Tom

Tom is Rachel Watson’s ex-husband, Anna Watson’s partner, and Evie’s father; he is also the person whose concealed affairs and calculated lies culminate in Megan Hipwell’s murder. At first his voice reaches Rachel through the ordinary business of a phone call and a dispute about her behavior. By the time he recounts what happened to Megan, that everyday familiarity has become part of the danger: he knows how to manage what others believe, and he resorts to violence when his control is threatened.

Identity and Introduction

Tom’s connection to Rachel remains active after their marriage has ended. When he answers her call, he says he has been trying to reach her since Monday and has called her office. Rachel is ashamed and wants to ask about the message he left on the Saturday night she cannot remember clearly. Tom instead demands to know why she went to Scott Hipwell’s house. His opening move makes the conversation about Rachel’s suspicious conduct, even as she is trying to recover her own missing memories.

The exchange also reveals the domestic history behind his concern. Tom says Anna was frightened after seeing Rachel stumble down the street and shout abuse at her, particularly because of what had happened before with Evie. Rachel asks whether Anna did something, but Tom’s account places the immediate blame on Rachel. The scene establishes that Tom can present himself as the person protecting his household while directing attention away from the questions Rachel is trying to ask.

Affairs, Lies, and Rachel’s Memory

Rachel tells Tom she does not believe Scott harmed his wife, then tries to explain that she needs to discuss the Saturday message and his anger about Anna. Later, she admits to Kamal Abdic that she saw Anna near the station underpass on the night Megan disappeared, though drink has left her unsure of what she remembers. Returning to the underpass, Rachel recalls a more specific image: Anna in a blue dress with a black belt, walking quickly before stopping beside a red car. Anna speaks through the window, gets in, and the car drives away. Rachel recognizes it as Tom’s car, a memory that conflicts with what the police told her about Anna being at home.

Tom’s account of his own contact with Megan also changes as it is challenged. He tells Anna that Megan had wanted to talk in person and that they met in a poor Ashbury coffee shop for around twenty or thirty minutes. He admits he had told Anna they spoke by phone because he knew an in-person meeting would upset her. His explanation—an expedient lie to avoid an argument—shows how he treats truth as something to adjust to the audience and the immediate risk of being found out.

Rachel confronts Anna with a larger secret: Tom had an affair with Megan. Rachel recalls that Anna remained unaware while she and Tom were having sex for months in the house where they met. Saying the affair aloud makes the betrayal newly concrete to her; Megan’s disappearance does not undo what Tom did to Rachel, even as it raises the more urgent question of what happened to Megan.

Megan’s Murder

In his eventual account, Tom says that after seeing Rachel, he encountered Megan heading towards Blenheim Road. He did not want her to reach the house and speak to Anna, so he suggested they drive somewhere to talk. They went to Corly Wood, a place they had sometimes used when they had no room and wanted to have sex in the car. The location and the prior affair make clear that Tom’s effort to keep Megan from Anna was not an innocent intervention between acquaintances.

Megan was pregnant and did not know whether Tom or Scott was the father. Tom says she wanted the truth out in the open and believed he should be willing to see the child if it was his. He told her he had no interest in the baby and that it had nothing to do with him. When she became angry and threatened to tell Anna, insisting that neither she nor her child would be ignored, Tom says he wanted her to stop. He picked up a rock and struck her. In his account, the blow left Megan bleeding and crying; when she tried to crawl away, he says he had to finish it. His language presents the killing as an impulsive attempt to silence her, but the sequence exposes the stakes he was trying to suppress: the pregnancy, his affair, and the possibility that Anna would learn the truth.

Violence and Narrative Significance

Tom’s capacity for violence is not confined to his account of Megan’s death. When Rachel tries to run for the front door, he hits the back of her head with a bottle. The impact brings white pain and drops her to her knees; he grabs her by the hair and drags her back into the living room. He is holding Evie during the attack, while Anna pulls at him and pleads for him to hand the child over. Tom eventually gives Evie to Anna, but only after the assault has made the danger to Rachel immediate and visible.

Across these episodes, Tom’s lies and force work together. He misleads Anna about meeting Megan, while Rachel’s uncertain memory supplies a fragment—the red car—that challenges the version of events she has been given. When Megan threatens to expose his affair and confronts him about the pregnancy, he kills her; when Rachel moves toward an exit, he attacks her. The character’s decisive significance lies in that progression: private deceptions do not remain merely verbal, but become instruments of concealment backed by violence. The evidence here ends with Anna taking Evie from him and Rachel on the floor; it does not establish Tom’s eventual fate.