Chasing Innocence

Chasing Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Chasing Innocence Read Online Free PDF
Author: John Potter
Tags: thriller
venturing between the high bricked walls and their shadowy embrace.
    ‘Hello, are you all right?’ Her voice faded into the dark. She chastised herself for being scared, took a deep breath and stepped fully into the alley. It was empty. She walked its full length to the car park.
    It was open here and brighter from natural light, the car park half full, her Toyota several spaces from the exit. She looked through each plausible space, out to the snaking line of brake lights. Still no sign of the girl. She could feel a numbing cold crawl across the back of her skull.
    There were a few people. A thin man in muddy cycling gear was fastening a bike to a roof rack. A tall man, shifting a box between his arms, maybe a microwave, unlocked the boot of his car. Two children chased a Labrador in circles, their mother waiting by a car, hugging dry cleaning. Sarah circled, uncertain, wondering if the girl might be in the car. She was not.
    ‘Can I help you?’ The mother’s expression was aghast beneath heavy make-up. Sarah’s attempt to see into the car had taken her right next to it.
    ‘Sorry, I was wondering if you’d seen a girl walk past, maybe ten or eleven, so high?’ She demonstrated the girl’s approximate height with the flat of her hand.
    ‘She’s not yours then?’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘The child, not yours?’
    ‘No, we’re out with friends, their girl has wandered off.’
    The woman did not look convinced but called for her husband. Grey hair bobbed up over the roof of the car, shaking his head at the same question. He ushered the children away from a departing Rover patiently idling, the man with the microwave. The cyclist was now leaning against the rear of his car changing shoes.
    Sarah thanked them and reluctantly walked back to the alley, checking through all spaces and pathways, the queue of traffic. There had been no time for the girl to completely vanish, surely?Something was wrong though, some elusive detail she had seen but not yet realised. The numbing cold at the back of her skull was now spreading across her shoulders, moving down her spine. She felt increasingly disorientated, her brain instinctively trying to slow her down, having already unconsciously processed that detail.
    She walked back into the alley, pacing out the seconds and the girl’s possible movements. How long had she looked away for? She stood on the verge of the High Street. There was still no sign of Adam and no sign of the girl. The detail was still elusive, the tension reaching across her back and pulling the muscles tight. She looked at her watch impatiently, realising she was early more than Adam was late. Then the detail did wriggle free, and with realisation came a starburst of fear for the girl. She threw a quick glance into the street, hoping Adam might magically appear. She forced stiff limbs to action, turning into the alley and trying to make herself run, but her body would not obey her. Her legs felt heavy like concrete. She stumbled and fell against the wall and down onto her knees.
    Sarah could have missed the girl. She might have been lost to the busy street or disappeared amid the aisles of Boots. She knew that, but it did not matter to her. The elusive detail was the weight in the box. A microwave would be heavy for her but not for the man lifting it into the Rover. He was tall and broad. The box he lifted looked like something heavy was inside, something heavier than a microwave.
    Only this mattered to Sarah, now verging on panic at her inability to stand. She could feel her legs but had no control over them, aware of every passing second. She could only think of the girl’s future, she did not need to imagine it. The images exploded in her mind, and with the images came anger, adrenalin surging and fury thumping through her veins. Sarah dug her nails into the palms of her hands, drawing blood as she pushed up through her legs, her eyes fierce. Managing to stand, using the wall and her shoulder, willing her legs to
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

September Song

Colin Murray

Bannon Brothers

Janet Dailey

The Gift

Portia Da Costa

The Made Marriage

Henrietta Reid

Where Do I Go?

Neta Jackson

Hide and Seek

Charlene Newberg