SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2013
AFTERNOON
Anna turns on her heel and runs into the house thesecond she sees him. My heart hammering againstmy ribs¹, I follow cautiously, stopping just short of thesliding doors. Inside, they are embracing, his armsenveloping her, the child between them. Anna’s headis bent², her shoulders shaking. His mouth is pressedto the top of her scalp, but his eyes are on me.
“What’s going on here, then?” he asks, the trace ofa smile on his lips. “I have to say that finding youtwo ladies gossiping in the garden when I got homewas not what I expected.”
His tone is light, but he’s not fooling me. He’s notfooling me anymore. I open my mouth to speak, butI find that I don’t have the words. I have nowhereto start.
“Rachel? Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
He relinquishes³ Anna from his grasp and takes astep towards me. I take a step back, and he startsto laugh.
“What on earth’s wrong with you? Are you drunk?”
he asks, but I can see in his eyes that he knows I’msober and I’m betting that for once he wishes Iwasn’t. I slip my hand into the back pocket of myjeans—my phone is there, hard and compact andcomforting, only I wish I’d had the sense to makethe call already. No matter whether they believed meor not, if I’d told them I was with Anna and herchild, the police would have come.
Tom is now just a couple of feet away fromme—he’s just inside the door and I’m just outside it.
“I saw you,” I say at last, and I feel euphoria,fleeting but unmistakable, when I say the words outloud. “You think I don’t remember anything, but Ido. I saw you. After you hit me, you left me there,in the underpass?.?.?.”
He starts to laugh, but I can see it now and Iwonder how I never read him this easily before.
There’s panic in his eyes. He shoots a glance atAnna, but she doesn’t meet his eye.
“What are you talking about?”
“In the underpass. On the day Megan Hipwell wentmissing?.?.?.”
“Oh, bullshit,” he says, waving a hand at me. “I didnot hit you. You fell.” He reaches for Anna’s handand pulls her closer to him. “Darling, is this whyyou’re so upset? Don’t listen to her, she’s talkingabsolute rubbish. I didn’t hit her. I’ve never laid ahand on her in my life. Not like that.” He puts hisarm around Anna’s shoulders and pulls her closerstill. “Come on. I’ve told you how she is. She doesn’tknow what happens when she drinks, she makes upthe most—”

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