The Serial Killer’s Sister

THE SERIAL KILLER’S SISTERAlice Hunter CopyrightPublished by AVONA Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd1 London Bridge StreetLondon SE1 9GFwww.harpercollins.co.ukFirst published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023Cover design by Sarah Foster © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023Cover photograph © Natasza Fiedotjew/Trevillion ImagesAlice Hunter 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: 9780008562212Ebook Edition © May 2023 ISBN: 9780008562229Version: 2023-04-03 DedicationFor Emily.The best daughter-in-law I could hope for. Thank you for giving me such a beautiful granddaughter. And for reading my books! ContentsCoverTitle PageCopyrightDedicationPrologueMay 9th: Four days to goChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9May 10th: Three days to goChapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14May 11th: Two days to goChapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23May 12th: One day to goChapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31May 13th: Day ZeroChapter 32Chapter 33Chapter 34Chapter 35Chapter 36Chapter 37Chapter 38Chapter 39Chapter 40Chapter 41Chapter 42Chapter 43Chapter 44Chapter 45Chapter 46Chapter 47Chapter 48EpilogueAcknowledgementsKeep Reading …About the AuthorBy the Same AuthorAbout the Publisher Prologue‘Do we have to go inside?’ The boy, small for eight, stops walking before reaching the flaky green gate and looks up at his sister, his large, brown eyes begging.‘We’re already late. You don’t want another whipping, do you?’‘No.’ His lower lip wobbles, and the girl sighs and turns to him, putting her backpack on the pavement. With both her hands firmly on his shoulders, she stoops to look into his eyes.‘Come on. I’ll sneak you in and straight up the stairs. Then I’ll make us Dairylea sandwiches.’‘Can we eat them in your special tent?’ As he asks, he dips his head, and a chunk of sand-coloured hair falls over his right eye. The girl pushes it back. There’s only one year and eleven months between them, but already she’s far more grown up; she’s had to be.‘Course,’ she says. He smiles, then, and takes a deep breath. ‘I’m glad I’ve got you.’‘I’m glad I’ve got you, too,’ she says. And she means it.The smell of stale fags, alcohol, and what she guesses is pee hits her as she cracks open the front door and pops her head around to see if the coast is clear. She had considered trying the back door, but that needs WD-40 and squeals like a hundred mice, so they could never have snuck past him, no matter how drunk he is today. He always senses when they’re home. He smells them, like the giant in the sky in Jack and the Beanstalk.It’s not him the girl glimpses, though, and she allows the air in her lungs to escape with a low hiss. Maybe they got away with it this time. The woman, dressed in a grubby, oversized t-shirt, with skinny legs clad in patchy grey leggings, lies on her back on the stained beige two-seater sofa. One arm dangles off it, the hand open and an empty wine bottle on its side beneath it. Crushed beer cans scatter the floor, making the pattern of the carpet almost invisible. A waft of sick rides on the air and the girl screws her nose up before pinching it tight with her thumb and finger. She notices lumps of undigested food mixed in a gravy-like liquid on the side of her mother’s face, spreading over the edge of the sofa. Her breath hitches. Is she dead? The girl moves to block her brother’s line of sight. She can’t let him see. ‘Go on,’ she whispers, pushing him behind her back towards the stairs. He barely gets his foot on the first step when the voice bellows.‘Where the fuck have you two been?’ He’s standing at the top; must’ve just got out the loo. The girl pulls the boy back to her and they both recoil, slamming hard against the wall. If they could disappear into it, they would. ‘You better have got my stuff?’As he descends the stairs, she slips the backpack off her shoulder, undoes it and with a shaky hand delves inside. The man jerks forward, yanking the bag from her grip. He pulls out the bottle of whisky, then throws the bag back at her. The metal zip catches her square in the face. She yelps, touching her fingertips to her bleeding nose. He snorts, then pushes past them. Just as they think they’ve escaped the worst of it, he turns and rushes at the boy.‘Pathetic wimp. Bet you got your sister to steal this, didn’t you?’ He whacks the bottle against the boy’s chest. ‘When I was your age, I’d be getting my old man whatever he fancied. No questions. No big sister to do it for me. You need to grow a pair.’ He makes a grab for the boy, one large hand squeezing hard between his legs until he cries out. The man laughs. ‘Just like I thought. No balls.’Hot tears run down the boy’s cheeks, which makes the man laugh even harder.The girl launches at him, smacking his arm. ‘Leave him alone!’ she yells. ‘I’m going to call the police.’‘Oh, really? Where’s this come from, eh, kid? What are you, seven?’‘No, I’m ten and you’re not our dad, so you don’t belong here.’ The warm, tight ball that began in her stomach, like