Girl Number One: A Gripping Psychological Thriller Read Online Free Page B

‘For both of us. A real shock. I’ll go and see him later. Right now,
I’m sorry but I need to get home.’
    ‘Of
course.’
    ‘I
appreciate it. I know this is making you late for work.’
    Jenny
puts the car into first and accelerates up the lane towards the small cottage I
share with Hannah.
    God,
what will Hannah be thinking? My phone call woke her up. She must be in a
state, waiting for me to get back, to explain properly.
    ‘I
told you, Eleanor, the school will understand. I don’t want you to worry about
that, this is more important. And you must take all the time that you need.’
Jenny sounds concerned but focused, already thinking ahead to damage control. ‘I’ll
talk to Patricia myself as soon as I get there, straighten it all out for you.’
    I
look down at my hands. Like my legs, they’re trembling. Shock, of course.
    ‘Thanks,
that’s very kind of you.’
    ‘What are friends for?’
    I
wonder how my father is taking the news about another body in the woods. I must
go and see him later as I promised, make sure he’s coping.
    First
though, I need to be sure I’m coping too. Because it’s possible I’m not, and am
not even aware of it.

 
    Hannah is waiting
for me in the doorway to East Cottage. It’s been a dwelling-place for nearly a
thousand years, probably one smoky room in medieval times, now extended to a
living room and narrow kitchen downstairs, with a bathroom and two small
bedrooms upstairs. A gurgling rivulet passes in front of the house on its way
downhill, and years ago someone built a miniature stone bridge across the
stream so we don’t have to wet our feet getting to the front door.
    ‘Are
you okay?’ Hannah looks pale, her fringe damp, eyes slightly bloodshot, precisely
like someone who has not had enough sleep but has splashed her face to wake up
in a hurry. ‘Oh my God, your hands. And your legs too.’
    ‘I’ll
survive.’
      ‘But is it true?’ She raises a hand in
greeting to Jenny, who is backing up her Renault in our small turning area. ‘I
mean, I believe you. Absolutely I believe you. But it’s so incredible, isn’t
it? To have found a body in the woods today, of all days …’
    Today, of all days.
    I
watch Jenny pull away. ‘I should probably ring work. To be polite.’
    ‘Eleanor?’
    ‘Yes,’
I agree, crossing the little stone bridge into the cottage. I’m dying for a
cool shower. I glance at the table in the hall but the charging cradle is
empty. ‘It is incredible. Have you got the phone?’
    Hannah
holds out the phone automatically and I take it, beginning to look through the
menu for the number of the cover supervisor. But even as it starts to ring, I’m
interrupted by the familiar, unmistakeable roar of a quad bike.
    Hurriedly I stop the call and go back outside
just in time to see Tristan on his quad bike, swinging wildly out of the lane
and towards the cottage.
    His
brother Connor crouches behind him in the trailer, clinging onto the sides of
the metal box as he is jolted up and down on the uneven track. Completely
illegal, of course, but nobody round here cares about that shit. Not even the
police, who turn a blind eye most times to antics that would get you arrested
up country.
    Connor
is two years older than Tris. Older and wiser, usually. This morning though both
men look fierce. Like they’ve come prepared to fight.
    I glance back at Hannah, who has come to stand
in the doorway. ‘Okay, what did you tell them?’
    She
looks guilty. ‘Enough to get them round here.’
    ‘Fuck’s
sake.’
    ‘I
need to get some sleep, I’m sorry. I’m dead on my feet. But I didn’t want you
left on your own today. Not with the police coming.’
    Tris
and Connor are not blood brothers. Tris was adopted. Nonetheless, they are almost
never seen apart. Though that’s begun to change now they run the farm together.
Tris does not share his brother’s fanatical work ethic, so I’m not entirely
surprised to see him today. But I would have thought