The Holiday Read online

  Praise for

  ‘A tense and gripping thriller’

  B A PARIS

  ‘Assured, compelling, and hypnotically readable – with a twist at the end I guarantee you won’t see coming’

  LEE CHILD

  ‘A compelling, twisty page-turner, and that’s the truth’

  JAMES SWALLOW

  ‘Outstanding and very well-written debut psychological thriller. This book was so gripping I genuinely found it hard to put down’

  K.L. SLATER

  ‘A terrific page-turner, didn’t see that twist! A thoroughly enjoyable thriller’

  MEL SHERRATT

  ‘Perfectly plotted and riveting’

  DIANE JEFFREY

  ‘Even the cleverest second-guesser is unlikely to arrive at the truth until it’s much, much too late’

  THE TIMES

  ‘Fraught with tension, with a compelling lead character who becomes more and more unsure about who he can trust’

  COSMOPOLITAN

  ‘Brilliant . . . madly addictive, totally twisted’

  LIZ LOVES BOOKS

  Contents

  Saturday

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Ten months earlier

  Sunday

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Nine months earlier

  Monday

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Six months earlier

  Tuesday

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Four months earlier

  Wednesday

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  One month earlier

  Thursday

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  One Month Later

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Also by T.M. Logan

  A message from TM Logan

  Copyright

  For my brothers,

  Ralph and Ollie

  It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

  —William Blake

  The fly circles, and lands.

  Crawls undisturbed on cooling skin.

  An outstretched finger.

  An open palm, smeared red.

  An arm bent backwards, bone broken against the rock.

  More flies circle around the head, drawn by the scent of death.

  Drawn by blood pooling darkly around the shattered skull.

  Below, blood drips steadily into the clear mountain stream.

  Above, a cliff edge sharp against the perfect blue sky.

  SATURDAY

  1

  We drove north, away from the coast.

  Through the outskirts of Béziers and deeper into the Languedoc. Vineyards heavy with fruit lined the road on both sides, ranks of low green vines marching off into the distance under a deep blue Mediterranean sky. Sean driving, his eyes hidden behind aviator shades, the kids in the back with hand luggage wedged between them, Lucy dozing while Daniel played on his phone, me staring out of the window as the scenery rolled by, the hire car’s aircon just about keeping the sticky mid-afternoon heat at bay.

  If I’d known what was coming, what we were driving towards, I would have made Sean stop the car and take us straight back to the airport. I would have grabbed the steering wheel myself, forced the car off the road and made him do a U-turn right there.

  But I didn’t know.

  My instincts had been telling me for a couple of weeks, as we wound down towards the summer holidays, that something was up. Something was wrong. Sean had always been the one to look on the bright side, to make the kids laugh, to bring me a gin and tonic when I needed cheering up. In the unconscious allocation of roles in our marriage, I was the organiser, the rule-setter, the guardian of boundaries. Sean was the light to my shade – always open, funny, patient, the optimist of the family.

  Now he was defensive, secretive, serious. Distracted, constantly staring at his mobile. Perhaps work was getting on top of him – hassle from his new boss? He’d half-suggested that maybe he should stay at home this week, because of work. Or perhaps it was his fear of reaching forty, which seemed to grow stronger as his birthday drew nearer. Some kind of midlife crisis? I’d asked him if he thought he might be depressed – if I knew what was wrong, we could tackle it together. But he had brushed my questions aside, insisting he was fine.

  I flinched as he touched my thigh.

  ‘Kate?’

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, forcing a smile. ‘Miles away.’

  ‘How long until we turn off this road?’

  I checked my phone.

  ‘About another ten minutes.’

  He took his hand off my thigh and moved it back to the steering wheel. The warmth of his fingertips lingered for a moment and I tried to remember the last time I’d felt his touch, the last time he had reached out to me. Weeks? A month?

  The fact that you’re even thinking it means something isn’t right. That’s what Rowan would have said. The holiday had been her idea, two years in the planning. Rowan, Jennifer, Izzy and me – best friends marking our fortieth birthdays with a week together in the south of France, husbands and children included.

  ‘Grand,’ Sean said. ‘You OK?’

  ‘Fine. Just want to get there, get unpacked.’

  ‘Have you heard from Jennifer and Alistair?’ He glanced up at the rear-view mirror. ‘Since they lost us?’

  ‘No, but I’m sure they’re not far behind.’

  ‘I told them I’d lead the way and they could follow.’

  I turned to look at my husband. It wasn’t like him to worry about Jennifer and her husband – he got along with them OK but had little in common with them, apart from me.

  ‘You know what Alistair’s like,’ I said. ‘He could get lost in his own back garden.’

  �
�Sure, I suppose you’re right.’

  I went back to staring out of the window at the lush green vineyards rolling past, dark grapes ripening in the summer heat. Off in the distance, the conical black towers of an ancient chateau stood out against the skyline.

  After ten miles or so, Google Maps directed us off the main road and up through one tiny hamlet after another. Puimisson, St Genies, Cabrerolles – sleepy villages of narrow streets and ancient stone, old men sitting impassively in the shade watching us pass by. We peeled off onto an even smaller road that climbed higher, winding back and forth up a hill where the vineyards gave way to dark pine trees, finally emerging onto the crest of a hill above the village of Autignac, a tall, whitewashed wall flanking the road. The wall ended in black metal gates tipped with faux spear points and my phone informed us that we had arrived at our destination.

  Sean slowed the car to turn in and the black metal gates swung noiselessly open. Gravel crunched softly beneath the wheels as we turned onto the estate and headed for the villa, tall cypress trees, slim and straight and perfectly pruned, lining the long driveway like a guard of honour. On both sides were lush lawns of thick green grass, watered by sprinklers circling lazily in the mid-afternoon heat.

  Sean pulled up next to Rowan’s Land Rover Discovery, already parked in front of the villa’s sweeping stone staircase.

  I turned in my seat. Lucy was still asleep in the back, head tucked into her balled-up sweatshirt, long blonde hair falling across her face. Since hitting her teens she seemed able to sleep anywhere, at any time of the day, if she sat down for more than ten minutes: she had slept on the way to the airport, and on the plane, and was fast asleep now. I had always loved watching her sleep, right from when she was a baby. She would always be my baby, even though she was sixteen now – and taller than me.

  ‘Lucy, love,’ I said, softly. ‘We’re here.’

  She didn’t stir.

  Her younger brother, Daniel, sat next to her, headphones on, absorbed in a game of something on his mobile. He was her opposite in many respects – a little ball of energy who had never been keen on sleep, either as a newborn or now, an excitable nine-year-old. He uncovered one ear and took his first look out of the window.

  ‘Are we there?’

  ‘Give your sister a nudge,’ I said. ‘Gently.’

  He grinned mischievously and poked her arm.

  ‘We’re here, Sleeping Beauty. At the holiday house.’

  When she gave no response, Sean unclipped his seatbelt.

  ‘Might as well let her have another five minutes while we take the bags in. Come on.’

  I opened my door and stepped out, stretching my arms after the journey, the air-conditioned chill vanishing instantly as the late July heat enveloped me like a blanket. The air smelled of olives and pine and summer heat baked into the dark earth. There was no sound – no traffic, no people – except for the gentle swishing of the breeze high up in the cypress trees, the car engine ticking quietly as it cooled.

  We stood there, stretching and blinking in the dazzling sun, taking in the villa. Rowan hadn’t lied: three wide storeys of whitewashed stone and terracotta tiles, the parking circle shaded by olive trees, broad stone steps leading up to a double front door in dark, studded oak.

  ‘Wow,’ Sean said beside me, and for a moment he looked happy, like his usual self – his old self.

  I slipped my arm around his waist, needing for a moment to feel his physical presence as we stood side by side, admiring the villa. I needed to feel his warmth, the touch of his skin, the solidity of muscles beneath his shirt. To anchor him to me.

  But after a few seconds he moved away, out of my grasp.

  2

  Rowan appeared at the top of the stone staircase, holding her hands out in greeting.

  ‘Welcome to Villa Corbières!’ she said with a grin. ‘Isn’t it marvellous?’

  She made her way down towards us, the heels of her expensive-looking sandals clicking on the stone. Since starting her own business she always looked immaculate, and today she was wearing a pale cream cami dress with Cartier sunglasses pushed up into her straight auburn hair. How far my slightly awkward student friend – who’d had braces on her teeth and Take That posters on her wall – had come since we’d first met. I guess we had all come a long way, but Rowan definitely felt the furthest from her past self. She hugged me and I closed my eyes for a second, letting the smell of her expensive perfume surround me.

  ‘This place is even bigger than it looked in the pictures!’ I said, forcing myself to smile, watching Sean out of the corner of my eye as he ducked his tall frame into the car and checked his mobile.

  ‘Wait until you see the interior,’ she said. ‘Come on, I’ll give you the tour.’

  Inside, it was all white marble and smooth stone walls, one exquisitely furnished room after another, full of light and beautifully decorated with discreet abstract paintings here and there. It was also deliciously cool, thanks to the air conditioning.

  ‘It belongs to a client.’ Rowan flashed me a conspiratorial smile. ‘We’ve been getting on particularly well, recently.’

  ‘It’s amazing,’ I said, and it really was: like something out of a coffee-table magazine. ‘Have you heard from the others?’

  ‘Jennifer’s crowd are still en route – they went the wrong way on the A9, apparently. And Izzy’s flight from Bangkok – via Paris – gets in tomorrow morning. I’m going to pick her up.’

  We had met on the first day of university in Bristol, the four of us neighbours in the same hall of residence, then went on to a shared house until we all graduated at the end of our three years there. For a moment, I wished myself back to our shared house so powerfully that I could almost smell Izzy’s weird and wonderful vegetarian cooking from those days, the perennial post-tennis Deep Heat smell of Jennifer’s room, the heady cocktail of perfume and nail varnish and rosé as we got ready in Rowan’s room for a Friday night out. Back then, it seemed like all four of us were essentially the same – same starting point, same university, same hopes and dreams for the future, just waiting for life to happen to us. We all wanted the same things. Then we had graduated and left our younger selves behind, like snakes shedding their skin.

  For more than ten years after finishing university we had made a point of going away for a long weekend every summer, each year somewhere different: Dublin or Prague, Edinburgh or Barcelona. We’d kept the tradition going despite everything – despite babies and work and other commitments – but then one year, when Rowan was heavily pregnant with Odette in the summer, we didn’t get organised, and we just . . . stopped going after that, until we’d missed five years’ worth of trips. I didn’t really know why.

  This holiday was supposed to kick-start the tradition again, doing something together to mark the year we all turned forty. The big four-oh. It felt as if we didn’t do this all together now, we never would, so for the first time ever we were going to break with tradition by bringing all the children too, plus husbands, for a whole week rather than just a weekend. Spend some proper time together.

  And so here we were, half a lifetime after we’d first met.

  A little girl appeared at Rowan’s side, holding both hands up to her. Her wavy red hair was tied in pigtails, her chubby cheeks lively with freckles.

  ‘Pick me up, Mummy!’

  Rowan scooped the little girl up and balanced her on a hip.

  ‘You’re getting a bit big to be carried now, Odette.’

  ‘I’m not too big.’

  ‘Hello, Odette,’ I said to the little girl. ‘You are getting big. How old are you now?’

  She studied me with big hazel eyes, fingers gripping the strap of her mother’s sundress. I realised that mother and daughter were wearing virtually identical outfits.

  ‘Five.’

  ‘Daniel’s around here somewhere. I’m sure he’d love to play with you.’

  ‘Don’t like boys,’ she said firmly.

  As if on cue, Dani
el raced into the room and skidded to a stop in front of us, his pale skin flushed.

  ‘Have you seen the TV?’ he said in an awestruck voice. ‘It’s massive.’

  Rowan gave him a wide smile.

  ‘There’s a gym, a games room, a sauna and pool too.’

  ‘Mum, can I borrow the camcorder later to make a house video?’

  ‘Yes, but ask your dad first.’

  ‘Cool. I’m going to find the pool!’ he shouted, haring off again.

  ‘Be careful,’ I said to his retreating back.

  Rowan opened the French windows and led the way out onto a wide stone balcony. There was a long table and twelve chairs, all shaded by sun umbrellas, a view over a large vineyard on a hill sloping gently away from us. Fields and woods and low, rolling hills stretched out beyond.

  ‘People have lived here since the first century,’ Rowan said. ‘There was a Roman villa on this site originally, then a medieval chateau which fell into disrepair, and now this. It’s west-facing so you get the most amazing sunsets.’

  I stood on the balcony, drinking in the French landscape. A rainbow of greens dotted with light-brown terracotta roofs, villas and farmhouses spaced far apart, vineyards and olive groves, wheat fields lined with fruit trees. I felt a little ache inside, a feeling of how the other half lives: we could never normally afford to stay in a place like this. Not even close.

  ‘It’s absolutely breathtaking, Rowan. Thank you so much for arranging it and having us all here – I dread to think how much it would cost for a week.’

  She squeezed my arm and followed my gaze across the perfect scene.

  ‘Probably about twenty thousand in high season,’ she said. ‘But they don’t hire it out to the public – it’s just used for corporate events, jollies, schmoozing. You know the kind of thing.’

  I nodded, but in truth I didn’t know: ‘jollies’ and ‘schmoozing’ didn’t really ever come into my working life, and standing there with Rowan, the reality of how far apart our worlds had grown stung a little. I loved my job; I’d been a crime scene investigator with the Metropolitan Police for thirteen years now, but maybe I only noticed everyone else changing because I felt rooted to the same spot – same job, same house, same path – as I had been for years. Maybe it was all about perspective.

  Or maybe it was all about Sean.