Stand by Me by S.D. Robertson

Author:S.D. Robertson [Robertson, S.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008223465
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-10-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

NOW

Monday, 23 July 2018

‘You!’ Ben yelled at the woman banging on his car window.

It seemed a strange response to Elliot, who’d got over the initial shock of the noise and was now more concerned that she didn’t cause any harm or damage. Who the hell was this crackpot, with her yellow teeth and whiskery mole, and what did she want?

‘Get lost,’ he said, waving his hand at the window, signalling for her to leave them alone. Then he told Ben and Chloe not to worry. ‘It’s okay. The doors are locked. She can’t get in.’ He turned back to look at the road ahead. ‘The lights will change in a minute and I’ll be able to pull away.’

‘No, don’t,’ Ben cried out, drawing Elliot’s attention to the back of the car again. ‘I know her. She was on the bus with me earlier. I think she has my—’

Before Ben could finish his sentence, the scruffy woman answered it for him by reaching inside her grimy parka and pulling out a brown leather shape. She held it up against Ben’s window and mouthed something Elliot couldn’t understand.

‘Yes, look. She’s got my wallet! Could you pull in?’

Elliot and Chloe eyeballed Ben in unison.

‘Seriously, mate?’ Elliot asked, open-mouthed.

‘Yes!’ He was scrabbling for the window winder – a manual one, which his hand eventually grasped – but it must have been seized up, as he didn’t seem to be able to get it open.

A sudden angry din of car horns drew Elliot’s attention back to the traffic lights, which he saw were now green.

‘Crap. The lights have changed,’ Elliot said. ‘There are heaps of cars behind me. I don’t think I can pull over.’

Before anyone could stop him, Ben unlocked his door and swung it open. ‘Quick. Jump in,’ he said to the woman, sliding across to the other side of the back seat. ‘We can’t stop here, but I’m sure we can pull in around the corner or something.’

She did as he said, to the accompaniment of more blasting horns, and then finally Elliot was able to pull the car away, waving an apologetic hand in the rear-view mirror in a bid to placate the angry motorists behind.

‘Hello again,’ the woman said calmly to Ben, as if getting in a car with him and two strangers was the most normal thing in the world. Handing him the wallet, she added: ‘I believe this is yours. You dropped it on the bus. I did try to tell you that after you got off, but—’

‘Yeah, I’m so sorry about that,’ Ben replied. ‘I totally got the wrong end of the stick. I thought—’

‘Um, is anyone going to tell me what’s going on here?’ Elliot piped up, having opened his window to counter the eye-watering reek that had entered the car along with Ben’s odd guest.

He’d taken a right turn after the traffic lights into a quieter road and was now scouring the vicinity for somewhere safe to stop.

‘He’s got an unusual accent on him,’ the woman said to Ben, unfazed.

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