Page 46 of These Tears

He doesn’t answer.

I try Anna. She answers on the second ring.

‘Is Conall there?’ I rush without the pleasantries.

‘Uh, yes.’ An awkward pause. ‘Why?’

‘I think… I’m being followed.’

It sounds absurd the second it leaves me, but my eyes stay fixed on the rear-view mirror. Rain beats harder against the glass, breaking the grey into warped fragments.

‘Oh God!’ she breathes. ‘Who?!’

There’s a rustle on the other end. Anna’s voice lowers, suddenly stripped of sleep and softness.

‘Two men. They were watching me outside the post office. Now they’re sitting in a car behind mine.’

Another rustle. A muffled exchange. Then I hear Conall’s voice, level enough to make me feel worse.

‘Leah, where are you?’

‘Outside the Brimsbury Lane Post Office.’

‘Keep the doors locked.’

‘I am.’

‘Can you see their plates?’

I twist carefully, pretending I’m only checking the road, but the rain twists the back window, and the angle gives me nothing but the dull shape of the dented bonnet. ‘No. I can’t see anything.’

‘Stay there,’ he says. ‘If either of them gets out or comes towards you, call the police. I’m sending someone over.’

Just as I open my mouth, the grey car coughs to life.

My heart stutters as the headlights flare in the mirror. The car pulls out slowly, passes mine, then turns at the end of the street and vanishes into the rain.

I stare after them as my breath shudders out.

‘They’re gone,’ I whisper. ‘I’m so sorry, it was probably nothing. I’m just wound up.’

Conall is very quiet for a breath or two. Though his voice is calm, there is something reluctant in it when he speaks again. ‘Leah, maybe it’s time you seriously considered that Norway thing you keep talking about.’

I bite my own tongue as my gaze glides across the steering wheel and drops to the thick envelope on the passenger seat.

My throat works around a swallow as I stare at the address. But I already know I won’t send it. Not today. Maybe tomorrow. Just in case he responds.

‘Yes,’ I lie. ‘Thank you for coming to the phone. Sorry again.’

‘I’m not joking.’ His tone hardens. My fingers tighten around the phone. ‘Start packing.’

I straighten my back as if that might dislodge the unease crawling between the discs. ‘Packing?’

He hesitates for a breath too long. ‘The trial is listed for next week. If there are people watching you, and I am not saying there are, then this is exactly when things might start… happening.’

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

After all this time, Elias is finally getting the chance he deserves; a moment for the truth to breathe.