspense’ Amazon reviewer ‘A highly addictive crime series’ Amazon reviewer ‘Kept me guessing to the end’ Amazon reviewer
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AT YOUR DOOR
J. P Carter
Published by AVON
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © J. P. Carter 2019
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Cover photograph © Ellie Rollason/ Arcangel Images (hallway)
Cover photograph © Miguel Sobreira/ Arcangel Images (houses)
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (man)
Cover photograph © imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo (teddy)
J. P. Carter 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.
Source ISBN: 9780008313302
Ebook Edition © July 2019 ISBN: 9780008313319
Version: 2019-06-17
To my three wonderful daughters.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Epilogue
About the Author
About the Publisher
He was a bag of nerves because he had never disposed of a body before.
He knew that if he made a mistake, or was simply unlucky, then he could be caught red-handed or leave clues for the police to find.
He’d briefly considered driving out of London into the countryside, but had decided against it the moment he’d got behind the wheel. The longer he was in the car the greater the risk of something unforeseen happening. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he’d be pulled over by a couple of bored coppers working the night shift.
And then there were the ubiquitous traffic cameras to take into account. All the routes out of the capital were packed with them, and it was essential he avoided as many as possible.
Having taken all this into consideration he had opted to drive to a spot he was familiar with. It was on the edge of a wooded area on Barnes Common. He would only have to travel another mile or so and he’d be there. By then it’d be well after midnight and the area would hopefully be deserted.
His heart was pumping furiously and beads of sweat pulsed on his forehead. He was struggling to focus and he needed to. He couldn’t afford to slip up. Dumping the body would be the easy part. He knew exactly what he was going to do. The important thing was not to leave any traces of himself behind such as fingerprints, DNA and incriminating fibres. But after she was found things would hot up, become ever more dangerous.
If he had known what was going to happen earlier this evening he would have made plans. And they would have included finding somewhere to bury the corpse. But that was out of the question now. It would take ages to dig a grave even if he had a shovel and the inclination to do so. And he would first have to find a suitable spot that didn’t require him to haul the body any great distance.
Luckily the roads were quiet and the weather calm. But according to the Met Office there would be showers later in the morning to welcome in the first Wednesday of September. He hoped the forecasters were right because it would mess things up for the forensics team when they eventually arrived to examine the ground around the body.
He was past Putney now and the common was up ahead. He could feel the panic rising inside him and he tried to push it down. Hold your nerve, he told himself. Just concentrate and this will soon be over.
