The Role Model: A shocking psychological thriller with several twists by Daniel Hurst (read aloud TXT) 📕

Entering the large reception area, I look around for any sign of the peroxide blonde in the red dress, although I know it is just my mum in disguise. But I don’t see her anywhere, and although that is disappointing, it does almost confirm where she must be instead.

She must be upstairs in one of the rooms.

I consider going over to the reception desk and asking the uniformed man standing behind it if he knows what my mum is up to, but that will most likely be a waste of time, so I decide to take a seat on one of the sofas in the lobby and wait for Mum to reappear again.

Keeping my eyes on the lifts nearby, I watch as the doors slide open and closed, depositing various guests of the hotel out into the lobby from their rooms upstairs, but none of them look like my mum. I see bellboys, security staff and hospitality workers rushing by looking busy or bored, but still no sign of her there either.

After a while, I check the time on my phone and see that it has been almost an hour since she disappeared inside here. The suspense is killing me.

I have to know what is going on, and I have to know now.

I’m just about to get off the sofa and try my luck with the receptionist when the lift doors slide open, and I see a flash of red mixed with bright blonde. Slinking back down into my seat, I watch as my mum walks out of the lift and hurries past the reception desk, her heels clattering loudly on the marble floor of the lobby as she goes. She hasn’t seen me from where I am sitting, and part of me feels a little nervous about making myself known to her in case she is on some kind of job for the police, so I wait until she has left the hotel before I go after her.

Pushing through the glass doors, I see that she has stopped just outside the hotel and is leaning against the side of the building as she removes her heels. She almost has her trainers back on by the time I arrive beside her.

‘Mum, what are you doing?’

The surprise of my sudden appearance causes her to drop one of her heels, and she looks at me as if she’s seen a ghost.

‘Chloe! What are you doing here?’

‘What are you doing here? I thought you were meeting Jimmy?’

Mum looks around as if she is checking that nobody else is here that might recognise her.

‘Why are you dressed like that? What are you doing?’

My questions keep coming thick and fast, but Mum’s not giving me any answers yet. Instead, she quickly finishes changing her shoes and puts her coat over her dress before pulling me away from the hotel and leading me down the street.

‘You shouldn’t have followed me. I told you to stay at home,’ she says as we cross the road without looking, causing an oncoming car to stop to allow us past.

‘You told me you were meeting Jimmy at the park. So why are you here?’ I ask, turning it back onto her. ‘Is he here? Did you give him the money?’

Mum quickens her pace even more, but I’m not prepared to rush like this all the way home, and certainly not if she isn’t going to talk to me.

‘Mum, stop!’ I cry, pulling on her arm so that she has no choice but to comply.

She turns to look at me, and it’s only now we are so close and in broad daylight that I see how much makeup she has on to go with the red dress and the ridiculous heels. If I didn’t know she’d dyed her hair blonde before I saw her in that hotel, then I almost wouldn’t have recognised her.

‘I can’t tell you,’ she says, but even she knows that’s not going to be good enough.

‘Mum, you’re scaring me,’ I tell her, shaking my head. ‘What are you doing?’

That seems to get through to her, and she softens a little before looking around and nodding towards the café a few buildings down the street.

‘Let’s go in there,’ she says, leading me towards it. ‘And then I’ll tell you what I’ve done.’

29

HEATHER

I get a cappuccino, and Chloe opts for a skinny mocha before we take our seats opposite each other at the table in the busy corner of the café.

I wish I could have something stronger to drink, but there will be time for that later. I could have taken Jimmy up on his offer of champagne in that hotel room, but I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could. But any relief I was experiencing about getting it over and done with was cut short when I was accosted by my daughter only seconds after leaving the lobby and pulling my heels off.

‘So, what were you doing in there?’

I had hoped that I might have been able to take a sip of my coffee before I had to answer that, but Chloe is obviously in no mood for patience.

‘I was meeting Jimmy,’ I reply, and she raises her eyebrows at me.

‘Really? I thought you were on some kind of undercover job for work,’ she says.

I shake my head, although I wish I had been clever enough to think of that. It would have been a much better excuse, but it’s too late now.

‘Why were you meeting him there? I thought you were doing it at the park?’

‘He changed his mind. Said he wanted me to go to the hotel instead.’

Chloe eyes me sceptically for a moment, obviously trying to figure out if I am telling her the truth, so I take the opportunity to break eye contact to go in search of a packet of sugar from the little holder at the edge of our table.

‘So you went