Previews A Poisonous Echo by Mai Griffin | Page 13

Mai Griffin
wound away to her right, on the other side of the bushes
that skirted a dry ditch. Her timing was perfect. She even
glimpsed him driving off to work.
Careful to avoid being seen, she waited for a cyclist to
whirr past before picking her way quietly along the
crumbling edge of the ditch to find the house. The hedge
wasn’t too dense for her to see that the lane was empty
and she hurried as her excitement mounted. Everything
was going perfectly to plan. Soon she sighted a wide
driveway; the gates stood open. A low wall, on which she
could read the house name, edged a grove of tall trees on
the right. Under her breath she cursed quietly as she saw
a car at the front door and someone waiting on the porch
steps. It was far too early for a coffee party – she could
only hope the woman wouldn’t stay long. A glance around
reassured her that no one else was in sight, but she
decided not to remove her rough outer clothing yet; it
would protect her, as she crouched, hidden in the ditch.
To occupy her mind she checked over her strategy for
possible flaws. She had left her apartment that morning
much earlier than she would have departed to go to the
office. It had crossed her mind to ring and leave a
message on the answer-phone for him but, deciding he
would worry more if she didn’t, had rejected the idea.
Anyway, she couldn’t afford to be distracted, she needed
to concentrate; an oversight could prove catastrophic.
It had been essential for the porter to see her leave so
she’d been irritated when she’d walked from the lift to
find his door and reception window shut. Dismissing the
possibility that he might not even be up, she was
aggravated – he was the nosy sort, likely to poke his head
out at any time, day or night. He never seemed to sleep!
Today of all days, where the hell was he?
She walked quietly back to the lift and clanged the door
several times before crossing the hall again. This time the
window was open, the porter sitting in place as if he had
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