Up Close by Henriette Gyland

Author:Henriette Gyland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, contemporary thriller, romance, Norfolk
Publisher: Choc Lit Limited
Published: 2012-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

‘Are you sure you’re up for this?’ Aidan asked Lia.

They were driving along the A149, heading towards the public swimming pool in North Walsham. It had taken some persuading, but she’d finally agreed to give diving a try. Night had already fallen and the darkened landscape flitted by, broken only by the lights from a few scattered houses and the naked trees by the roadside.

‘I know I said I was going to teach you or die trying, but it was just a joke. If you really don’t want to, we can turn around, and I won’t think any less of you for that.’

She wrapped her grandmother’s old Barbour jacket closer around her, looking uncomfortable, he thought. ‘No, it’s all right. It’s time I got over myself. Nothing can happen to me in a swimming pool, right?’

Aidan grinned. ‘I’ll look after you.’

‘Though I don’t see why we have to do it this late. Couldn’t they fit us in at a different time?’

Aidan shook his head. ‘It would mean re-arranging their programme. I could’ve put you in with my regular session, but then you’d be with a group. I thought you’d prefer it to be just us the first time.’ He sent her a sideways look. ‘Eight o’clock isn’t that late.’

‘No, I guess not,’ she said. ‘It just doesn’t seem right that my first re-acquaintance with the water should happen in the dark.’

‘It won’t be. We’ll turn on the lights.’

‘Of course,’ she replied and shuddered visibly.

Aidan was tempted to turn around and try for another day, but just then the swimming pool came into view, a modern building of yellow bricks and tinted glass.

It’s now or never, he thought, and parked in a bay designated for the disabled. Lia tutted.

‘There’s no one here,’ he said, ‘and we’ve got a lot of equipment to carry. Don’t you ever get tired of being such a goody two-shoes?’ He opened the back of the car and handed her a large diver’s bag.

‘I’m not a goody two-shoes,’ she protested and stumbled a little as the bag almost pulled her backwards.

‘Careful.’ He steadied her with his hand, then when he was sure she wasn’t going to collapse under the weight of the heavy gear, he hoisted a similar bag over his own shoulder. Perhaps it wasn’t the gentlemanly thing to do, but divers, male as well as female, needed to be able to carry their own stuff. The sooner she got used to that, the better.

He led the way to a door at the back of the building, which was built on an incline. Behind what was a single-storey section at the front, it rose to at least two storeys and consisted of large glass panels held together by criss-cross metal framework. Aided by the full moon, one could just about make out the pool behind the glass, and it appeared as flat and still as a mirror.

Lia sent him a questioning glance as realisation dawned on her. ‘We shouldn’t really be here, should we?’

‘Nope.’

‘You’re not planning to break in, I take it.

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