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

‘I’m sorry! I’ll give you the code! Please leave her alone!’ I beg.

Then the line goes dead.

‘No!’ I scream, jumping up from the toilet seat and checking the phone. But it just confirms what I feared. James hung up on me, and now I have no idea what is happening in that flat.

I desperately hit the button on the phone’s screen to call him back, and I pray that he will pick up, but several rings later I have no luck. ‘Answer the phone!’ I cry out, tears welling in my eyes.

I’ll never forgive myself for this. I’m responsible for my daughter’s death. I should have just given them what they wanted an hour ago, no matter what I was trying to hide. But it seems like it’s too late now.

I call James three more times, but there is still no answer, and every second that ticks by means there is a greater chance that Louise is paying the price for my reckless actions.

If only I could speak to him. If only there was some way to make him stop.

Then I have an idea.

I quickly unlock the toilet door and pull it open, bursting back out into the carriage and hoping to see his partner standing outside, waiting for me.

But he’s not here.

No one is.

‘No! Where are you?’ I call out, looking both ways frantically down the train for any sign of the man. But he’s gone.

I make a decision and turn left, heading back in the direction of the table where we were sitting. Maybe he has gone back there. Hopefully, I’ll find him sitting in his original seat, and I can get him to send James a message and stop him from whatever he is doing right now. I’ll tell him how sorry I am, and I will give them the real code.

No more games.

I try calling James again as I keep moving past the rows of seats, but there’s still no answer, and every second that goes by is making me feel sick with dread.

How will I be able to live with myself if Louise gets hurt?

I reach the carriage where the man and I sat for the majority of this journey, and I hold my breath as I look towards our table at the other end.

Is he there?

No. The seats are empty.

I make it back to the table as if to double-check, but the fact it is unoccupied was already clear.

‘No, no, no! Where are you?’ I say to myself, attracting a few strange glances from the sparsely seated passengers around me. ‘The man who was sitting here. Have you seen him?’ I ask them, the desperation clear in my voice.

A couple of them shake their heads, but most of them just bury their faces back in their mobiles, and I’m left standing in the aisle, devastated and afraid.

I look down at the phone and think about trying James’s number again, but I fear that too much time has already passed. Instead, I slump down into my old seat and hold my head in my hands, and it’s not long until the tears start to flow.

I’ve never been a crier, not even after all the bad things that have happened to me over the years, but none of them compare to what might have just happened now.

I may have just lost the only person in the world I really care about.

‘What’s the matter, Amanda?’

The recognisable voice sends a shiver down my spine, and I spin around to see its owner standing over me with a grin on his face.

‘I believe you have something of mine,’ he says, reaching down and snatching his phone from my hand.

I have no idea where he just came from, but I’m relieved to see him.

‘You have to get through to James! Make him stop!’ I cry. But he’s in no rush to do as I ask. In fact, he seems to be revelling in my distress as he slowly retakes his seat opposite me and looks down at his phone.

‘I see you two have been chatting,’ he says as he scrolls through his phone log. ‘What’s the matter? Things not go to plan? Isn’t it annoying when that happens?’

‘You have to get through to him! He’s going to hurt her!’

‘Of course he is. You haven’t done what we asked. You knew the rules, Amanda.’

‘We’re not at the end of the line yet!’ I protest. ‘You said I had until the end of the line!’

‘That was before you stole my phone and locked yourself in the toilet,’ he replies. ‘And that was also before you tried to impersonate me to call the whole thing off.’

He turns his phone around to show me that he has found the message I sent to James where I pretended to be him, and he shakes his head at my petulance.

‘You broke the rules, Amanda, so you can’t be mad if James does the same.’

‘Please! You need to speak to him! Tell him to stop!’

‘And why would I do that?’ he asks me.

‘Because I’ll give you the code,’ I reply, swallowing hard.

He studies me, obviously suspicious, but I hold my hands up as a way of letting him know that I’m done playing games.

‘Type it in here,’ he says, handing me his phone, and I do as he says, pressing the correct eight numbers that will unlock my safe and expose my secrets and lies to their new owner.

I hand the phone back to him and watch as he writes out a message before he presses send and puts his phone in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

‘I’ve sent it. But at this point, I can’t guarantee that James will even see it, let alone act on it. That’s your fault, Amanda, not mine.’

I say nothing.

Instead, I just stare at the horizon through the train window. It’s a pretty sunset on the south coast, and the sky has a reddish glow to it. But it’s not much