The Nurse by Valerie Keogh

Author:Valerie Keogh [Keogh, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2023-07-20T23:00:00+00:00

29

I left Carol in the car park and headed down Prior Park Road into the city. She hadn’t offered to drive me anywhere although she could have dropped me on the London Road where I’d have been able to get my bus, or near Alice Park where I’d have been easily able to walk home. It didn’t matter. I could catch a bus in the station which would probably fly past her dented old Toyota on the bus corridor.

As I approached the station, I had a change of plan. It wasn’t a long walk to Lansdown Road for someone as used to walking as I was, and thirty minutes later I was standing outside the Wallace house.

What I had discovered in that locked room near the kitchen was interesting but putting it together with what Carol had told me made it fascinating. Reading about true crime and the devious, infamous perpetrators was one thing, seeing a crime enacted was something else. I’d seen photographs of Jeffrey Dahmer – he’d been a good-looking man. From the photographs I’d seen of Oonagh Wallace, she too was good-looking. But with her I could manoeuvre a meeting and see her in the flesh. Maybe even become part of the story.

That fascinating thought kept me lingering by the gateway, staring up at the massive house. For the first time, I regretted I didn’t have a car. If I did, I could have sat in it and watched the house till she came out. A vague idea crossed my mind. I could ring the doorbell and explain I’d lost something the day I’d been helping Carol, and since I was passing I decided to pop in on spec to see if I could find it. Even to my ears, that sounded far-fetched. Anyway, it came with an insurmountable problem. I’d have to explain why I’d been needed. Mrs Wallace might complain to the agency, and Carol would get into trouble. Might even be suspended. And they’d need a replacement. If I could have guaranteed that I’d be it, I might have been tempted, but I couldn’t. Since I wanted to know more about the Wallaces, it was better to keep Carol in situ.

It was irritating to have come all this way for nothing. I walked past the house, turned, crossed the road, and dawdled back. So frustrating to be this close. Crossing the road again, I turned to pass one last time. I could ring the doorbell, say I was collecting for something or other, couldn’t I? No, that wouldn’t work, charity workers all carried identification. She might ask to see it.

It would be simpler to ring the doorbell, and when she answered, to look surprised and say I was looking for – I sought for a good imaginary name – Sally Prior, no, Sally Park. It’d do.

I walked to the steps leading up to the front door and looked for a doorbell. It took a few seconds to find it, hidden as it was under the ivy that slithered upward from the garden.

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