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

make things seem a little better. But now we have eaten, I plan to press Adam further on the report of his trip into the village.

After we ran from the car into the cottage and closed the door on the heavy rain, I asked him why he had been gone for so long and if everything was okay. He told me that it was and that the reason for the delay was due to a big queue in the supermarket and a tractor blocking the road on the high street. I imagine that both of those things are quite common here because there’s hardly an abundance of places to shop and the roads are so narrow in these parts that a tractor could easily cause havoc. Lord knows there are plenty of farmers about up here.

This whole region seems to be one big farm.

But I’m worried there might be something more to Adam taking so long to get back to me. I’m worried that he isn’t being completely honest about what he saw when he had a look in the newspapers.

‘There’s really nothing about the hit and run?’ I ask again as Adam washes up our plates in the sink.

‘Nothing at all,’ he replies, and while it is a relief to have him confirm that fact again, I’m still surprised that the discovery of the body in the lane near our house hasn’t been reported on yet by any of the journalists in Carlisle.

‘Why do you think that is?’ I ask. ‘I mean surely the body must have been found by now, right?’

‘I’d say it was impossible for it not to be found,’ Adam replies rather solemnly, and I can tell by how hard he is scrubbing the plates that he is anxious about it.

‘So why hasn’t it been reported? Why would it be kept quiet?’

‘I’ve no idea, Laura.’

‘It doesn’t make sense. It would be big news for any city, never mind ours where nothing ever happens. How can it not be in the headlines?’

‘I just said I don’t know, okay?’ Adam cries, and he drops the plates into the bowl of soapy water, causing them to clatter loudly together and possibly even shatter.

I feel bad for pushing him on the subject. Here’s my husband still trying to wrap his head around having killed a man and I’m pestering him about why it’s not in the news yet. We should be grateful that it isn’t, and maybe we get lucky and it never will be.

‘Are you sure he was dead? What if he was actually okay and he got up after you left? Maybe that’s why it’s not in the news? Because he’s not dead?’

Adam slams the brush down into the water and turns to face me, and I’m not sure if he’s mad at me or just irritated by my rather optimistic suggestion.

‘Do you think I would have dragged us both all the way up here to this bloody cottage if I didn’t have to!’ he snarls at me. ‘He was dead. D-E-A-D. Dead! How many times do I have to tell you?’

‘Okay, I’m sorry,’ I say, rushing towards him and wrapping my arms around him to try and pacify some of his anger.

‘I don’t know why it isn’t in the news yet, but it’s only a matter of time until it is, okay? Is that what you want to hear?’ Adam says as he pushes me away and walks over to the door.

‘Where are you going?’ I ask as he picks up his coat. ‘It’s chucking it down out there.’

‘I need some fresh air,’ he replies, and I watch him zip up his jacket and pull his hood over his head.

‘You’ve been out all morning,’ I protest. ‘I’ve been stuck here on my own.’

But it’s no good. Adam is clearly annoyed at me enough to not want to be around me and the sound of him slamming the door as he leaves the cottage is the last thing I hear before the hammering of the rain on the roof returns.

I look out of the window at the grim weather on the other side of the glass and decide that it’s not worth going after my husband when it’s like this. I don’t want to catch a cold at this stage of my pregnancy. I’m already feeling rough enough as it is without adding a runny nose and a cough to the equation. Instead, I walk over to the sink and check on the state of the plates in the water. As I suspected, one of them cracked when Adam threw them down in his temper. I imagine that his sister wouldn’t be thrilled if she knew that he had just broken one of her plates, but then again, she wouldn’t be thrilled if she knew her sibling was using her cottage as a hideaway from the police either.

I carefully remove the broken shards of porcelain from the bowl and pour the water away before washing the remaining intact plate under the running tap. It’s tedious household chores like this that usually make up a part of my day anyway, so I don’t mind doing it. What I do mind is knowing that my husband is outside walking around in the middle of a field during a heavy rainstorm.

I hope he’s back soon, and I hope he isn’t still mad at me when he returns.

15

ADAM

I wasn’t planning on going for a walk in the rain, but I had to get out of the cottage. Laura was getting on my nerves, and I’ve found the best way to deal with that is to get some space when it happens. Ideally, it wouldn’t result in me getting drenched, but I guess this way gives my storming off even more of an impact. She must know that I’m wound up if I’m willing to subject myself to this awful weather.

But going for this walk serves another purpose other than just giving me some breathing space from my nagging wife. It shows