Run Away by Laura Salters

Author:Laura Salters
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062403582
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-05-19T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

July 17, England

“HYPOTHETICALLY . . .” SADIE PAUSED to take an enormous bite of something so crunchy it could only have been a raw carrot. The sound of her teeth gnawing through the hard orange flesh rattled through the phone like screws caught in a vacuum cleaner, followed by an emphatic gulp. “Do you think Sam had any plausible reason to . . . do this to himself?”

Kayla had rung DI Winters, who’d dashed out of her office to take the call, and informed the detective that neither Russia nor Dave had seen Sam fall and drunkenly break his hand. She’d also recalled the mysterious black eye that materialized at the Full Moon Party, with little explanation of its origins. She had instinctively reached for her phone to call Sam and ask what had really happened before realizing she couldn’t. When you’ve lost someone close to you, those fleeting moments of forgetfulness, followed by sharp pangs of painful remembering, are more gut-­wrenching than the acres of dull grief stretching out before you.

Kayla considered Sadie’s suggestion. Sam might have been troubled, but he seemed far too stable a character to resort to such a drastic means of escape. Then again, she knew better than anyone that depression can be hidden—­nobody had seen Gabe’s death coming. Besides, Sam had been acting strangely during those last few weeks abroad. She shuddered at the possibility that her actions might have contributed to his end. No. I refuse to entertain that idea. I’m already dealing with enough guilt.

The garrulous detective mistook the brief break in conversation for uncertainty and set about articulating her train of thought. “I mean, I know the logistics don’t exactly fit. How would he slit his wrists, or something like that, bleed all over the apartment, then disappear off the face of the earth?”

The mental image of Sam crawling around in agony, trying to find a ditch to disappear into forever, made Kayla want to vomit. Sadie was lovely, but not exactly tactful. She was more concerned with the science of the mystery than the human angle.

Another carroty chomp. Kayla envisaged her standing on a busy pavement outside a high-­rise office block, waggling the vegetable around to illustrate her points to oblivious passersby. “All the facts suggest he was removed from the apartment by an external figure. But who? The lack of any concrete suspects does make you wonder, doesn’t it?”

It did. It was exactly that—­the lack of anything concrete—­that was torturous to Kayla. She was sick of looking through a cloud of mist at vague theories and lethargic conclusions. “Honestly?” she said. “I can’t see Sam killing himself, or even trying to. For one, he was a med student. Don’t they, I don’t know, value life? And secondly, his tolerance for pain was pretty low.” Kayla remembered his near-­hysteria over a wasp sting at the beginning of the trip. “I doubt he could . . . inflict any on himself.”

“Ah. I see. And I suppose most ­people with such a disposition would opt for a less .

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