Stop Me by Richard Jay Parker Read Free Book Online Page B

question as he climbed the stairs. He was sure he answered but not what he said. Whatever it was he wasn’t followed into the bedroom where he knelt on the floor looking at the telephone on the bedside table.
    He couldn’t stop it now, even if he wanted to. Even though his first attempt to establish contact had been fruitless he couldn’t back out now. He’d felt such an anticlimax when he’d found nobody at Leo Sharpe’s address. Everything that had been bursting to the surface had to be stowed away again…at least for a little while longer.
    He knelt there, still in his coat, for nearly half an hour before he picked up the phone and dialled.
    * * *
    The images changed on the monitors but blackness still filled the office windows. Leo had little memory of the hours before or even after the drive from home. He could feel his head falling back. He closed his eyes and the buzz of the security booth faded as he drifted off. But when his head fell back further than was comfortable, he snapped awake. There was an image on his monitor and he blinked in disbelief at the familiar figure.
    It was Laura staring up at him via the camera in the front car park. He’d seen her on the bank of security screens before – glimpses of her just leaving shot or polar impressions of her face that were there as he’d blinked awake. She’d once emerged from the shadows in the warehouse and told him that she wasn’t in pain. The relief had quickly ebbed when he’d found himself in bed. But as he stretched his eyes sideways with his fingers and blinked them rapidly she still stared up at him.
    It took a split second more for his brain to re-engage and then he realised it was Ashley, gesturing for him to let her in through the main doors. With the shadows overhead and her hair now a similar length to Laura’s the likeness was unnerving.
    He pushed the button and a buzzer sounded as she pulled on the handle. Moments later the door to his booth opened and in she came, bringing in some fresh air.
    ‘Non-alcoholic bubbly.’ She pulled the bottle out of aglittery gift bag. ‘Happy birthday,’ she said with mock fatigue to rebut his bewildered expression.
    He watched her remove her coat and the booth filled with her anise scent. She was wearing a coordinating grey roll neck and trousers. To Ashley, it was casual wear. ‘My birthday was yesterday.’
    ‘Nice try.’ She looked round for a place to hang the coat and then threw it on the floor. ‘Eighteenth of Feb?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And today is the eighteenth…’
    Why had he not considered that Matty had got it wrong? He’d rarely remembered Leo’s birthday in the past. ‘How come you’re out so late?’ he asked.
    ‘It’s not even ten. Any paper cups?’ She moved behind and then kissed him, her lips brushing his cheek but her hands remaining on his shoulders. She pressed her cheek to the side of his head and held him there for a few moments before the pragmatic air returned. ‘Don’t say we’ll have to share this…’ She picked up his yellow coffee mug from the desk and appeared to be counting the rings inside.
    He observed her as she pulled on the stack of water cones from the cooler in the corner of the booth. The same look of quiet determination pursed her lips and through pencilled eyebrows and lip-gloss that Laura never wore he could see the same infectious resolve in her profile.
    If she pulls off too many cups, we’ll both see Laura again.
    Two cones came away in her long, manicured nails.
    Ashley popped the bubbly and poured a mouthful into each cone. They tapped them together in a dull, unspoken toast. It tasted like liver salts and they both grimaced.
    Ashley nodded, connoisseur-like, ‘Interesting.’
    Leo didn’t drink because his father had done more than enough for him and his brother put together. He’d road-tested it plenty of times in the past year but had been disappointed with the results. He’d anticipated the loosening and warm embrace of oblivion