The String Diaries Read Online Free PDF

would take him to the London Road and the motorway. He had no time to debate his options further. The latter seemed a sensible choice so he swung the Stag to the right and felt its three-litre V8 press his seat into his spine as he moved up through the gears.
    Within minutes, houses on both sides gave way to fields. He overtook a lumbering Talbot Sunbeam and found clear wide road in front of him. Charles watched the needle on the speedometer creep past eighty. He marvelled at his new-found recklessness. But Nicole – or Amélie, or whatever she was really called – was fleeing, and the only way he was going to catch her was by taking a risk.
    He saw the green glint of a car in the distance.
    Spurred on, Charles pushed the Stag harder. He quickly closed the distance between himself and the Hillman and had to brake violently as he came up behind her. He knew she would not be able to hear his horn at this speed so he flashed his lights instead. The distance between them was too great to see her clearly in her rear-view mirror. He jinked the car left and right, flashing his lights again to attract her attention.
    In front, the older woman strained around in the passenger seat. Then, instead of slowing, the Hillman began to gain speed. Both cars were rapidly approaching the rear of a large articulated lorry. The Hillman swerved out into the oncoming lane. It overtook the lorry and canted back in front of it just in time to avoid a collision with a car heading towards them.
    ‘Jesus Christ!’
    What was she doing?
    The artic swerved, rocking back and forth on its suspension. Its air-horn blasted.
    Hugging close to the back of the lorry, Charles was forced to wait for another three cars to pass in the opposite lane before he could overtake. It took him a further minute to close the distance to her Hillman again.
    She was not going to stop for his flashing lights, but his Stag was a far more powerful car. Checking the road ahead was clear, he pulled out to the right and accelerated. She anticipated the move, also moving right, and he braked just in time to avoid clipping the Hillman’s rear.
    Charles pulled back in behind her, swearing and shaken.
    Perhaps thinking that he was going to try the same move on her left, she swerved to block him. This time she reacted too aggressively and as the car rocked over, its left-side wheels drifted on to the grass of the siding. Brake lights flared red, and suddenly the back end of her car was weaving wildly. Charles went right to avoid the fish-tailing Hillman, which bobbed, slid, and veered off the road towards the field on its left. It tore through brambles, hit a bank. The front end reared up and the car lifted into the air, sailing clear of a hedgerow. It seemed to hang in the air for an age. Then the front end nosed downwards and smashed into the field’s sun-baked earth.
    The first impact tore off its front wheels. Glass shattered. Metal body panels sheared and spun away. The Hillman bounced, steaming and smoking. When it landed a second time, it slewed around to the right.
    With shocking and violent energy, the vehicle flipped.

C HAPTER 3
    Snowdonia
    Now
    Hannah Wilde was still gripping Nate’s hand in the kitchen of Llyn Gwyrwhen something hammered against the front door of the farmhouse. Her stomach muscles clenched and she felt herself doubling over, as if reacting to a physical blow. Panic swelled in her, a tangible pressure in her chest. For a long moment she felt too frightened to think or move. Her eyes darted to the darkened hallway. They returned to her husband’s face.
    A single unvoiced question: who?
    For the space of three breaths, silence dominated. Then the hammering resumed. Four heavy resounding bangs that made her flinch as each one landed.
    Leah .
    Her daughter was still asleep in the back of the Discovery.
    Alone. Unguarded.
    Hannah felt her scalp shrinking, her skin prickling.
    How could anyone have found them so soon? Even her father didn’t know their