Shadows of the Past Read Online Free PDF

idea. I couldn’t see a thing through them, so she’s probably lost without them.” Paul stood up, saying conversationally, “So where are you off to this afternoon?”
    Knowing that Paul had often commented on his many lonely dinners, Franc just tapped his pocket. “Anywhere that takes me past where she lives.”
     

    Maria couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken the car out. Working in the city, she traveled mainly by bus. It was convenient and less hair-raising than driving over the Auckland Harbour Bridge each morning and evening.
    She unlocked the car and slid inside, placing her purse on the passenger seat along with the chocolates she’d just bought. If she started the car, she could leave it running while she went in to change out of her lilac crop top and shorts.
    Key in the ignition, she turned it, pressing down on the accelerator at the same time. The starter engine turned over a few times then faded away. She turned the key again with less success than before.
    Nerves tightening, aware there was no one she could ask for help, she gripped the key in a death lock. The third attempt ended in a couple of clicks.
    She recognized that sound, it meant the battery was dead or the connection was loose. Her brothers were always on at her to turn over the engine occasionally between her visits home. Now she wished she’d taken their advice. In contrast to her vision, her hindsight was always twenty-twenty.
    In no time at all, she’d popped the hood and stood blinking into its dark depths. The battery was easily recognized. She wiggled the connection. It seemed nice and tight apart from the green gunk sprouting from under the plastic cover.
    Shifting her exploration to the trunk, she grabbed the tool kit and unrolled it on the concrete. The huge screwdriver looked handy, so she grabbed it.
    As she stood, she felt the back of her neck tingle as if someone had laid a cold hand on her nape. Her stomach plummeted like a bird in freefall while the rest of her was shocked into immobility.
    e was here.
    As she began to take stock, Maria wrapped her hand round the metal shaft of the screwdriver, holding it like a club as she took a deep breath then whirled around.
    The heavy frames on her old glasses slid down her nose as she spun. Great, now she could see nothing. She pushed the black frames higher on her nose with the back of an oil-smudged hand.
    Over the last month there’d been times when she’d balanced on the edge of panic. Since the first day she’d felt someone’s eyes on her, there had been other occasions with no one in sight when she knew he’d hidden to watch.
    Like now.
    The air bristled with static energy that prickled her skin as if a storm was brewing, but with not a cloud in the sky she knew that wasn’t the reason.
    On the edge of the garden, the bushes stirred between the villa she and her friends rented, and the one next door. She started to shake. Why had no one put in fences? They helped keep people out.
    Stop!
    This is what he wants. Don’t give him the satisfaction. A few deep breaths in out, in out, that’s it. Calm down and find the courage you took to the party last night. He can’t scare you if you don’t let him.
    The next-door neighbor’s cat, Mimzie, sauntered out of the bushes, tail high. It looked straight at her, as if to say, “It’s only me.”
    Only him. She wanted to believe that desperately.
    But the creepy sensation she got when she felt him watching her hadn’t gone. And to pretend that it had would be a cop-out.
    “Everything all right, Maria?”
    Her eyes lost their focus as her thoughts turned inward. Someone was walking up the driveway; he wore a white T-shirt and dark blue jeans. Not Randy, thank heaven. It was one of the young guys from a house down the street. “My car won’t start…Tony, am I right?”
    He reached the top of the driveway and moved into the shade of the carport. One hand pushed a lock of straight surfer-blond hair from his eyes. His