The Locked Room （Ruth Galloway #14）
Elly Griffiths
Prologue
At first, she thinks that he抣l be coming back. It抯 all a mistake, she thinks. He can抰 mean to leave her locked in the dark for ever. And it is dark. She doesn抰 have her phone. Where did she leave it? There are blanks in her memory which scare her even more than the locked room.
She tries to pace it out. Eight paces forward, eight paces across. When she reaches a wall, it抯 cold and clammy. There抯 no window. The door is metal. She heard it clang behind him. She can抰 remember entering the room. Did he drug her? She thinks, from the cold and damp, that she must be underground. She imagines earth above her head, fathoms of it. Is she in the basement of a house? Is anyone above her?
What did he say? That he抎 be coming back later? Why can抰 she remember any more than that?
Does he mean to leave her in the dark for ever?
Chapter 1
Saturday, 22 February 2020
It feels strange being in the house on her own. When she was growing up here, her mother always seemed to be in possession, even ?mysteriously ?when she wasn抰 actually present. Ruth remembers coming home from school and feeling guiltily relieved when the double-locked front door meant that Jean Galloway was out at her part-time job. But, even as Ruth turned on the TV and raided the biscuit tin, there was always the sense that Jean was watching her, not just from the black-and-white wedding photo over the set ?Jean in an uncomfortably short sixties dress, Arthur surprisingly dashing in a thin tie and Mod suit ?but from every corner of the neat, terraced house. And now, even though Jean has been dead for nearly five years, there抯 still the same sense that she抯 hovering somewhere on the edge of Ruth抯 consciousness.
Maybe Jean is hovering because Ruth is currently in her mother抯 bedroom going through a shoebox of photographs marked 慞rivate? Ruth抯 father has gone away for the weekend with Gloria, his new wife. When they return, Gloria wants to redecorate so Ruth has offered to go through her mother抯 belongings. Gloria （however much she likes her, Ruth can抰 think of her as her stepmother） has been very tactful about the whole thing. She hasn抰 changed anything in the house since she moved in two years ago, living with Jean抯 clothes in the spare room wardrobe and Jean抯 pictures on the walls. It抯 only natural that she would want to redecorate a little and, frankly, the house could do with it. Now that she doesn抰 live there, Ruth notices the peeling paintwork, the faded wallpaper, the outdated furnishings. Once these were just part of what made up her home but, looking at the place with Gloria抯 eyes, Ruth can understand the desire to freshen things up a bit. And, if Gloria has managed to persuade Arthur to get rid of his comb-over, there抯 no limit to her powers.
Ruth is alone because her sister-in-law Cathy has taken her daughter Kate to the zoo, reluctantly accompanied by Kate抯 seventeen-year-old cousin Jack. Kate loves animals and has been looking forward to the treat all week. Ruth hasn抰 been to London Zoo for years but she has a sudden vision of the Penguin House, an art deco marvel of curves and blue water. But didn抰 she read somewhere that penguins were no longer kept there because it turned out not to be suitable for them? She has the uncomfortable feeling that zoos, especially in the city, aren抰 suitable for any animals. She braces herself for a debate with Kate on this subject when she returns. Kate is a great one for philosophical debate. Ruth can抰 think where she gets it from. Kate抯 father, DCI Harry Nelson, is allergic to the word philosophy. See also: art, archaeology, spirituality, yoga and vegan.
So far the photographs in the shoebox have not lived up to their intriguing label. There are a few pictures of Jean when she was young, as a schoolgirl in plaits and as a young bank clerk in a dark suit. Ruth peers at the faded prints, trying to detect any resemblance to herself, or to Kate. Ruth has often been described as looking like her mother, but she has always thought this was just because they both had a tendency to put on weight. Now, looking at the young Jean, she thinks she can see a faint likeness to Kate in her direct gaze and defiant stance, even in pigtails. It抯 a real sadness to Ruth that Kate never really got to know the grandmother whom, she now realises, she rather resembles in character.