In the Mists of Time by Marie Treanor Read Free Book Online Page A

realized she was joining in far more naturally. Bizarrely, she felt…happy.

Chapter Four
    â€œGot a minute?” Louise asked her brother, who’d dropped in for breakfast with their parents. While Cerys helped them to their armchairs, Louise followed Aidan into the kitchen with the dirty dishes.
    â€œSure. Everything okay?”
    â€œYes, fine. Why?”
    Aidan shrugged. “You seemed a bit on edge last night.”
    â€œOh no,” Louise said hastily. “This isn’t really anything to do with me. You know Nicole Graham?”
    â€œOf course.”
    Louise told him about Nicole’s claim to have been attacked and her assumption that no one would believe her. “Would you talk to her? I know you have an instinct for the truth, and if it is true—which I think it is—maybe you could persuade her to go to the police?”
    â€œSure, I’ll talk to her,” Aidan said, frowning.
    â€œWhen?”
    Aidan blinked. “As soon as possible. Now, if she’s around.”
    â€œThanks, Aidan,” Louise said with relief, grabbing her phone.
    Ten minutes later, she opened the door to Nicole. The younger woman was very casually dressed, and she wore no jacket, just a baggy shirt and jogging pants, her bare feet shoved into sneakers.
    â€œYou remember Aidan, don’t you?” Louise said, ushering her into the living room. “And my parents.”
    Nicole waved slightly awkwardly across the room to the old people, who smiled at her without much obvious idea who she was, and nodded to Aidan.
    â€œYou’re not in the police anymore, are you?” she said abruptly.
    â€œNo, but I was quite disturbed by what Louise told me. She said you didn’t want to go to the police, but do you want to tell me what happened so I can at least advise you?”
    Nicole sat on the window seat beside Aidan while Louise leaned against the back of the sofa.
    â€œI didn’t notice the mist come down,” she said.
    â€œWere you walking with this guy?” Aidan asked.
    â€œSort of,” Nicole said doubtfully. “When it got misty, I started to walk back down, but it moved faster than I did. And then I ran into him coming up. I told him he should go back—too many places to fall when you can’t see. He said he’d be fine and walked on, but then, a minute or two later, he caught up with me again, said I was quite right.”
    â€œHow far did he walk with you?” Aidan asked.
    â€œI don’t know. Maybe a hundred yards or so.”
    â€œHow did he behave?”
    Nicole shrugged. “He was okay at first, but he kept watching me instead of his feet. It made me uncomfortable.”
    â€œDid you tell him that?”
    Nicole shook her head. “No, I just walked faster. He kept up for a bit, and then he grabbed my arm. I shook him off, and he grabbed me again. When I told him to let me go, he was panting. He put both arms around me and hung on even when I struggled. So I kneed him in the balls and ran.”
    â€œThen you felt threatened by him?”
    Nicole lifted her gaze from her hands. “Very.”
    Aidan’s eyes were very steady, holding her gaze. “Did you feel there was a sexual element to his grabbing you?”
    â€œExplicitly,” Nicole said wryly.
    â€œHe was aroused?” Aidan asked tactfully.
    Nicole nodded.
    â€œSo he frightened you. You felt threatened. Did he hurt you?”
    â€œHe didn’t rape me.”
    â€œCan you show me how he grabbed you?” Aidan asked. “Where on the arm?”
    Nicole gripped her left upper arm and then her right.
    â€œAre you bruised there?”
    Nicole’s eyebrows lifted. “I don’t know.” Unexpectedly, she pulled her shirt down from the left shoulder. Beneath it, she wore a pretty vest top, but it was the fingerprint bruise on her arm that swiftly distracted Louise. Blue and yellow, it wasn’t easy to miss. “Yes,” Nicole