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“Proud of me for what?” I asked, enjoying the feel of his hand on mine, and how he always tucked my hand behind his. I wasn’t sure why I noticed that or why it even mattered, but it was just one more box he ticked for me. Another was the way he always made sure he was on the outside when we walked near roads.
“For getting back in the water,” he explained, and then, with an uncomfortable shrug, he mumbled, “after, well, you know.”
Yeah, Idid. “I’m not afraid of drowning, Hugh,” I told him, moving closer to him for body warmth.Because I’m not afraid to die. “Water doesn’t scare me—”
“Holy shit!”
Startled, I opened my mouth, ready to demand to know what the hell was the matter when Hugh spun me around and slammed my chest to his. “Don’t panic,” he whispered in my ear, while he tucked my face into his chest. “You’re with me, and I won’t let anything happen to you, but I think I see her.”
I didn’t need to ask who he was referring to.
I already knew.
“Where?” I squeezed out, keeping my face buried in his jacket.
“Across the road, under the streetlamp,” he replied calmly. “It’s really dark, and I can’t be sure, but I think it’s her.”
“Is she looking at me?” I cried, feeling my body shake. “Can she see us?”
“I don’t think so,” he replied, while he slowly backed us up behind a parked truck. “The car park’s pitch-dark.”
“What do we do?”
“We go back inside the hotel and call the Gards.”
“They won’t believe us, Hugh.”
“They will, Liz,” he vowed, as he slowly retraced our steps through the car park. “I’ll make them.”
“Why would I make it up?” my boyfriend demanded forty minutes later, as we sat side by side in the hotel lobby, with two stern-looking Gardaí scowling at us. Meanwhile, I remained silent beside him. Because I knew how this would go.
“I’m telling you that’s the third time I’ve seen that woman skulking around,” Hugh continued to plead our case. “Surely that has to constitute stalking!”
“Has she approached you any of those times?” one of them asked, notebook in hand.
“Well,no.” Clearly aggravated by their lack of concern, Hugh pushed a hand through his hair and sighed. “But shelooksat us.”
“There’s no law against looking at fellow pedestrians.”
It doesn’t matter what you say. They’re not going to believe us,I wanted to tell him, but I settled for placing my hand on his forearm instead. Because whatever hope he had of getting through to these people would go clean out the window if I opened my mouth.
“Where is he?” Sinead Biggs barged into the lobby, looking around frantically for her son. “Where’s my son?”
“Mam!” Hugh exclaimed, relief written all over his face. “ThankGod.” Springing to his feet, he barreled toward his mother and quickly filled her in on the night’s events.
Meanwhile, I didn’t move a muscle, too mistrustful of the men in navy uniforms towering over me.
“Do you have anything you would like to add, miss?” one of them asked.
I shook my head.
“Is that a no?”
I nodded.
They looked at each other and shook their heads in silent unison before retreating to where Hugh was speaking animatedly to his mother.
Expelling a shaky breath, I gripped the armrests of the chair and stared out the floor-to-ceiling window that led out to the car park.
