The One You Fear by Paul Pilkington Read Free Book Online Page B

disclose names, but I think on this occasion, I’ll make an exception.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Emma said. ‘It means a lot.’
    The lady raised her eyes from the book. ‘Stephen Myers.’
    Emma felt a blast of sickness slam into her. ‘The person said they were called Stephen Myers?’
    ‘Yes. It’s written down here.’
    ‘It’s okay.’ Dan placed a comforting arm around Emma’s back.
    ‘Are you all right?’ the lady asked. ‘Does that name mean anything to you?’
    Emma nodded, fighting the nausea. ‘The person who ordered the flowers, did they do it by phone, or in person?’
    ‘In person. I know I didn’t serve them, but it says here that they paid by cash, so it couldn’t have been over the telephone. Hang on one moment.’ She turned towards an open door behind her. ‘Alice, can you come here for a second?’
    A girl in her late teens appeared, wearing green gloves and a pretty flowery apron. She smiled at Dan and Emma.
    ‘Alice, did you serve this gentleman?’ The lady pointed to the book.
    The girl nodded. ‘He came in yesterday, early morning.’
    ‘Can you describe him?’ Emma asked.
    ‘He was about your height,’ said Alice, nodding towards Dan, ‘but very thin. His face was thin too, you know, hollow-looking. His nose was quite, well, prominent, pointy. Sorry,’ she added, suddenly looking embarrassed, ‘is he a friend of yours?’
    ‘No.’ Emma’s heart was racing. This girl was describing Stephen Myers, or at least how Emma remembered him. ‘What colour hair did he have?’
    ‘It was dark. Dark brown, I think, not black.’
    That was right too. But it couldn’t be. He was dead, buried six feet under the churchyard that Peter Myers had taken them to, and to think otherwise was ludicrous.
    ‘Eye colour?’
    ‘Sorry, I didn’t notice that.’
    And then the question she felt was almost too crazy to ask. ‘Did you notice anything else about him, anything about his face?’
    Would she mention the scar?
    ‘Yes. His cheek, his right cheek.’ Alice traced a finger down her own cheek and under the chin. ‘He had a scar, running down here.’
    ‘It can’t be,’ Emma said, closing her eyes, as the room seemed to start spinning around her. ‘It’s not possible.’
     
     
    ***
     
     
    ‘What do you want to do?’ Dan asked.
    Emma looked out of the car window. ‘I don’t want to run away, and spoil our holiday.’
    ‘But it’s already been spoilt, hasn’t it?’
    Emma nodded, putting a hand to her head. ‘You’ve spent so much money, on such a fantastic apartment.’
    ‘I know, but that’s not important, is it?’
    Emma turned to look at him. ‘What’s going on, Dan?’
    ‘I don’t know – I really don’t.’
    ‘Someone is stalking me again, pretending to be Stephen Myers. Who the hell would do something like that? Peter Myers is in jail, so it can’t be him. I mean, the person who ordered those flowers, he even looked like Stephen Myers.’
    ‘I know,’ Dan acknowledged.
    ‘And whoever this person is, they knew we were on holiday. They knew we were in Cornwall, they knew exactly where we are staying – the apartment number, everything. Do you think they followed us from London?’
    ‘Maybe – or it might have been a chance sighting. They might live down here, and have read about what happened in the news, and decided to play a sick joke on you.’
    ‘I guess.’ Emma thought about that scenario. It was actually the most appealing option, which was presumably why Dan had suggested it. Anything was better than the possibility of someone driving hundreds of miles, following her in a much more calculating fashion. But then she thought back to what had happened en route to Cornwall, at the services – the imagined sighting of Stephen Myers. Maybe what she had seen hadn’t been the product of an overactive imagination after all. Maybe it had been that same person, trying to look like her one-time tormentor. And in the department store in London. Maybe that, too,