Lucy's Great Escape by Rosie Green

Author:Rosie Green
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Published: 2020-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I sit there, stunned, unable to make any sense of it.

Then I have a terrible thought.

What if I’m imagining things again?

Not spiders in a drawer this time. But my best friend’s name mysteriously scribbled on the back of a business card?

In a panic, I snatch up the card and stare at the name written there.

Amber Winters.

I’m definitely not imagining it!

‘Everything okay?’

Gabe is back with my drink.

I look up at him uncertainly, and he frowns and sits down, and I hold up the card. ‘Is this yours?’

He looks at it and his expression freezes. He doesn’t even have to look at it more closely. I can tell he knows exactly what it is, and that somehow, he’s slipped up.

My heart thudding, I force the words out. ‘Who’s Martin Forbes? And why is my friend’s name written on the back?’

I’m desperate for there to be a simple explanation; for him to smile and shake his head and tell me something that allays all my fears. But instead, he stares at me with the saddest look. Then he closes his eyes and bends his head, running both hands slowly through his hair.

‘Gabe?’ I’m frightened now. What’s going on?

He looks up, his eyes finally locking on mine. ‘Martin Forbes is a friend of mine,’ he says softly. ‘A private investigator. I said I’d help him out.’ He takes in a long breath and blows it out slowly. ‘Last week, he phoned me. He’d had a call from a woman. She was desperate to find her friend, who’d left without telling her where she was going. She had a hunch she’d headed here, to Pengully Sands.’ He shrugs sadly. ‘Martin asked me to find you.’

I stare at him, hardly able to believe what I’m hearing.

‘Amber knew I’d be here?’

‘It seems so. Apparently, you used to take the camper van down here for holidays with your mum?’

I nod.

‘Amber just wanted to know that you were safe. She panicked after you left and found Martin on-line. She must really care about you, Lucy.’

I swallow on the lump in my throat, imagining Amber’s worry. I was in such a state the day I fled, I didn’t stop to think of the effect my leaving would have on my best friend.

‘Are you okay?’ he asks softly.

I look up at him through a mist of tears. My throat hurts so much, I’m afraid to swallow. ‘I’m fine,’ I say stiffly, getting up. ‘Thank you for dinner but I’m going now.’

‘No.’ He rises, almost knocking his chair over. ‘Stay. Let’s talk about this.’

‘There’s nothing to say. Everything I thought I knew about you was false. We didn’t just ‘bump into each other’ that day outside the park when you gave me a jump start, did we? Or that day at the newsagent’s? And I presume you were trailing me when I dropped my notebook climbing The Rocks?’

His weary expression tells me everything I need to know.

‘I thought so.’ I swallow hard. ‘You’re not a very good private eye. I knew I was being followed.

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