Reality Sinks In

Miss Peeg staggered over to a rock and sat down. Richie Roberts was angry with her and for good reason she thought. She should have called the police; she could have called them on the way. She ran her hand over her face. The adrenalin was wearing away now and she felt shaken and old. The reality of what she’d done was sinking in.

It was true, she reasoned, that Mr. Roberts would most probably be dead by now if she hadn’t acted as she did. Her hand went to her mouth, but what of Mrs. Roberts? She bit her lip and looked again at Mr. Roberts sitting on the ground holding his head. She looked up at the sky and sent a prayer up to whatever gods there might be to please not let anything happen to Mrs. Roberts.

She looked down at her hands and noticed the blood, it would be Mr. Roberts’s blood but now she had blood on her hands. She thought of the man in the ditch, had she meant to kill him? She remembered how in control she’d felt how calm when it came to doing what she felt she had to do. Had he moved or was her aim off a bit. It had happened so quickly she hadn’t time to think. He had to be stopped and she’d stopped him.

But oh she wished she was back in her office working on the brief. Mr. McGee must have thought her mad. Amanda, her hand went to her head, what would she think of her auntie now. Winnie thought she would most likely go to jail, would Amanda come visit? Would her sister read about it in the papers, Former British Foreign Service Attaché jailed in The Glen. It was too much to contemplate. She was surprised to find tears coursing down her cheeks; she never cried, not ever not since, a long time ago.

A siren was dying out on the dirt road.

The dark sedan with tinted windows waited until the police and the ambulance were into the clearing before pulling out of the little lay by just over a rise in the road. He was gone before anyone knew he was there. He wiped the sweat from his eyes and gunned the powerful motor. In just over an hour he was back in Coffs Harbour heading for the airport and picking up his ticket. A quick phone call to let his boss know everything was taken care and he boarded his flight to LA.