A Trick of the Mind Read Online Free PDF Page B

disappear and they would have no idea where to begin to look. I’d let my preoccupation lead me into the jaws of real
danger.
    The footsteps were accelerating now, they’d grown heavier, were getting close.
    I reached my car. Fumbled for the keys I’d dropped deep into the small pocket of my cardy. I tried to control the trembling of my fingers. Why had I locked the car door? Had I imagined
there might be a car thief out here at this time of night? I should have left the headlights on, the door unlocked for a quick getaway. I’d been operating on automatic as if I’d parked
in the street outside our Mile End flat where people were paranoid about car theft, instead of in this country lane.
    Why hadn’t I brought Pepper?
    I longed to be with the others now. Not here, driven by the kind of irrational thoughts I’d believed I’d stopped having.
    The figure from the van was closing up now, his stride long. I glanced up. His face – what I could see of it, the bottom half shrouded in a scarf, the top shaded by his hoodie – was
pale in the night.
    I pressed the button on my key fob twice.
    My fingers were weak. Nothing happened. I was frozen, my fingers disconnected from my brain, my will. I forced them to do as I wanted.
    He was maybe ten metres away, his feet scrunching on the road, closing in on me.
    At last the locks clacked open. I pulled open the driver’s door. Fell in, slammed it shut.
    Pressed the lock again. My fingers felt like rubber.
    I put the key in the ignition. He was there, a face hovering a few inches from the windscreen.
    I started the engine. Put my foot on the clutch.
    A thump on the window. Then the face disappeared from view. He was coming round to the door as the car jerked into motion.
    I had my foot on the accelerator. I pulled away too quickly, stalled. He was at my door now, his eyes leering above the scarf that shrouded his mouth and chin, a broad nose, eyes set far apart.
I tried again to get the car started. It hiccupped, lurched, stalled again. He had hold of the door handle. I didn’t want to look at the face, and I pulled away, but I did look, caught
another glimpse, this time he was mouthing something. I left him on the verge, shouting inaudibly as I headed back to the sea.
    ‘Where have you been, Ellie?’ Chiara stood in the kitchen doorway. ‘You were ages! I was going to come and look for you!’
    ‘The shop was shut. I tried somewhere else, but . . . you know.’
    ‘We tried your mobile,’ Louise said, joining us, ‘but you’d left it in the sitting room. We were worried.’
    ‘I’m fine,’ I said.
    ‘Scatty as ever,’ said Chiara, putting her arm round me. ‘She went for dog food! At this time!’
    Louise yawned. ‘I could’ve sent Guy to get some in the morning. He’ll want a run.’
    ‘You are nutty sometimes, babes,’ Chiara said. ‘Pepper isn’t going to starve if he doesn’t get breakfast at the crack of dawn. You’re over-compensating for
Frank.’
    ‘Who’s Frank?’ Louise asked.
    ‘The old man across the corridor from us in London,’ Chiara said. ‘Ellie’s taking care of Pepper for him while he has heart surgery. He told her he was afraid Pepper
would die before he did.’ She was chuckling. ‘And Ellie told him she was sure he wouldn’t.’
    ‘That was tactful!’
    ‘I felt dreadful. It sounded like I was hoping Frank would die first,’ I said. My voice came out weak, wobbly.
    ‘She was being nice,’ Chiara said. ‘Weren’t you, Ellie?’
    ‘I didn’t want him to worry, he was going through such a lot.’
    ‘So you offered to look after his dog?’
    I shrugged.
    Chiara hugged me.
    ‘Ellie’s always kept an eye on Frank. She’s got the kindest heart. My philosophy is if you always try to do the right thing – in the end you’re bound to do the
opposite!’ She squeezed my shoulder. ‘I keep a bit of a distance myself.’
    ‘Anyone would’ve looked after the dog in those circumstances,’ I said.
    ‘I