Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah

Author:Sophie Hannah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

14

Dom wasn’t happy about handing over his car to me, once I’d dropped him at the Huntingdon station.

“Why am I the one who has to get trains and taxis home?” he asked.

“Please, Dom.”

“I understand why you want to talk to this receptionist, but why do you need my car for that? Why can’t I just drop you at the school? I assume this Lou woman has a car—can’t she drop you at the station once the two of you have had your chat?”

“I don’t know how it’s going to go. If the conversation ends badly, I’ll be in no position to ask favors by the end of it. I don’t want to risk being stranded,” I told him, wondering if he’d see through the excuse.

I’m meeting Lou after school finishes for the day. That’s an hour from now. It means I can get to the car park well before that and be in position to catch another glimpse of Thomas Cater, and maybe Emily too, if she comes with whoever’s picking her brother up today. Dom’s car has tinted windows, making it unlikely that I’ll be noticed inside it, though there’s a chance that if Kevin Cater or “Jeanette” turns up, they’ll recognize the car as the one that was parked on their driveway while they lied to us.

There’s nothing I can do about that. I’m not sure it matters, in any case. I’ll be there legitimately, to meet Lou, which I can say if anyone bangs on my window and gives me a hard time; I’ve been invited. Whether I’m watching or not, Thomas will have to walk out of the building and over to the car park area. No one will be able to stop me from seeing him. They’re hardly going to put a blanket over his head so that I can’t catch a glimpse of him.

Who is “they”?

Who will come to collect Thomas? I’ve got a strange kind of premonition in my mind, as I pull into the school car park, that I’m about to see Flora again. It doesn’t strike me as impossible. Either Lewis could have worked out a way to make a phone call seem as if it’s coming from America when it’s not, or he drove Flora straight to an airport after they made that call together. She could have flown at nine or nine thirty in the evening, Florida time, and landed before midday UK time. She’d probably be jet-lagged, but it would be just about possible for her to get to Thomas’s school by three thirty.

I pick a parking space at the center of a grid of white-painted rectangular boxes on the ground. As and when other cars arrive, they’ll have to park all around me, hemming me in. That will provide some cover.

I use my phone to send some basic, easy chore emails while I wait for school to finish: yes, Ben can go and see a production of Len and Ezra, whatever that is, and I’m willing to

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