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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hannah used the remote control to start the ball machine, sliding it into her pocket and setting her stance in anticipation of the first ball. It punched out of the machine towards her with a satisfyingthunk, so shethwockedit back. It was similar to the model they had at her club in Surrey, so it hadn’t taken long to work out.
Thunk. Thwock. Thunk. Thwock.The hopper in the top of the machine held about a hundred balls, so she could keep this up for a while, then collect them all up and start again. She settled into the rhythm of it, emptying her head of Matt and the police and Rob and Trish and Graham and her dad and all the other stuff that had been weighing her down while she rested by the pool all day. Instead she forced every ounce of her concentration onto each yellow ball – on and on, forehand and backhand, until the final ball thunked across the net and the machine was silent.
Hannah had a long drink from the bottle in her bag, then walked to the other end of the court and started to scoop the balls back into the hopper, enjoying the warmth of the setting sun on her back. Tennis was finished for the day, and the courts were deserted. She’d waited for the others to get back and reassured them that she was fine, then headed out to do what she always did in times of stress or anxiety. Just hit balls, then hit more balls.
Rob appeared down the steps and started to say something, but the look on Hannah’s face clearly made him change his mind; instead he began kicking over the balls that had drifted onto the next court, so Hannah could corral them back into the machine.
‘You OK?’ he asked, returning to the net after all the balls had been gathered up.
Hannah nodded, taking another swig from her water bottle. She hadn’t expected to see Rob today, and wasn’t sure what to make of him being here. ‘I feel a lot better.’
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
Hannah shook her head emphatically. ‘No. I’m happy just to hit balls.’
‘We missed you at coaching today.’
Hannah took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘Yeah, sorry about that. I needed a bit of space to get my head around everything.’
Rob nodded. ‘That’s totally understandable.’
‘I got bored, though,’ said Hannah. ‘Turns out you can only read books by the pool for so long, so I thought I’d come over and hit for a while. Is this OK?’
‘Of course,’ said Rob. ‘Would you prefer a human partner? Or are you happy with the ball machine?’
Hannah looked at him intently, weighing him up along with her options. The memory of his hands clasping hers had morphed into Trish clinging on to his arm, the imagined aftermath of which had got more colourful as the day had worn on.
‘I’ll stick with the ball machine,’ she said. ‘I like the consistency.’
Rob said nothing for a moment, looking at her with a concerned expression, his hands on his hips. ‘Have you eaten anything today?’
Hannah thought about it for a moment. Some fruit earlier, but that was it. She shook her head.
‘Then have pizza with me.’
‘Sorry?’ she said, not sure she’d heard him properly.
‘There’s a pizza place I know with a great view, we can walk there in ten minutes.’
‘What, now?’
Rob nodded. ‘Yeah. We can talk about whatever you like. Or not talk at all, I don’t mind.’
Hannah looked at the hopper full of yellow balls and felt a sudden wave of exhaustion. The fruit was hours ago, and she was actually really hungry. She turned to Rob, then shrugged and nodded.
‘OK, half and half,’ said Rob, dumping the box on the wall between them. ‘Mushroom, sweetcorn and pepper for you, actual pizza toppings for me.’ Hannah laughed and took the cold bottle of beer from his hand, taking a long swig and soaking up the view across the patchwork valley to the coast. The pink sky was fading into purple, the air warm on her skin and alive with cicadas. For the first time today, she let herself breathe.
‘My ex-husband hated all three,’ she said. ‘Well, technically he was allergic to peppers. So I never cooked with any of them. I guess I’m making up for lost time.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Rob, folding a slice of pizza in half and taking a bite. ‘Did you talk to the police today?’
‘Yeah, they sent a man and woman and they asked loads of questions, but I couldn’t remember much, to be honest. They said they might be in touch with you too.’
‘That’s fine. Do they think they’ll find him?’
Hannah shuddered, pushing the memory of Matt’s leering face from her mind. She’d been asked to describe him today, and it felt like the image of him was tattooed in her brain. ‘Not sure. I got the impression this kind of thing happens a lot. They wanted to know how much I’d had to drink, but at least they didn’t ask what I was wearing.’
