Page 13 of The Quiet Witness

“Let’s say… I’m the one they call if someone needs to disappear.”

So it was true, someone wished them dead, no, not wished them dead. Had gone out of their way to pay someone to kill her entire family. The world tilted around her. “Why us?”

He glanced sideways at her. “It’s on a need-to-know basis.”

She thought that was it, until he murmured. “It was supposed to be easy, this one.”

Well, a lot of words could be used for what went down on Christmas. Easy didn’t cut it.

“What do you mean?”

Another glance. “No one would miss them.”

A bold statement, but true. It had racked her brain in the night, would someone miss her? The only answer, no. No school, no work, no friends to tell the news that someone was missing from the Christmas table. Her life had been one of seclusion. It stung, that no one would even remember her. And foster care, when she’d reached the age of eighteen, they had wished her a good life, even though they had never lifted a finger to help create that life.

Go along for the ride, Kate. You’ve got this.

But it didn’t sit well. She should be fighting for her way out, not chit-chatting. The thoughts kept whizzing through her brain, her heart roared at her to move, move, move. While her mind told her to follow, if only for a little while, to see what would happen.

The killer on the other hand could be the epitome of relaxed. Leaning back in his chair, with one hand resting on the wheel. Black sweatpants and hoodie finished the picture. By God, they could be twins with the clothes on their backs.

And now, in the light of day… he didn’t look like a murderer. There was no doubt in her mind that he was good looking either, with those forest green eyes and dark hair, nearly black framing his face. And the gym… he must be a regular visitor, if the corded muscles in his neck, peeking up from his sweater, were anything to go on.

His head swiveled around, arching a single eyebrow at her staring.

She ignored him, sliding her attention back to the outside world, snow as far as the eye could see. Mansions had been built near the road they cruised down, they stood like silent watchers, the windows reflecting the black Volvo from where it hummed heavily over the deserted streets.

Where is everybody?

He turned on the road, and here… small shacks littered the green fields as if a hand had haphazardly thrown them to the Earth. Whereas the mansions she’d seen had been clean, with an occasional Audi or Mercedes parked on the immaculate lawns, here the plaster showed cracks running down the outside walls, rusted gutter pipes clung below the gaps in the roofs, and black roof tiles littered the floor in front of one, moss had taken it over from where it was left behind to wither on the concrete.

The rich and the poor. Yet each house was weighed down by the same thick white rug.

The man flipped on his blinker and turned right, entering the parking of a… sports shop.

Red lettering stuck out from every window, screaming that they currently had a sale going on for running shoes.

Hmmm. Maybe those running shoes would be coming in handy.

Signs of civilization, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Then again, her driver had to know she’d cling to the first person she would come across, for as deserted as this town looked there would be a person in this shop, a cashier, a sales help. Yet the man next to her, he wasn’t stupid. There had to be a reason for him coming to this particular place.

He cut off the engine with a click. “Surprised?”

Kate glanced at him, shivered as she took in the knowing smirk dancing across his lips. He put the car in first gear, lifting his hand in a gesture to… shake hers?

“The name’s Lucien, by the way.’’

Lucien. No more killer, or captor. Lucien.

She swallowed acid, it burned all the way down to her still sensitive throat.

On a first name basis with my would-be killer. You’ve got to be kidding me.

“I honestly couldn’t care less.” Her hand remained on the door handle, any second now.

He shrugged, the move smooth, careless. Not a man in fear of losing his mask. “Figured as much. Always striving to be a gentleman, though.’’ He hopped out of the car, elegantly striding up to the double doors where he laid his hand on the handle, waiting for her.

Kate got out, shutting the door with a harsh clang. She froze in the middle of the parking lot, not only from the cold wind still gushing through the black clothes, but from the realization that there was no one to cling to, no cars rushed past the road they’d been on, and the parking spaces were deserted.