Stalker Read Online Free

her hand out to break her fall and gasping with pain.
    The sound of a chair hitting the dining table.
    She brings the standard lamp down as she gets up. It hits the wall before clattering to the floor.
    She can hear rapid footsteps behind her.
    Without looking round she rushes into the bathroom again and locks the door behind her. The air in there is still warm and damp.
    This can’t be happening, she thinks in panic.
    She hurries past the basin and toilet and pulls the curtain back from the little window. Her hands are shaking as she tries to undo one of the catches. It’s stuck. She tugs at it and tries to force herself to calm down. She fiddles with it and tugs it sideways, and manages to get the first catch open as she hears a scraping sound from the lock on the bathroom door. She rushes back and grabs hold of the lock just as it starts to turn. She clings on to it with both hands, and feels her heart racing in terror.

5
    The intruder has slipped a screwdriver, or possibly the back of the knife blade, into the little slot on the other side of the lock. Susanna is holding on to the handle of the lock, but is shaking so badly that she’s scared she might lose her grip.
    ‘God, this can’t be happening,’ she whispers to herself. ‘This isn’t happening, it can’t be happening …’
    She glances quickly towards the window. It’s far too small for her to be able to throw herself through it. The only hope of escape is to run to the window, undo the second catch, push it open and then climb up, but she daren’t let go of the lock.
    She’s never been so terrified in her life. This is a bottomless, mortal dread, beyond all control.
    The lock now feels hot and slippery under her tensed fingers. There’s a metallic scraping sound from the other side.
    ‘Hello?’ she says towards the door.
    The intruder tries to open the door with a quick twist, but Susanna is prepared and manages to resist.
    ‘What do you want?’ she says, in as composed a voice as she can muster. ‘Do you need money? If you do, I can understand that. It’s not a problem.’
    She gets no answer, but she can hear the scrape of metal against metal, and feel the vibration through the lock.
    ‘You’re welcome to look, but there’s nothing especially valuable in the house … the television’s fairly new, but …’
    She falls silent, because she’s shaking so much it’s hard to understand what she’s saying. She whispers to herself that she must stay calm, as she clutches the lock tight and thinks that her fear is dangerous, that it might make the intruder think bad thoughts.
    ‘My bag’s hanging in the hall,’ she says, then swallows hard. ‘A black bag. Inside it there’s a purse containing some cash and a Visa card. I’ve just been paid, and I can tell you the code if you want.’
    The intruder stops trying to turn the lock.
    ‘OK, listen, the code is 3945,’ she says to the door. ‘I haven’t seen your face, you can take the money and I’ll wait until tomorrow before I report the card missing.’
    Still holding the lock tightly, Susanna puts her ear to the door, and imagines she can hear footsteps moving away across the floor before an advert break on television drowns out all other sounds.
    She doesn’t know if it was stupid to give him her real code, but she just wants this to end, and she’s more worried about her jewellery, her mother’s engagement ring and the necklace with the big emeralds she was given after Morgan was born.
    Susanna waits behind the door and keeps telling herself that this isn’t over yet, that she mustn’t lose her concentration for a moment.
    Carefully she changes hands on the lock, without letting go of it. Her right thumb and forefinger have gone numb. She shakes her hand and puts her ear to the door, thinking that it’s now been more than half an hour since she told him the code to her card.
    It was probably just a junkie who saw an open kitchen door and came inside to look for