Page 56 of The Plot Twist

‘Really? Well, that makes me feel better. I mean I sometimes go walking, but it was raining, and I thought getting wet would just compound my misery.’

‘It’s cleared up now though, hasn’t it?’

Allie peered through her shutters and agreed that yes, it had, and that it looked like it was turning out to be a nice evening after all. Bloody typical.

‘How long does it take you to get to St James’s Park?’

‘Why?’ Allie was immediately suspicious, she never liked to answer a question unless she knew where it was leading.

‘Half an hour?’

‘More like an hour,’ she agreed grudgingly.

‘Meet me on the corner of Horse Guards and Birdcage Walk in an hour.’

‘Why?’ she asked again.

‘We’re going walking,’ Martin said and put the phone down leaving Allie sitting on her bed, staring at her phone and wondering, not for the first time, whether this was all worth it. But she had nothing else to do and nowhere else to be and if she stayed in her flat she would probably drive herself crazy staring at her computer. And anyway, maybe she could message Jess and see if she was out in town tonight and arrange to meet her for a drink after meeting Martin. She quickly tapped out a message to Jess and went to get her things together and to see just how crazy her hair looked after she had slept on it for half the afternoon.

ChapterSixteen

‘There you are.’ Martin was already waiting for her on the corner of St James’s Park, where Horse Guards Parade met Birdcage Walk. Allie loved this part of London, she loved the old buildings, the sense of history, she hated the tourists though, they always seemed to be teeming about. But this evening was an exception, the earlier rain had put paid to sightseeing.

‘Here I am,’ Allie concurred. ‘So, what now?’

‘We walk. We walk, we talk, and we carry on until you know where to go next with your book.’

Allie was familiar with this drill. She had done it many, many times over the years. Sometimes with a friend by her side, sometimes on her own. But she had got out of the habit, her recent writing drought proving too strong for her to believe she could walk her way out of it. Still, it was nice to hear that it was something Martin relied on as well.

‘OK, so where to?’

‘Let’s start in the park. We’ll go round the lake and see where we are when we’ve done that.’

They made their way into the park, taking one of the pathways that would, sooner or later, lead them to the lake.

‘Do you walk with Angie?’ Allie asked. Martin raised an eyebrow quizzically at her. ‘I meant when you’re writing?’ she clarified. ‘When you’re stuck. Or when you got stuck in the past.’ She thought jealously of Martin’s manuscript, which seemed to be speeding towards the finish line at an impressive rate, while hers limped tortuously at the back of the pack.

‘Sometimes, although not that often. There was always something else to do. Something else dragging our attention away from each other. Normally I’d walk on my own, or with one of my friends. Sometimes my son would come, when he was younger. He’s too busy with his own life now, of course.’

Allie felt a pang at the mention of Will. Martin had often mentioned his children in the past, before Allie was aware of who Will was, and she had enjoyed listening to Martin talk about them. But now it gave her the ick, and made her heart beat too fast thinking about all the lies. Notlies, she corrected her internal monologue, merely an omission of the full facts. That clarification made her feelsomuch better.

She could see the lake ahead of them now and was enjoying watching the water catch the end-of-the-day sun through the trees up ahead. Neither of them spoke as they came closer to the water’s edge, and then both of them stopped to take in the view. Here, it was busier, tourists and Londoners alike gathered under the ancient London plane trees, feeding the ducks under the willows. Allie leaned against the metal railing, which stopped people from getting any closer to the water. She took a sideways glance at Martin who was gripping the railing and looked lost in thought.

‘Memories?’ she asked, suddenly realising that perhaps this was why Martin had suggested the park.

‘Hmm,’ he neither agreed nor disagreed. He loosened his grip on the railing and turned around, now leaning his back against it. Allie looked up at him.

‘What does that mean?’ She wasn’t willing to let this opportunity get away, not just because she suspected she might be about to strike the jackpot with anecdotes she could weave into her novel but also because Martin looked like he wanted to get something off his chest – she was nothing if not altruistic.

‘Angie used to work right over there.’ He pointed off in the general direction of ‘outside the park’. Allie honestly couldn’t say if it was north, south, east or west and she wasn’t even going to hazard a guess.

‘She did?’

‘She did. She worked at a research institute for years before taking the job at Imperial.’

‘Wow.’ That stream of words didn’t make much sense to Allie, although they sounded impressive.

Martin smiled ruefully. ‘She loved working there, but the money was terrible. Ironic, really, that taking a job in academia was so much more lucrative. And they offered her tenure, so there was that security, too.’

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