When I open my eyes, I don’t know where I am at first. But then I see that I am lying on the cold stone floor at the bottom of my staircase. I don’t remember how I got here, it’s all a blur, but everything hurts.
I do remember going for my run, but the rest of my thoughts feel fractured, like tiny fragments of themselves that don’t fit together or make any sense. Then I have the strangest memory of another woman in my home. Harri pretending to not know who I am catches up with me next, then it all comes flooding back: seeing my husband with that woman at my art exhibition, the social media pages I didn’t know existed withmyname butherface, the police officer—what was his name—saying that he was going to arrest me. I experience an overwhelming rush of thoughts and fears and it feels like waking from a bad dream to find myself still trapped inside a nightmare. Perhaps that’s all it was, just a bad dream. But then why does everything hurt?
“Are you okay?” asks an unfamiliar voice.
Then I remember falling down the stairs. Or was I pushed? I panic that whoever asked the question is here to hurt me. I try to move, but a bolt of pain flashes through my head and my back.
“Can you hear me?” he asks, a face now appearing in my field of vision.
It’s him. The young police officer. Standing there in his too tight uniform, so tight I can see his muscles beneath his shirt.
Didhepush me down the stairs?
“Try to stay calm,” he says. But staying calm has become an obsolete objective. “You took quite a tumble. Are you hurt?” he asks. “Do you know who I am?”
“Sergeant Carter,” I say through gritted teeth.
“That’s right. Now can you please tell me your name?”
“Eden. Fox.” I tell him my name for the hundredth time.
He sighs. “Yourrealname. No more games.”
“I think someone pushed me down the stairs,” I say, but he just shakes his head.
“I don’t think so. I thought you might come here, but it took me a while to lock up the station. I saw that someone had smashed the back door as soon as I arrived and guessed it was you. I had just stepped inside when I saw you at the top of the staircase. You tripped and fell. We’ll have to add breaking and entering to the list now—”
“This ismyhouse. Why don’t you believe me?”
“Do you really need me to answer that?”
I reach inside my pocket for my house key. “Look. This ismykey chain, withmyname on it—Eden—why would I have this unless I was telling the truth?”
“Perhaps you stole it? Breaking into a house is a strange thing to do if you have a key.”
“I told you they changed the locks. I didn’t steal a key chain—”
“I’m guessing youdidn’tsteal my car keys and throw them in the harbor too? Lucky I have a spare set. Perhaps youdidn’tbreak into this house, ransack the place, and attempt to leave with the owner’s belongings either?” he says, staring at the bag next to me.
“Iamthe owner.”
“What you are is under arrest. Come on, up you get.”
I try to stand but my legs give way. Instead of helping me, Carter just shakes his head as if he thinks I’m faking it. I rarely swear, even in my own head, butfuckhim. This man-child is no match for me. He clearly isn’t an experienced police officer—his face is as uncreased as his shirt—if his brain were a fraction the size of his ego he would realize that I am telling the truth.
I reach up and touch the back of my head; when I look at my hand it’s red. Carter sees the blood too and his expression immediately changes. As does his tone.
“We need to get some pressure on that wound,” he says, looking for something to use.
“There are clean towels in the cupboard at the top of the stairs,” I tell him.
He climbs the steps two at a time, opens the cupboard, then says, “You’re right. There are.”
How would I know that if this wasn’t my house?is what I want to say. But I’m too busy running out the back door, down the driveway, and clambering into my car. All I have is the bag of extra clothes and the map of Blackmoor National Park I managed to grab. The spare key to the Range Rover and some cash were all I found in the house, but that’s okay, because that’s all I need to get where I have to go.
14BIRDY
Six months earlier
