The Turn of the Key

by Ruth Ware

“Don’t come here,” she whispered, still refusing to look at me. “It’s not safe.” “It’s not safe?” I gave a little laugh. “Maddie, what do you mean?” “It’s not safe,” she repeated, with a little angry sob, shaking her head harder so that her words were almost lost. “They wouldn’t like it.” “Who wouldn’t like it?”

The ghosts, she had sobbed. The ghosts wouldn’t like it.

Because it was the lies that got me here in the first place. And I have to believe that it’s the truth that will get me out.

You know that the reason I would never sleep with Bill Elincourt was because he was my father too.

That, more than anything that came after, was the moment the key turned in the lock. That was when they knew.