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

and I know exactly where she is going, but I’m not letting her get away from me now. I don’t even care about the safe at this moment.

I just want to hurt her.

Giving chase, I quickly catch her up and dive on her before she can make it to the front door. We wrestle on the cold, hard tiles of the kitchen, but I quickly gain the upper hand and have her pinned beneath me, where she continues to try to wriggle free but is unable to escape my grasp.

‘Let’s see how you like it when I hit back,’ I say, and I’m just about to get my revenge on my troublesome prisoner when I feel the vibration in my pocket.

I use one arm to keep Louise pinned beneath me as I take out the phone with my free hand, and that’s when I see the message. I was hoping it was the code but no such luck.

“Plan is cancelled. Leave the flat and meet me at the station.”

What does he mean the plan is cancelled?

‘Get off me!’ Louise cries as she continues to writhe beneath me, but I keep my body weight on top of her as I try to figure out what could have caused this message to be sent to my phone.

The only way the plan would possibly be cancelled would be if my partner saw no way for it to be successful. Has something happened on that train? Is Louise’s mum a more formidable foe than we thought?

I need to find out before I leave. I can’t just take his word for it. We’ve come this far. I have to know why he wants to give up now. But I can’t do that until I deal with the problem of the escaping prisoner.

‘Stop it, or I’ll hurt you!’ I say to the woman beneath me, and I raise my fist to emphasise my point.

But Louise refuses to give in, and she’s clearly willing to take a beating as long as she has a chance of escape. My fists aren’t enough to threaten her. But the knife I held to her feet earlier clearly was.

I reach out for the drawer above us where I found that first knife and fumble around inside for another one. It’s not easy with Louise trying to escape beneath me, but I feel the cold, hard steel of another blade in the drawer and lift it out before holding it above my head so she can get a good look at it.

‘No!’ Louise cries, and she stops fighting instantly, clearly afraid that she has pushed me too far and I’m about to plunge this knife into her as punishment.

‘I meant it when I said I didn’t want to hurt you,’ I say. ‘But I will if you keep fighting!’

Louise’s fearful eyes remain on the blade above her head.

‘If I get off you, then you have to promise not to try to run again, or I swear to God I will kill you.’

Louise nods her head, and I slowly climb off her and get to my feet. I keep a firm grip on the handle of the knife as Louise crawls away from me until her back is resting against the kitchen table, where she sits and watches me, cowering in fear at what I might do next.

But for the time being, she is no longer my biggest concern. What I need to do is find out why the plan is cancelled. I haven’t put myself through all of this for nothing, and I’m not prepared to walk away from a safe full of money unless there is a damn good reason to.

But I’m not going to waste time sending a text message back to that train and waiting for a response.

Instead, I’m going to call.

32

AMANDA

Come on. Text me back. Tell me you have left the flat.

I’m still standing in the train toilet, waiting to get a response from James to say he has left Louise alone before I use this phone to call the police, but so far there is nothing. The radio silence is making me more anxious as my imagination runs wild as to why there has been no response yet.

Has he even seen the message? Is he ignoring it? Is he harming Louise right now?

The shock from the phone suddenly vibrating in my hand almost causes me to drop it, and I look down at the screen to see an incoming call.

It’s James.

I panic as I try to figure out the best thing to do. I obviously can’t answer it because then he will know it’s me and not his partner, but if I ignore it, then what will happen? But if he is calling because he suspects something is wrong, it will only make things worse if there is no answer.

What do I do?

My finger hovers over the screen, and I’m just about to make my decision when there is a loud knock on the toilet door.

‘Hello? Is everything okay in there?’

It’s a male voice, but I don’t recognise it. It’s definitely not the man I’m hiding from. But where has he gone?

‘I’ve got your boyfriend out here, and he’s worried about you,’ the voice says.

My boyfriend? What is he talking about?

Then I figure it out. My pursuer must have explained away all the commotion as an argument between a warring couple. I bet he’s making out like he is the concerned boyfriend right now and I’m the troubled girlfriend. But I’m not going to let him talk his way out of this that easily.

‘He’s not my boyfriend!’ I call back.

That should do it, and the silence from the other side of the door suggests so. But I can’t relax yet. I look down at the phone and see that it’s no longer ringing.

I didn’t answer.

What will James think of that?

‘Look, I don’t want to get involved in any dispute the two of you may be having, but you can’t stay in the toilet,’ the man