Some streets bury their secrets. Others file them carefully away. Mara makes her living sorting other people's mess. But in the Hatch family's junk drawer she finds an "EMERGENCY CONTACTS" list in a child's hand - her own - naming a neighbour on a street she doesn't remember ever living on. As Gerald Hatch, his defensive son Malcolm, and the elusive lodger Owen circle around half-told stories, Mara pries open a cupboard under the stairs and a life sealed since 1991: Joan Hatch's diary, a vanished woman called Vera Langford, a watching car, and a neighbourhood that quietly agreed to forget. Across the road, Sophie sees a different danger. Her neighbour Julia hides bruises, a controlling husband, and a past police report no one believed. Helping Julia plan an escape means watching, waiting, and risking the fragile safety of her own young family. When does watching become responsibility - and what happens when the things we store finally demand to be found?
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