His Careful Little House

The house in Suffolk has three bedrooms, a walled garden, and a pantry that locks from the outside. Cass married Owen six weeks ago and moved in with two suitcases. She expected his quiet charm. She did not expect his twenty-eight-year-old daughter to live at home, cook his meals, and manage his medication without being asked. Ivy is polite. Ivy is meticulous. Ivy never leaves. And when Owen goes away, Cass opens the pantry and finds a calendar for every year going back nine, each one headed with a woman's name. The first page has four. She is on page three. She takes it to the police. She is told it is not evidence of anything. Then Ivy tells her what she has known for nine years: 'You're not the fifth. You're the tenth.'