Coming to Find You by Jane Corry

Author:Jane Corry [Corry, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Thriller(Domestic)
ISBN: 9780241996119
Published: 2023-06-14T14:00:00+00:00

32

Despite my words, I am shaking with fear. I try to reassure myself. Prison is a secure place. He can’t get out. Then I remind myself of Judith’s words. No grounds for appeal.

I try to think of something that will calm me down. I know: I’ll get down the recipe book and start making a cheese quiche. It was one of my mother’s favourite recipes. How often had I watched her make pastry by hand? ‘The trick is to get all the lumps out of the flour,’ she would tell me.

I pick some spinach I had spotted in the overgrown vegetable patch. I parboil it and line the case before adding garlic, grated extra-strong Cheddar cheese and sliced vine tomatoes. Then I put it in the Aga. The simple domestic routine helps.

Until the phone rings again.

Alex.

He rushes in before I can speak. ‘Claire’s told me about Martin harassing you. I don’t like the sound of it.’

‘It’s not your business any more,’ I say curtly. ‘Especially after what you did. It turns out I don’t know you as well as I’d thought.’

‘If you’re referring to the car accident, Claire told me that, too. Jasmine’s lying. Her brother was driving.’

‘Why should I believe you?’

‘So you believe someone you’ve hardly met rather than the man you were going to marry?’

He sounds hurt. ‘We have to meet. Please, Nancy. We could go somewhere neutral. How about Stonehenge the day after tomorrow? It’s halfway between us and I have a job near there.’

‘I don’t know …’

‘I beg you. Give me a chance to explain myself.’

And against my better instincts, I agree.

When I pull up at Stonehenge, Alex is already waiting in the car park.

Despite myself, my heart gives a flip.

‘You came,’ he says. He doesn’t move to hug me. Maybe he knows I’d step aside if he did.

‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’

‘I wasn’t sure. Shall we walk?’

Sheba is straining on the lead. I can’t let her off here. There are tourists, and the main road is not far away. Besides, she has become my security blanket.

‘We need to talk about how to keep you safe.’ His mouth is set. His jaw clenched.

‘You’re not engaged to me any more,’ I point out. ‘It’s not your responsibility, Alex. What I really want to know is why you lied about seeing Martin’s letter in Jasmine’s room? Did you want to make her look bad because she knows about your past?’

His mouth sets again. ‘First of all, I didn’t lie. It was there. I saw it. It was pieced together with sticky tape as if it had been torn up and put back together.’

Alex speaks so firmly that I almost believe him. Then his voice gets quieter. ‘But you’re right. I do have a past that I am ashamed of. Jasmine doesn’t know the half of it.’

‘Tell me,’ I say grimly.

We’re standing in front of one of the huge stones. What stories have they heard in their time? Worse than the one I suspect I’m going to hear now? Sheba sits by my feet, as if waiting too.

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