WHO FOLLOWS: a gripping, dramatic, intense and suspenseful thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

film seen many years ago but as I tread deeper along the spongy path the night transforms and I am transported in time. I can almost see it from this two years distance, her head lolls against my shoulder, her body, wrapped in a sheet is surprisingly heavy and I stop several times to rest. The fear comes back, much diminished but still it clenches at my gut and causes me to gasp. I hadn’t forgotten but I now remember vividly and it is more awful than I had thought.
    It is deeply dark now and I need to hold my hand in front of me to avoid colliding with the trunks and take care that I don’t trip on partly buried roots. That night I had brought a torch because I had gone back and forth, once with the bundle in the sheet and then back for the spade from the boot of the car and then lastly for the small bag of belongings that I needed to dispose of.
    It is there now before me, the clearing. How peaceful it seems. Quiet in the gloom and monotone, just shadow and yet deeper shadow with here and there the glow of a white rock or a piece of litter. I think I remember the very tree and slowly I approach. Yes, yes this is the one. It is a huge willow and at the base I know that the rich soil and green moss are imbued with decay.
    My knees have at last let me go and I flop to the earth, I am overwhelmed with feelings I don’t understand. It is a strange passion, recognition of the magnitude of the deed and then atop that relief that all is as it was, there is no sign of disturbance and I realise that this has been cathartic for me. It has actually been beneficial to come here and be where she is.
    “Maria, how different it could all have been.”

Chapter 14
    I sat for quite some time beside the great tree. The rain stopped and though the trees dripped and the grass dampened my jogging pants it was peaceful and for the first time in two years I allowed the horror of that dreadful night to invade my thoughts.
    Ah Maria. I had believed that she was the answer to my loneliness, she was young yes, and so she was fresh and new. She was charming and a little flighty. Her blonde beauty took my breath whenever I watched her moving and laughing and living.
    I remembered how the connection between us had grown from the time when we met in the pay queue in the supermarket. She had never known how I had watched her, worshipping her from a distance for weeks. How I had waited outside the hospital until she came off duty and how I had paced back and forth along the road where her little flat was just for a momentary glimpse as she walked to her car.
    As the relationship grew we had taken meals together in the little cafes near her home. We had visited bars local to the hospital and all the time I had nursed the idea that we would make a life together. She moved in with me as a lodger and then after a week of bliss I judged the time ready for my declaration.
    That dreadful night. The nightmare of it all came back and as I sat on the damp grass I heard her laughter again and the mocking words with which she cruelly rejected my advances. I heard again the crack as the heavy lamp connected with the bones of her skull and the soft shushing as her limp body crumpled to the floor.
    Oh my God, I cried for the horror of it all there in the dripping woodland. I cried for the fear, the panic and the grief. I shook like the quivering leaves above me as I re-lived the desperation and the enormity of my actions. I sobbed as I remembered what I had done to preserve my existence. I had wrapped the still warm body. Collecting the few belongings that she had moved into the little bedroom I left my house with her for the nightmare drive to the Heath. I dug in the dark woods. Now I imagined I could hear again the heavy thud her body made as it rolled over the heap of earth I had piled beside the shallow hole.
    I stopped my mad mindrace. I drew a deep breath and I stood. For a moment I bowed my head in sorrow. There was no use for this and so I straightened my