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

‘How do I do that without it seeming suspicious?’

‘I don’t know. Just ask her if she can delete it. Tell her you are embarrassed about it because it shows your wife and another man together. Use your imagination!’

‘And what are you going to do?’ Are you going to help?’

‘This is your mess. You clean it up.’

Gemma opens the door again. Our conversation is clearly over.

I shake my head at her and walk out.

I guess I am sorting this problem out on my own then.

58

KAT

My home life is still as troubled as it was when I decided to escape to the cottage for some alone time a few weeks ago, but at least it isn’t as bad as my brother’s. I might have to deal with a grumpy, unhelpful partner in Martin, but Adam has to deal with a cheating and bed-ridden partner in Laura. I’ll take my problems any day.

‘Kat, your brother’s here!’

I hear Martin’s voice from downstairs, and I go into the hallway and look down to see Adam entering the house. I wasn’t expecting him, and it’s not that long since I last saw him, so I have no idea why he is here now. But based on all the drama in our lives recently, this visit could be about anything.

‘Hey bro,’ I say as I head down the stairs towards him. ‘What’s up?’

‘Not much,’ he replies, a little awkwardly.

Knowing my sibling as well as I do, it looks like he is trying to appear casual, but he seems as stiff as a board. I wonder if he has been drinking again. I know he likes a beer or ten when things get stressful, but I hope he hasn’t driven around here if he’s already started on the booze today.

‘Is Laura okay?’ I ask, more out of concern for him rather than for her.

‘Yeah, she’s fine. But she did mention something to me earlier.’

‘What’s that?’

Adam pauses before answering as Martin walks through the hallway again. The two men nod at each other awkwardly before my husband disappears into the living room where I can hear a football match on the television.

‘Laura said you had a camera at the cottage?’ Adam eventually says to me when he seems to be sure that Martin is out of earshot.

‘A camera? Why would she say that?’

‘Do you?’

‘No, of course not.’

I shake my head for emphasis. There is definitely no camera at the cottage.

‘We thought about putting one in when we got it. Remember, we told you. But we didn’t do it in the end.’

Adam looks bemused.

‘Why would Laura say that you told her about a camera?’ he asks me.

‘I’ve no idea, but she’s lying. It wouldn’t be the first time, would it?’

I feel bad for my last comment and go to apologise but Adam barely even seemed to notice it. In fact, he’s already halfway out the door again.

‘Is everything okay?’ I call after him as he leaves and heads down the driveway.

He waves his hand above his head as he goes to signal that it is, but the fact that he is in such a rush tells me something is wrong. I watch him as he gets back into his car and he doesn’t wave goodbye as he drives away.

I presume he is going back home to speak to his wife, but by the sounds of it, he isn’t going to get much sense out of her. I have no idea why she would say that we had a camera there. I explicitly told her that we didn’t only yesterday when I visited her. I guess that woman’s mind really is as scrambled as the doctors say.

Oh well, what a shame.

I’m just about to close the front door and go and tell Martin to turn the TV down when I notice the parked car opposite with two men sitting inside. They are both looking at me. I’m not sure how long they have been out there and why they are so interested in me standing on my doorstep, but they are definitely watching me.

I close the door and head to the window, passing the TV and getting told off by Martin for interrupting his view of the screen as I go. But I ignore my husband and peer through the blinds to see if the men in the car are still there, and I catch sight of them before they drive off the street, leaving in the same direction that my brother just went in.

59

ADAM

My hands squeeze the steering wheel as I speed back home to where my wife is waiting for me. I’m tense, I’m confused, but I’m mostly anxious. I want to know if Laura made a mistake with her memory when she told me that Kat had a camera in the cottage.

Maybe she got mixed up. Maybe she is remembering fragments of past conversations when Kat mentioned the camera way back when we first started going to the cottage. That’s probably what it is. Nothing to worry about. The doctors said she would suffer with her memory and cognitive function for a long time after the carbon monoxide poisoning. I guess this could just be another example of that.

So why do I feel so stressed?

I turn the corner onto our street and increase my speed until I reach our driveway, parking up as quickly as I can and running out of the car back into the house. This reminds me of the night I came home from the work party and pretended to Laura that I had been involved in a hit and run accident that had killed a man. But unlike that night when I was acting, my fear now is very real.

It’s the fear that my wife is playing games with me.

I unlock the door and head inside, and I don’t need to call out to my wife because I already know where she will be. She’ll be on the bed resting because she hasn’t