Page 3 of She Saw What He Did

Ellen licked her lips.

‘That sounds good Lisa, thanks.’ She stepped towards the café and collided with a young couple. They didn’t see Ellen. She could easily have been invisible. Ellen frowned in irritation as the man stepped on her foot.

‘Oh God, I’m so sorry,’ he said, reaching out to steady her. ‘I didn’t see you.’

‘No,’ agreed Ellen, wincing.

‘Are you okay?’ asked the pretty blonde woman with him.

‘That’s not a good start is it? Assaulting the island’s police officer,’ smiled the man.

He was good looking, Ellen noted. Not the type you expected to see on the islands. Couples like this usually jetted off to Ibiza or somewhere similar. Ellen thought how she’d like to jet off to Ibiza given half a chance.

‘I won’t arrest you for that,’ said Ellen.

‘Phew,’ he exclaimed, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow.

‘Have a nice holiday,’ said Ellen, before walking to the café.

‘It’s going to be a hot one today,’ said Lisa, handing her the latte. She nodded to the ferry.

‘A good crowd but I don’t think any of them are going to have you run off your feet.’

Ellen sighed.

‘One lives in hope,’ she said.

Ellen sipped her latte and watched the luggage being unloaded from the boat; an assortment of battered holdalls and expensive suitcases were stacked on the quay.

‘Afternoon Ellen,’ called one of the men from the boat.

She nodded. Six years she’d been on the island and the only crimes she’d dealt with had been a stolen bicycle and an overdue MOT.

‘A bit of excitement would be nice wouldn’t it?’ She’d once said to Ryan.

‘Be careful what you wish for,’ he’d responded. ‘You’ll need to transfer to London for that. You’d get plenty of excitement there.’

But Ellen didn’t want to go to London. That would be the other extreme. She wanted Porthaven on the mainland, but Porthaven didn’t want Ellen and now she didn’t know what to do. She strained her eyes to look for the young couple, but they’d gone. They were probably on their way to their hotel. She’d like a holiday and to walk along a pier arm in arm with Peter, like that couple had, but Peter never looked at her like that. In fact, she couldn’t help thinking, if she had transferred to Porthaven, it would most likely have taken him a week to realise she had gone. She drained the latte and made her way back to town.

‘You never know,’ she muttered. ‘Someone might go crazy with holiday fever.’

Chapter Three

3rd July

Abby

‘So, I’ve had a brush with the law,’ laughs Jared, his hazel eyes sparkling at me.

‘She seemed nice,’ I remark, feeling that churning in my stomach that’s become so familiar in the past six months.

‘Yes, people are friendly here,’ agrees Jared.

‘You certainly seemed to like her,’ I say, pulling clothes from the suitcase. The words come out too sharply and I bite my lip.

Jared frowns

‘Abby, I thought …’ he says, disappointment in his voice.

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