GASLIT: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller packed with a twist you won't see coming by RR Haywood

Author:RR Haywood [Haywood, RR]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 1899 Inc
Published: 2024-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

13

I stopped myself from charging off across the lawns after the tracks.

Partly because it wouldn’t achieve anything, and partly, or rather, mainly because the hangover was killing me.

I don’t normally get hangovers that bad. But then I don’t normally have unsupervised access to my own bar.

But either way. I didn’t charge across the lawns. Instead, I pottered about the house and drank coffee.

I went down into the basement a few times too. But I didn’t get locked in.

Nor did the jukebox turn itself on, and no chairs were knocked over, and my arse was definitely not slapped.

Not that I particularly wanted my arse slapped.

But you know. I’m just saying it wasn’t slapped.

What I did do, against my better judgement, was some exercise.

It hurt like hell in places that I didn’t even know could hurt, but I figured sweating the booze out of my system would help. I couldn’t physically feel any worse.

I set off up the driveway, with my head pounding and my guts churning. I started sweating quickly, and I was feeling cold and clammy, and weird, and all sorts of not right.

At which point I bent double and puked the nice, regular-sized cooked breakfast that Maggie made for me onto Lord Huntington’s nicely manicured verges.

Which was a shame because I really enjoyed that breakfast.

I thought I’d pass out when I puked. I felt faint and dizzy, and actually wondered if I was having some kind of seizure or something.

Then it eased off, and surprisingly, within a few minutes, I actually felt better.

I figured the vomiting had purged some of the booze or something. I don’t know. I just know I was able to carry on running up the drive and then down again, which was a bit weird when I passed my pile of spew.

I hoped some night creatures would eat it. Like foxes or rabbits, and then I hoped Cooper would catch the rabbit and eat it, and then he’d be eating my puke.

Which is what got me thinking.

That thinking then carried on while I was doing exercises in the courtyard. I wondered what Cooper had to gain from his attempts to scare me.

What was his motivation?

The cop TV shows and movies always bang on about motivation, as though every offender needs a solid reason for doing something.

Sometimes, they don’t.

Sometimes, people do bad things just because they can.

Or because, like Tessa said, they’re fucking weirdos and obsessive.

Cooper could be nursing a smouldering hatred of life in general, and then I come along and tell him he’s not allowed in the house he’s had access to his whole life, and something goes pop in his head.

That happens a lot.

Undiagnosed bipolar and paranoid schizophrenia, and psychosis are far more common than people realise, and you add any of those conditions to a bleak, isolated place like this, and well…

Or he might actually have a proper motivation.

Tessa did say two women went missing.

Or rather, a man phoned her office and told her that two women had gone missing.

I was going

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