Читать книгу Louise Voss & Mark Edwards 3-Book Thriller Collection: Catch Your Death, All Fall Down, Killing Cupid - Mark Edwards, Mark Edwards - Страница 21
Оглавление‘And that was it,’ she said, as she finished her coffee. ‘I met Professor Scott, who offered me a position, and I never came back.’
She felt a tug at her arm. Jack said, ‘Mummy, I need a pee.’
‘Okay. Come on. And don’t say pee, say wee.’
When they got back to the table, Paul asked, ‘If only Bainbridge was still alive. I bet he’d be able to help. Are you sure there’s no-one else? Did you have any friends at the Unit? What about your room-mate?’
Kate almost gasped. ‘Yes. Sarah. She was my room-mate on my second visit.’ An image flashed in her head of her and Sarah fleeing the fire. ‘I would have spent most of my time with her. If there was something going on, there’s a good chance I would have talked to her about it.’
Excitement blossomed on Paul’s face.
‘Except I never had any contact with her after I left the CRU.’
‘Oh.’
‘I don’t even remember her surname.’
‘Do you think that if we went there, to see the CRU, it might jog your memory?’
‘It might do.’
‘Right.’ He pulled the laptop back towards him.
‘What are you doing?’ Kate asked.
‘Finding out the quickest way to get to Salisbury.’
Back in their hotel room, Kate packed her and Jack’s suitcases. Her heart was beating fast and her body tingled. It was almost a sexual feeling, a sense of excitement mingled with trepidation about what was to come. Jack was excited too, bouncing on the bed.
‘Don’t do that,’ she said.
He kept bouncing.
‘Jack, get down.’
Tutting and huffing he lay down on his back on the bed and said, ‘Mummy, where are we going?’
‘We’re going for a drive down the motorway.’
‘What’s a motorway?’
‘A highway.’
‘Cool. Are we going in Paul’s car?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t expect it’s as nice as Daddy’s car. Daddy’s car’s really big and fast, isn’t it?’
That’s to make up for his small penis, she thought. ‘Yes, it is.’
‘Mummy, is Paul your boyfriend?’
She couldn’t see herself in any mirrors, but she was certain her cheeks had turned pink. ‘No, of course he isn’t. He’s just my friend.’
‘Your new friend. Like Billy’s my new friend.’
‘Yes, sweetheart. Just like that.’
Her ‘new friend’ was waiting in the lobby. He picked up both of Kate’s suitcases and strolled off with them towards his car, which was in the hotel car park. Kate noted, with another accompanying tingle, that Paul had surprisingly muscular arms. Jack trotted along behind. ‘Mummy, can we stop on the highway for a KFC?’
‘No.’
‘Taco Bell?’
‘They don’t have Taco Bell in England.’
‘How about a Subway?’ Paul asked.
Jack screwed up his face and stuck his tongue out. ‘Eww. I hate Subway.’
Paul said, ‘Right, you’ve asked for it. We’ll stop at Little Chef.’
‘Alright.’
Paul and Kate exchanged a smile, and Jack looked up at them. ‘Paul, my mum said you’re not her boyfriend, just her friend. But she’s married to my dad, so you couldn’t be her boyfriend anyway, could you? Daddy wouldn’t like that.’
Kate groaned. ‘Ja-ack.’
She couldn’t see Paul’s face to ascertain whether he was amused or horrified by the idea. She knew it was stupid, but she would have been crushed if she’d seen a look of horror. And besides, Jack was dead right. Daddy wouldn’t like that at all.
A minute after they left the car park, John Sampson drove in.
