Chapter 9: Simon's POV

Simon's POV

My uncle's study had not changed since I was twelve.

At five on Monday morning I sat at his desk with the lamp on and the lower drawers open.

I was looking for a woman I had never once thought to look for.

The household files were in gray boxes, labeled in my aunt's tidy hand.

My aunt had died of cancer eight months after Caroline vanished.

In her final year, a home nurse had come to the house every day to manage the pain.

I found the box marked Staff and took out the folder inside it.

There were three names on the list, and the second one was Joan Dunning, R.N.

She had worked for us from October to the second week of June.

My uncle had hired her through the county hospital, and he had liked her.

The folder held her paperwork and her pay slips, and underneath, folded in thirds, a typed letter on Hallett Holdings paper.

It was dated eight days before the afternoon in the garden.

It began: Dear Mrs. Dunning, our count of Mrs. Hallett's medications has been short on three occasions.

It ended: Your services are no longer required as of today.

A line below that had been added in my uncle's handwriting.

It said: No police. My wife is too ill. Pay her through the month.

I read it twice and sat very still.

Then I opened the second drawer, where my aunt had kept her journals.

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