The Tower Grave Read Online Free PDF

you.”
                  He nodded and backed down the path onto the road, watching them as he went. Smiling one more time, he turned away in the now dark street and began the two mile walk to his flat, his life changing forever.

     
     
     
     
     
    Four
     
    June 4 th 2014
                  It was the hottest day of the year so far as John put on his Ray-Ban aviators and drove through the Essex villages out towards Bradwell and the training site. He smiled to himself as he glanced in the rear view mirror. Sophie had always mocked his ‘Top Gun’ Ray-Bans as she called them, but he’d loved them for years and since her approval the previous night, he finally felt like a free man. It was the first time for a long time, he thought as he smiled and checked out his glasses again.
                  She’d finished their marriage because of his work, and the entire time he’d continued working he’d allowed himself to feel guilty for not making the effort. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. For two years he’d been alone, holding on to the idea that they may re-unite; but she’d moved on and he knew it. She’d met skinny Steve, the kids were happy, and he should be happy that way too. Somehow her approval of the job allowed him to realise that it was truly over. He could handle that, he thought, now that he knew it to be so. He reached down and turned up the radio in his eight year old Ford Mondeo, making a mental note that he needed a new car as soon as possible. He smiled again as excitement shot through him and with a shout of childish glee he put his foot down to accelerate through the country lanes.
                  It wasn’t long before he passed the famous Bradwell Power Station and drove through along the coast, following Derek’s directions to the farm he would live in.
                  “Nine forty five,” he said to himself with satisfaction as he pulled in to the winding lane to towards the house. His arrival time was scheduled for ten-thirty but he had wanted to be early. It wasn’t that he felt he had to be a ‘first in, last out’ kind of boss; but on this occasion he wanted to set an example and get a measure of his team as they arrived one at a time. He finally turned into the long, dusty driveway of ‘Tolkley Farm’ as it was sign-posted and pulled up in front of a large farmhouse with what looked like converted stables leading out from it in a long, white-wooden, low outbuilding. The surrounding crop fields looked well-kept, and had at least five or six large barns spread about across them with a number of vehicles sat waiting outside each.
                  He was beginning to feel excited. The stress and thrill of living permanently under another persona with absolutely no second chances for slipping up was an immense challenge and he loved it. Beyond that, he was going to experience the fifteenth century. Who had done that? He was going to time travel, he would live in history and the thought of it was amazing.
                  He stepped up to the thick, oak front door of the house and knocked, glancing around at the huge sand blocks making up the outer wall and listening to the series of bolts and a loud keypad being opened inside.
                  “Hello, Mr Bridge,” said a pretty young woman as she opened the door.
    John looked back, lost for words for a moment as he took her in. She instantly struck him as attractive and he smiled nervously, feeling different in his new ‘free-man’ skin. Possibly in her late twenties, she had straight, blonde hair tied back into a tight pony tail with a neat fringe just below her eyebrows at the front. She was petite and athletic, and wearing what looked like well-fitted horse-riding clothes. John was impressed.
                  “Hi,” he replied, trying to sound confident and cover his moment of silence. “I’m here for Derek