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

‘Much better. Thank you.’

He looks around the room as he takes a seat, but I know this isn’t the first time he has been here. I phoned the police yesterday when Adam was out and asked to speak to the detective who was in charge of my missing person’s case, and this is the man they put me in touch with. We spoke briefly on the phone, and I asked him if he would be willing to visit me when my husband was out. Thankfully, he agreed.

‘Can I get you anything?’ I ask him before taking a seat myself.

‘No. Thank you. I’m actually rather busy so if we could just get on with it.’

I nod at the detective, understanding his apparent lack of enthusiasm for being here. As far as he is concerned, I am nothing more than an adulterer who caused him to waste his time looking for me when I was shacked up in a cottage with a lover. But there is so much more than that to my story, and I’m finally about to let him know it.

‘Since I came out of the coma, I’ve told everybody that I don’t remember being at the cottage or what happened to me,’ I begin. ‘The doctors. The police. Even my husband. They all think I have suffered memory loss.’

‘That’s what I heard too,’ the detective replies.

‘But I’m lying,’ I say, doing my best to keep my voice steady even though I am terrified about finally getting to tell the truth. ‘I do remember what happened at that cottage. And it’s not what everybody thinks.’

For the first time since he arrived here, Detective Cleevely actually looks interested in what I am about to say to him, so I don’t waste his attention. I quickly run through everything that happened regarding my affair with Bradley, how we both ended up at the cottage together and how my husband and his policewoman accomplice planned to kill us and make it look like an accident. By the time I am finished, he looks like he is regretting not taking me up on my offer of a drink.

‘That’s quite a story,’ he replies, scratching his head. ‘But it sounds like that’s all it is. Unless you have any evidence of course?’

I shake my head.

‘That’s why I didn’t tell anyone as soon as I woke up in hospital. I knew there was no evidence because Adam told me there wasn’t before he left me to die in that cottage.’

‘Well then it’s going to be a problem proving your story,’ the detective tells me, and I agree. Fortunately, I have a plan.

‘But what if Adam and Gemma thought there was evidence? Like security footage, for instance.’

‘And why would they think that?’

‘Because I would tell them there was.’

Detective Cleevely runs his hand across his stubble and lets out a sigh. I’d have thought he would be excited by the prospect of a dramatic case to solve landing right in his lap, but he looks more tired than anything.

‘You say Adam’s partner is a policewoman?’

‘Yes. She’s called Gemma, but I didn’t get her surname.’

‘Okay. Well, let’s say all of this is true-’

‘It is,’ I interject.

‘If it is then obviously we need to look into this. It sounds like you have a plan to help us do that. So why don’t you let me in on it and I will be able to tell you whether or not it can work.’

I smile at the detective because I am sure it can work.

In fact, I’m certain of it.

56

ADAM

I close the front door and let out a deep sigh. I’ve just got back from the hospital after visiting Samuel but any goodwill I was feeling towards the baby after the initial birth has now dissipated. Just as I thought before he was born, Samuel reminds me of nothing more than my wife’s betrayal.

I only have to look at his little face to be reminded of Laura and Bradley sneaking into those hotel rooms together, which is why I was willing to sacrifice the baby’s life in the first place. I knew I would find it impossible to be around this child, and I was right. But I have to force myself to that hospital every day to stand by the side of that incubator and look as if I am the father because that’s who everybody thinks I am. Not going to the hospital would attract unwanted attention to me so I must persist. But it’s getting harder each day, and it’s just as hard coming home to the woman who should have been dead by now.

I take off my coat and shoes and march wearily up the stairs on my way to the bedroom to visit Laura again. I detest seeing her just as much as that baby, but I have to keep monitoring her recovery if only to make sure she isn’t starting to remember anything about what I did to her yet.

I reach the bedroom door and open it slowly, unsure if Laura will be sleeping or not. But I see her sitting up in the bed reading a magazine, and she smiles at me as I walk in. She actually seems pleased to see me, which is a good thing, I guess.

‘How is Samuel? Did you take another photo?’ she asks me, and I nod my head before taking my phone from my pocket and finding the image I snapped in the hospital. Laura has been asking me to take pictures of her baby when I visit because she can’t be there to see him herself for the time being, and I have been begrudgingly obliging. I can’t wait to delete these photos off my phone, but for now, I have to smile and show them to my wife.

‘Oh my god, he has got a little bigger. You can see it in the picture, can’t you?’ Laura cries, and I nod my head.

‘Yeah, he’s definitely put a little weight