Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (free e novels TXT) 📗

East. Scandal in the corridors of US politics. I wasn’t expecting to see my husband’s face pop up as the first item on the agenda, but it’s still a relief as more reports go by without hearing any mention of the hunt for the perpetrator of a hit and run.

Fifteen minutes go by, and the rest of the broadcast is full of short reports on all sorts of things from a small earthquake in Nepal to a lion that has escaped from a zoo in China. But Adam was right. The news story we are most interested in hearing about is not big enough to make it onto the national broadcasts today.

But now it’s time for the local news.

I feel a wave of nausea rising up inside me because I know that this will be when our luck runs out. This will be the bulletin that will discuss the hit and run.

This will be the one that reminds us why we are here and what we are running from.

‘The weather’s getting worse,’ Adam says, and I notice he is looking out of the window. The rain doesn’t seem any stronger than it has been for the last hour, but I don’t really care about that right now. The news is on.

Why is Adam more bothered about the rain than watching this?

‘I’m going to move the car around the back of the cottage. It’s too exposed out there, and I don’t want it to get damaged,’ Adam suddenly suggests as he heads for the door.

‘It’ll be fine. You can do it after this.’

‘No, it’s getting bad out there.’

I hear the door slam behind me, and Adam is gone. I see him outside the window rushing to the car, and the conditions aren’t great, but it’s hardly a hurricane. I’m not sure why there is such a panic to move the car somewhere safer. Then I figure it out. He isn’t bothered about the car or the weather. He is bothered about what he might see on the news. He doesn’t want to be reminded of it. But I need to see it, so I turn back to the screen.

The first story is about a gas explosion on a street in Currock, an area of Carlisle that I know well because I used to date a guy who lived around there. The report says that there may be casualties and I believe it because the images accompanying it shows a pile of rubble where a house once stood. How terrifying. But nothing about the hit and run yet.

The second report is about the seizure of a large quantity of narcotics in a warehouse in the city centre, and the images show several police officers who have cordoned off the area. But still nothing about the hit and run.

Then the third news item flashes up, and I feel my heart skip a beat.

My breath catches in my throat.

I can’t believe what I am seeing and hearing.

Then the screen goes black.

34

ADAM

I had to do something. I can’t have Laura watching the news. It will mess everything up for me.

I look down at the broken piece of the satellite dish lying on the wet grass in front of me, and I’m satisfied that I have achieved the purpose I came out here with.

There’s no way the TV will be working now.

I quickly return to the car and hop behind the wheel just in time to see Laura open the front door of the cottage and look outside. The rain is bouncing off the windscreen in front of me, but I can make out the confused look on her face as she stands there and presumably tries to figure out what just happened. Without further ado, I get out of the car and run towards the cottage to tell her.

‘Get inside! It’s dangerous out here!’ I call to her as I run towards the cottage through the driving rain.

‘The TV’s just cut out!’

‘I’m not surprised. Half the satellite dish just got blown down by the wind!’

I reach the door and she steps aside to allow me in before I go to close it behind her, but she wants to see the damage for herself first.

‘Don’t go out there! The rest of it might fall down!’ I call, but it’s no use. My wife is stubborn, and she has made her mind up. She wants to inspect the satellite dish for herself.

But I don’t mind. She can look all she wants. The broken pieces of the dish on the ground will only confirm what I have told her. It came down in the wind. We’re in the wilds out here, and it is certainly getting wild out there right now.

In reality, the dish would have survived the weather conditions quite easily, and the only reason it is now broken is because I threw a rock at it a couple of minutes ago. I had to do something to kill the TV signal before Laura could finish watching the news and see the report about Bradley being missing. I don’t want her to know about him yet, just like I don’t want her to know about the fact that there was no hit and run and no Steven Owen.

I need to keep her in the dark for just a little while longer.

As dark as that TV screen is right now.

‘Laura, come back inside!’ I call out into the wind, and I’m relieved when I see her return to the front door a few seconds later, wet and frustrated.

‘How the hell did that happen?’ Laura asks as she returns to the cottage, and I’m finally able to close the door.

‘I told you, the wind got hold of it. We’re on top of a hill up here. It wouldn’t take much to do some damage to this place.’

‘It’s not that windy,’ Laura says as she looks at the black TV despondently.

‘All I know is I was on my way to the car when I heard