Read Online After the Execution by James Raven - Free Book Online

go out into the garden. He and Daniels stayed close to me and we didn’t encounter anyone else. From the garden I saw that I was being kept in a large detached house surrounded by Texas woodland. It was a beautiful red-brick building with a slanted grey roof.
    But I barely paid attention to it because my senses were seized by our surroundings. The trees and the grass and the buzz of the insects. The smell of wild flowers and the gentle breeze on my face. I felt a shiver of excitement and my heart started thumping against my ribcage. As I stood there taking it in I thought to myself that it was surely all too good to be true.

12
    B ETH LOOKED PALE and anxious when Crane got to her apartment at lunchtime. She was still wearing her jogging suit and had not applied any make-up. He noticed immediately that she smelled of stale sweat.
    ‘I didn’t think you would come,’ she said.
    ‘Pauline wasn’t happy,’ he told her. ‘She’d made arrangements for us to have lunch out and then go shopping.’
    ‘I’m really sorry, Gideon.’
    Pauline had been furious, in fact. She’d reminded him that he had promised to take a few days off. And she’d been more than a little sceptical when he’d said that an emergency had come up at the office. But he’d felt compelled to come to Beth’s apartment. He needed to assess the situation for himself and decide what, if anything, could be done about it. He was worried because her diary had not turned up and she swore that she had searched every inch of the apartment.
    ‘You’re sure that nothing else was taken?’ he asked as he perched himself on the arm of the sofa.
    ‘I’m absolutely positive,’ she said. ‘Things had been moved around. A drawer was left open. But it seems that whoever broke in wasn’t interested in anything but my diary.’
    Crane sucked in his breath. ‘I wish you’d mentioned it before. I would have told you that it was stupid to keep one.’
    ‘I realize that now, but it never occurred to me that someone would steal it. I’ve never taken it out of the apartment.’
    Crane chewed on a thumbnail, his stomach churning with dread. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Not when things seemed to be going so well. His fears were compounded by the fact that there was very little he could do about it.
    He didn’t think it would be a good idea to contact the police. That way the news would spread like wildfire and speculation would be rife. Questions would be asked as to why anyone would want to steal Beth Abbot’s diary. Did it contain explosive information about her job, her boss or her personal life? Crane liked to be in control of events that impacted on his life and right now he wasn’t. He felt angry and impotent.
    He gritted his teeth. ‘Jesus fucking Christ, Beth.’
    The fury in his voice made her flinch. As she looked up at him a muscle under her right eye started to twitch. It was the first time he had shouted at her but she needed to understand that she’d let him down big time. A diary for pity’s sake. Who the fuck kept a diary in this day and age?
    At that moment his cell pinged. He fished it from his pocket, thinking it was bound to be a message from his pissed-off wife. But it was from an anonymous source. It read:
What a night. Gideon told me he loved me. Then we fucked like rabbits on the floor of his apartment. Later I sucked his cock as he spoke to Pauline on the phone. Life just doesn’t get any better!
    ‘What the hell is this crap?’ Crane fumed.
    He thrust the phone at Beth. She took it from him. The colour drained from her face as she read the text.
    ‘Oh my God,’ she exclaimed.
    Crane glared at her. ‘What?’
    She swallowed hard. ‘It’s an extract from my diary. I wrote that months ago.’
    Crane’s mouth fell open and his heart froze in his chest.
    ‘Oh shit,’ he said.

13
    I SPENT MOST of the afternoon pacing the room, feeling restless and edgy. My mind resolutely refused to switch off.
    It was a great shame