Accidents Happen by Millar Louise

Author:Millar, Louise [Louise, Millar,]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com)
Published: 2013-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

After saying goodnight to Jack, it took Saskia twenty minutes to race to Kate’s house in east Oxford. She pulled across the bottom of the driveway. Kate’s car was there. Good.

The car clock said 10.15 p.m. Saskia blinked. It was late to burst in, but this couldn’t wait. If Mum caught a whisper that Kate was planning to move back to London all hell was going to break loose.

Saskia glanced up at Kate’s house and pulled on her handbrake crossly. How come she had been elected intermediary in all this? She had her own problems. Lights were on in the sitting room and upstairs. As Saskia turned off the engine, she saw a shadow cross past the curtain in Jack’s room.

Good. At least Kate wasn’t in bed.

Exiting her car, she looked around. Hubert Street always felt so quiet at night, despite its closeness to the bars and restaurants of Cowley Road.

‘Right,’ Saskia muttered, marching up to Kate’s front door. A security light burst into life as she rang the bell. What was the option? The last thing any of them, including Jack, needed was Social Services accusing Kate of emotional neglect or asking for a mental health assessment.

The upstairs hall light shone dimly through the glass of the front door. She waited, tapping her foot, for Kate to arrive.

Nothing happened.

Saskia pressed the bell again, then followed it with a rap of knuckles on the glass.

Seconds passed. ‘Kate?’ she called, irritated, through the letterbox. ‘It’s me – Sass.’

Saskia opened the letterbox wide, only to find that Kate had fixed a plastic cowl on the other side to stop people reaching in to take keys.

‘Kate!’ she shouted, aggravated.

Saskia walked backwards and took another look up.

The light in Jack’s room had gone off.

What was Kate playing at?

Scowling, Saskia fumbled in her bag, took out her phone and rang the house number. A second later, she heard Kate’s phone ring out in the hallway. Five times, before the faint rumble of the answer machine reached her ears beyond the front door.

Either Kate was ignoring her or something had happened. Had she accidentally locked herself in behind that stupid gate?

‘You OK there?’ a man’s voice said, right behind her.

Saskia jumped about two feet in the air. She whipped round, and found the weirdo from next door standing in Kate’s driveway.

‘Yes,’ she said abruptly, her heart hammering. ‘I’m fine.’

He was so tall close up. Towering above her, with his weird pale eyes staring through greasy glasses.

‘I thought you were maybe a burglar,’ he said, grinning. ‘Lot of burglars in this street, you know? I keep an . . .’ He pointed his fingers at his eyes, then at Kate’s house. ‘For her. You know?’

Saskia could smell beer. She looked out again at the silent street.

‘Er. I’m not a burglar, but thanks,’ she said, turning her back on him and rummaging desperately in her bag for Kate’s spare keys.

‘It’s nice to help people, you know?’ the man said, a tone of defensiveness creeping into his voice. He put out a hand and leaned against the doorway as if to steady himself.

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