The Choice by Gillian McAllister

Author:Gillian McAllister [McAllister, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

19

CONCEAL

It’s late January before I can get a set of keys with nobody seeing. Somebody left theirs in the kitchen, by the tea machine, and I swipe them, quickly.

After that, it’s easy.

I text Reuben and tell him I’m seeing Laura, and after Ed drops me home, I walk back to the library, the bitter January air hurting my lungs. It’s after eight, and there won’t be anybody there, but I look left and right before letting myself in. I look up, too, checking for CCTV. At least I have learned something.

I slide the key into the lock. Attached to the set of keys is a pink pompom dirtied on its ends, the fur turned gray.

The alarm goes off, but I silence it with the four-digit code I’ve watched Ed put in so often—everyone knows it, even the admin assistant—and then it is noiseless, and I am alone inside.

Everything looks eerily different at night. Like an abandoned hospital or jail. The office desks are cast in a strange glow from the streetlamps outside, and the cupboard creaks as I slide the key in and open it.

The lost property basket is almost full, and I get my items out and add them, right at the bottom. It takes twice as long as it should because of my bad hand.

I can’t bear to put the clothes and shoes in a random skip, in someone else’s rubbish. It may be crazy, but I want to know where they are. And to be able to check that they are still here—that they haven’t been found. That my beautiful shoes are here, and their tread cannot be traced back to me. Nobody I worked with ever saw them. They’ll never know they’re mine.

I leave shortly after, hurrying across the car park, my head bowed just in case.

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