‘Oh, right. My friend Ellie owns the café there.’
‘Ellie? Oh, I know her family. I’ve lived in the area all mylife and my mum went to school with her mum. Rose?’
I nod. ‘Rose is lovely.’
‘I’m getting a taxi back there and the rank is in yourdirection, so we could along walk together?’
When I hesitate, he says, ‘I’m not a weirdo, I promise you.I’m actually quite boring.’
I glance up at him, thinking what a strange thing to say,and he grins.
‘It’s true, I’m afraid. I was a keen train spotter when Iwas twelve but I got treatment and I’m fine now.’
I laugh, thinking he has kind eyes – what I can see of themin the semi-darkness. He has a lovely smile, too. Great teeth. I clear mythroat. ‘The thing is, though, axe-murderers do quite often have obsessivehobbies, don’t they? Like train spotting or stamp collecting. Or keeping birdsin cages and making scary wooden dolls to push through people’s letterboxeslate at night... that kind of thing.’
‘Hmm, you’ve got a point.’ He strokes his chin reflectively.‘You watch the same thriller whodunits that I do, obviously. Although I’m notsure stamp collecting falls into the rampaging killer category.’
‘Maybe not.’ I smile up at him. ‘Okay, let’s walk together.’
‘I’ve passed the creepy murderer test?’ He nods. ‘Hey, you’vemade my day.’
I chuckle and we walk along in companionable silence untilwe arrive at the crossroads where we have to part.
‘I’m Doug, by the way. Just in case you need someone to walkwith in the future.’
I shake his hand. ‘Krystle.’
‘Nice name. Good to meet you, Krystle.’
‘You, too.’
He hesitates. ‘Listen, I know this probably sounds mildlyweird on the serial killer scale, but would you mind if I called you?’
‘Oh.’ I look up at him in surprise.Talk about random.But to my surprise, I find myself saying, ‘Well... okay.’
‘Are you sure?’ He glances back at the pub. ‘Was that yourboyfriend back there?’
‘Oh, no. Good grief, no. I honestly don’t care if I neversee that slimeball again in my life.’
‘Right.’ He nods. ‘He’s off your Christmas card list, then.’
‘Most definitely.’
‘Okay. Well, I’ll take your number and maybe we could do abit more walking some time? Do you walk often?’
‘Funny you should say that. But yes, actually, I do.’
‘Yeah?’
I nod. ‘Sometimes... I have a bit of a sitdown, in between the walking.’
‘No!’ His eyes open wide in mock amazement. ‘You’re havingme on now.’
‘I’m not. Honestly.’
‘Wow. It’s really quite spooky how much we have in common.’
I snort with laughter, enjoying his sense of humour. ‘Veryspooky.’
