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

when they do, the police will check the CCTV. They’ll see my car drive past, and they’ll get the registration number. Then they’ll come here and ask me where I was. I can’t face that, Laura. I can’t do it.’

Adam buries his face in his hands again, and I’m almost mad at him for being so useless at a time when I need him more than ever. But most of all, I’m mad because he is right. There are cameras on that lane. The police will be able to see exactly who drove along it and at what time. Based on the time of day the accident occurred and how remote the lane is, I doubt there has been much traffic along there since then to add to the list of suspects.

‘We have to call the police. Things will be so much worse for you if you don’t,’ I say, just as I feel another kick in my belly, and Samuel’s enthusiastic squirming is a reminder of how much is at stake for us right now. It’s not just mine and Adam’s life that could be ruined tonight. It’s an innocent baby boy’s too. I don’t want to have to raise a child on my own but most of all, I don’t want my child to spend the first few years of his life making visits to a prison just to see his father.

But what else can we do?

‘Let’s pack some things and just leave,’ Adam suggests, suddenly grabbing my hands. ‘We need to go tonight. Before the police can find me. We’ll run away. We can go anywhere. We’ll be together. We’ll have Samuel. This doesn’t have to be the end for our family. It could be the beginning.’

I stare at my panic-stricken husband as if he’s a crazy prisoner speaking his last thoughts while awaiting his fate on Death Row. He’s gone mad. He has to know that running isn’t an option. So why is he still looking at me like he’s serious?

‘We can’t just run away!’ I cry, pulling my hands away from his even though I’m desperate for the comfort of his touch right now.

‘Can’t we?’ Adam replies, and I’m struck by the sudden switch in his demeanour. He no longer looks timid and terrified.

He looks like he has a plan.

‘What about our family? Our home? Our jobs? And what about the police? They’ll find us and then what? Things will be even worse and not just for you. I’ll go to prison too and what will happen to Samuel if we’re both locked up?’

‘What will happen to him if we don’t go?’ Adam asks, turning the questions back onto me. ‘He won’t know his father until he’s starting secondary school. And will you be able to bring him up by yourself? You won’t have the money from my wage for a start.’

‘We won’t have any money if we run! Yes, things will be bad if we stay, but they will be so much worse if we go.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Adam asks me, and the fact that I don’t have an immediate answer tells me that I’m not sure at all. Yes, running away would be bad but would it actually be worse than staying and going through the hell of trying to raise a newborn child while my husband goes through a doomed trial and begins a lengthy prison sentence?

I don’t know, but I can’t believe it’s a dilemma I’m even having to contemplate. Ten minutes ago, the only thing I had to worry about was getting a couple of hours of sleep in between Samuel kicking me. Now, I’m trying to figure out if I want to watch my husband get put into the back of a police car or pack a bag and run away with him.

I put my hand on my stomach again and I can feel Samuel in there wriggling away.

Meanwhile, his parents are in the outside world trying to wriggle out of this.

4

LAURA

‘If we’re going to go, then we have to go now,’ Adam says to me as if I needed the reminder of how fast the clock is ticking.

I don’t need that reminder because I’ve already spent the last few minutes running through every scenario in my head. It’s been half an hour since Adam came home. The lane is quiet at this time of night, but another motorist must have been down there by now and spotted the dead body. Presumably, they weren’t quite so eager to flee the scene, meaning an ambulance would have now been called to tend to the victim. Based on our remote location, that would have taken around fifteen minutes to arrive so it might be there already, it might still be on the way. But one thing is for sure. There won’t be anything they can do for the poor guy lying on the concrete road when they do try and help him.

Then it will be a matter for the police.

I don’t know how long it will take them to check the camera footage on that lane, but when they do, it won’t be long until they spot Adam’s car and make a visit to the address it is registered to. It won’t be tonight, but it will probably be tomorrow. That means that in twenty-four hours, I could be all by myself in this house, and I will be left that way for many years to come. Or worse, we’ll have to sell the house because we can’t afford it with Adam behind bars and I will have to move into a cramped council flat, where I will try and raise Samuel to the best of my inexperienced ability while making several trips back and forth to the local prison to visit my husband while he serves his time.

It’s the kind of life you see a character living in a television drama. It’s the kind of life I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. But