Black Sands by Carl Goodman

Author:Carl Goodman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2014-12-05T05:00:00+00:00

18

Somewhere on the far side of Godalming the road became a lane. Dark, deserted, lined by dense woodland. The Surrey Hills were stunning by day and hard to navigate at night, but it was quiet and they weren’t followed. Lauren’s friends’ house stood next to farmland with a copse of trees behind it. It had a thatched roof. A small stream ran through the back garden and in another life it was the kind of place Danny would have sold a small piece of his soul for. That night it just looked warm and safe.

Lauren turned into the cobbled drive. The security lights flared in their faces. She drew to a halt outside the house. She grabbed her briefcase from the small back seat of the sports car, dug into it and pulled out a bunch of keys. ‘I don’t know about you but I need a drink.’ Danny didn’t argue.

The alarm bleeped. The air inside felt cold and musty. She disappeared into the depths of the house. After a few moments he heard the distant rumble of a boiler starting up. Lauren called down to him from somewhere upstairs.

‘Would you start a fire?’

He wandered into the living room, turned on a couple of table lamps and found an old stone fireplace. He found logs, kindling, and matches. Suddenly the mundane task seemed like it could be the most pleasurable thing in the world. After a couple of attempts flames licked at the logs. The logs began to glow. He heard a noise behind him and saw Lauren had raided the fridge. She’d found a mixture of leftovers and a couple of bottles of red wine.

‘What do we do now?’ She dumped the tray on the floor, poured and passed a glass to him. She downed her glass in one and poured again.

‘We contact Reeves in the morning,’ Danny said, watching her. ‘We should do it tonight but if we do we’ll be questioned again. I’m too tired for that right now. It’ll be easy enough to back up our story though.’

‘Why?’

‘Do you have any idea how many speed cameras you ran on the A3?’

She stared at him. Her eyes were moist again. ‘I did go through a few didn’t I? It doesn’t matter. He couldn’t have been behind us. I’d have seen him.’ She sounded so certain, Danny thought. She’d convinced herself. She was probably right. ‘He couldn’t have caught us,’ Lauren said. ‘I wouldn’t have let him.’ He watched her down a second large glass of red wine then start on a third. On balance it didn’t seem like a bad plan. He finished the first glass and poured himself a second.

‘I did that,’ she slurred after a while. ‘I got us out of there. I did that. I’ve never done anything dangerous before. The nearest I’ve ever come to danger was jumping a five foot fence on a two year old gelding. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time.’

She hadn’t felt like that when they’d fled Danny’s flat.

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