Vanished by Richardson Kat

Author:Richardson, Kat [Richardson, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2011-12-07T00:39:37+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

I knew the address of Will’s flat but I didn’t know where it was in this rabbit-warren city. The tail end of rush hour clogged the streets and I fought for every step toward Oxford Circus. I’d I find a place to search my map once I was in the station’s ticket lobby—I’d make one if I had to. There were eddies near the big maps on the wall that I could stand in long enough to find his street, people I could ask to direct me, poor befuddled American that I was. I’d even play the helpless female if I had to. I’m not religious but I do take the words of gods seriously these days. It’s safer.

Will’s flat was on Whitcomb Street, which my map showed as northwest of Trafalgar Square. Two Underground stations were nearby on a line directly from Oxford Circus and another on a different line. Of the three, I chose Piccadilly Circus, since it was only one stop away. I assumed a famous tourist site like Trafalgar Square would be a madhouse at rush hour on a sunny Friday afternoon, so I hoped I was making the right choice by avoiding it to start at the north end of Whitcomb.

I had no idea what the distance was—my maps didn’t seem quite to scale sometimes, though I knew they must be. The twists and turns of London’s thoroughfares and byways made every street seem longer and farther from the previous one. I ground my teeth impatiently while waiting for the train and then standing in the crush.

I shoved my way out of the train on arrival and dashed up the stairs heedless of others and raising a commotion in my wake. I didn’t care. I ran on, two long blocks down Coventry to Whitcomb and south on Whitcomb. . . .

I was nearly all the way to Pall Mall, almost to Trafalgar Square after all, before I spotted the number I wanted and had to turn sharply, cutting across the street, dancing between cars and trucks as irate drivers honked at me, to dive into a gated courtyard on the other side.

The fact that it was commuter hour and I was wearing business clothes worked in my favor; a man in a business suit was just unlocking the gate as I dodged up, panting, “Lost my key.”

He held the gate, smiling. “S’all right. I’m on my third—flatmates keep takin’ ’em.”

“Thank you,” I said, catching my breath. Now I just had to shake him while I looked for Will’s flat. “I just can’t seem to keep track of things,” I added with an inane giggle.

His smile got a little cooler. “Ah. You’re American.”

I nodded.

“I suppose you know the fellas up on the second floor, then?” he asked, looking a little hopeful, but of what I wasn’t sure. Conversation? A date? Maybe it was just his natural expression, but I really didn’t want him to take too much interest in me, since I was sneaking in. “They seem quite nice.

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