The Passenger by Daniel Hurst (great book club books TXT) 📕

all my partner needed to do was to call around and get inside this afternoon. Now he’s there, I’m here, and we’ve got everything we need. Everything except that code. So what do you say, Amanda? Are you going to give it to me, or are we going to have to hurt your daughter?’?’

Amanda doesn’t say a word as her eyes burn into me, and I wonder what she is thinking.

‘I’m not sure what you have to think about, but don’t take too long,’ I say as I sit back in my seat. ‘You’ve got until the end of the line to give me that code, Amanda. The end of the line or you never see your daughter again.’

13

LOUISE

I’m on edge now. I have been ever since my mum phoned me out of the blue and asked me if I was on my own. I have no idea why she would have done that unless she knew I was lying to her. But I’ve been so careful. James only comes around when she is at work, and he has always left long before she returns.

So how could she suspect that I’m not alone?

I try to tell myself that I’m just being paranoid, but it’s no good. The chances of her calling me while James is here and asking if I am on my own are too small to be random. She must know about him somehow. But how?

Maybe one of the neighbours in the other flats have seen him coming in during the day and told her. But surely she would have had a go at me there and then. Why ask me the question? Why give me a chance to lie about it if she already knows the truth?

Unless she doesn’t know. Maybe she just has a suspicion. Maybe she has no evidence. Maybe I’m not in as much trouble as I think I am. But one thing is for sure.

I need to get James out of this flat now before she gets back.

I leave my phone on the kitchen counter and hurry back into my bedroom, where I’m frustrated to see my boyfriend still lying underneath the duvet. I’ve been telling him to get up and leave for the last half an hour, but he keeps ignoring me. Okay, I didn’t exactly persuade him to leave when I climbed back under the duvet with him earlier, but now I am up again, and I need him to be too. Mum is on her way, and she seems to suspect that I’ve been lying to her.

‘Get up now! I’m not messing about this time!’ I say to James as I pull the duvet from the bed and reveal his semi-naked body on the bedsheet.

‘Hey! It’s freezing!’ he cries, but I ignore him.

‘Please, James. It’s not funny. My mum is coming back!’

I’ve no idea why he is being like this because he’s never done this before. Usually, he is quite keen to leave after he’s got what he wanted, but for some reason today he is refusing to put his clothes back on and get out of the flat. It’s almost as if he is doing it on purpose to wind me up even more.

‘Okay, keep your hair on,’ he tells me, but that only gets me even more annoyed.

‘I’m being serious! You have no idea how much trouble I’ll be in if she finds you here. Get out!’

‘Hey, calm down!’ James replies, and while he doesn’t start putting his clothes back on as I wish, he does at least get out of bed. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asks me, clearly having realised that I’m more tightly wound right now than usual.

I think about not telling him about what my mum said on the phone, but then I figure it’s the only way to make him understand why I’m so anxious.

‘Mum just called me and asked me if I was on my own.’

‘She asked you that?’ James replies, looking puzzled.

‘Yeah. I don’t know why she would do that unless she suspected me of having somebody here, so she must have found out about you.’

‘How could she know?’

‘I’ve no idea, but why else would she ask me? You need to get out now. Come on, get dressed!’

I pick up James’s jeans from the floor and throw them at him before scooping up his T-shirt and jacket from the other side of the room. I wish he were in as much of a rush to put his clothes on as he was to take them off when he arrived here.

‘Okay, okay, I’m going,’ he says as he pulls his jeans up and fastens the top button.

‘I’m sorry. Maybe you can come around again in a couple of days. I just need to figure out what Mum knows before you do.’

‘No problem,’ James replies. ‘Can I use the bathroom quickly?’

‘Be quick!’ I tell him, and I push him out of my bedroom as he pulls his T-shirt over his head.

He stumbles into the side of the doorframe as he goes, and I feel bad for rushing him, but not as bad as I would do if my mum walked in and caught sight of a guy coming out of my room.

As I hear the bathroom door close, I check my mobile to see if there are any more calls or messages from Mum for me to worry about. But there are none, which is a mild relief although my paranoia is still in overdrive.

A check on the time tells me that her train is due in thirty minutes, which doesn’t leave me long to get James out and tidy up around here, but it should be enough. Maybe I’ll do a bit of extra tidying in the kitchen too. That might put Mum in a better mood when she walks through the door, and that might stop her asking me any more questions about what I have been up to all day.

As I wait for James to emerge from the bathroom, I