The Previous Owners
The property records for 14 Privet Lane told a story that the estate agent had not mentioned. Maren found them at the local records office, driven there by two weeks of sleepless nights and the growing conviction that whatever was in her walls was becoming more active. The house had been sold eight times in twenty years. The average occupancy was eighteen months. None of the previous owners had left reviews or recommendations. Several had moved abroad — the same word the agent had used, "abroad," as though it were a destination rather than a direction. One owner, a Mr. David Pelham, had not moved anywhere. His file at the records office contained a police report, filed by a neighbour, noting that Mr. Pelham had not been seen for three weeks, that his car was still in the driveway, and that the house appeared occupied — lights on, television audible, post collected — despite no evidence that anyone was going in or out. The case was closed as "voluntarily missing." The house was sold six months later. To the next person who would leave.
Maren found Mrs. Adeyemi, the fifth owner, living in a flat forty miles away. She was a small, composed woman who invited Maren in, made tea, and sat with the careful posture of someone who has decided to tell the truth and is bracing for the consequences. "It's in the walls," she said, before Maren had asked a question. "It's been there longer