Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

the mood for its upbeat melody right now. That’s because life is good, and when that is the case, music only makes things even better.

I turn off the dirt track that has taken me away from the cottage and pull out onto the main road, but I’m not going in the direction of the village. Instead, I’m headed back towards the city.

I’m headed for home.

I turn the music up even louder as the car picks up speed and I’m even singing along to the few words that I know. I can’t remember the last time I found myself singing, but I know it’s been a while. It’s not really the kind of thing you do when you’re unhappy so that might explain it. But now I’m as happy as I’ve been in a long time, so singing just feels like the right thing to do.

As I press down on the accelerator, I think about my wife sitting in my sister’s cottage waiting for me to return. I have no doubt that she will be mad at me for being gone for so long when I get back, but I’ll have an explanation for that, and if that doesn’t work then the supplies of food will hopefully pacify her in the end.

I wonder what she is going to do to pass the time while I’m away and she was right when she said there aren’t many options. Our phones are off-limits, and even if she did turn hers on, the lack of a signal at the cottage doesn’t allow for sending and receiving messages and checking the internet. Nor does the broken television allow for any checking of the news channels or at least a little entertainment in the way of a film or a soap opera. But that’s only because I turned off the switch on the back of the TV last night when we first arrived at the cottage after Laura had gone to bed. The television won’t work until that switch goes back on and I’m not planning on doing that any time soon. Therefore, there isn’t much to do in that cottage other than read a book, sleep or stare out of the window, and that’s exactly how I need it to be.

It won’t do me any favours to have Laura keeping abreast of the news, so that is why I have made sure she is completely cut off from the world. The only news she will have will be the information I drip feed to her whenever I get back from my “trips into the village.” I will make sure she knows only what I want her to, and not a single thing more. This is my world now, and my wife is just living in it.

I keep my foot on the accelerator and overtake a slower vehicle ahead of me, but I take care not to go over the speed limit. I don’t want to get pulled over by the police now.

It’s not long until I’m back within range of the usual radio stations I listen to and then I’m able to find songs that I know even more words to. By the time I leave the quiet country roads behind and return to the busier streets, I’m singing my heart out.

I bring the car to a stop at a set of traffic lights, but I continue to belt out the words along with the radio, and I notice the woman in the car beside me glance in my direction and smile. I worry for a second that I have drawn too much attention to myself, but I figure it will be okay. There’s not much chance of this driver remembering my face. I’m just a guy in the car singing along to the radio. Not perfectly memorable, I imagine, and that’s just fine by me.

The light changes from red, to amber, to green and I’m on the move again, driving through the streets I know so well. I’m only around ten minutes from our house, but I won’t be going there just yet. Instead, I’m heading for the large building that overlooks the park, two streets over from here. It’s a building that I’ve never been inside before, but I’ve driven past it plenty of times, as well as seen it on numerous news reports on TV over the years. I know exactly what goes on in that building and the kinds of people who work there. I even know one of those people intimately, but that’s a story for another day. For now, I’m focused on the task at hand.

I indicate left then turn onto the street that will bring me to my final destination. A quick check on the clock on the dashboard tells me that it only took me twenty-three minutes to get here. I’m hoping I’ll be in and out of this place within the hour and then I can get myself back to where Laura is waiting for me at the cottage, after picking up a few food supplies of course. She’ll ask me what took me so long and I’ll lie to her, blaming it on a big queue in the supermarket, a farmer’s tractor blocking the road and a need to check multiple newspapers for any reports of the hit and run before I was able to return. It will be all lies, of course, but I can hardly tell her where I have really gone.

I turn into the large car park and bring my car to a stop in one of the few free spots closest to the door. Then I hop out of my vehicle, lock the door and make my way towards the steps that will take me straight inside the police station.

13

LAURA

Where is my husband? He’s been gone ages.

I started off being furious at him for taking so long to come back to me, but the more time that passes, the more I am beginning to worry. What if the police have