Perfect Strangers

‘Hello, Julia Ellis,’ said the voice at the other end of the line.

Sophie felt a sudden wave of relief and homesickness. She wanted to burst into tears, but she knew she had to hold it in for her mother’s sake.

‘Mum, it’s me.’

‘Darling!’ cried Julia. ‘Where are you?’

‘Don’t worry, I’m safe.’ At least Josh would be happy she kept it vague.

‘Come home, Sophie, please. The police are worried about you.’

‘Worried?’ said Sophie. ‘They want to arrest me.’

‘Well, you’re not making things any easier for yourself by disappearing. You have nothing to hide, so why don’t you come in and speak to them again? Mr Gould will go with you.’

‘I can’t. I need to find out who killed Nick first.’

‘Sophie, don’t be ridiculous,’ hissed her mother. ‘That’s the police’s job, not yours. I had some officers round here this morning actually, taking fingerprints and whatnot.’

‘Fingerprints? For me? But they’ve already got my fingerprints.’

She could feel the clock ticking and knew she had to get off the phone.

‘The burglary, darling,’ gasped Julia. ‘I came back from Denmark and – oh! It was horrible, Sophie. They’d turned the place upside down, torn the curtains, it’s incredible what these thugs will do. High on drugs, I shouldn’t wonder.’

Wade House had been burgled? Sophie immediately felt unsettled. Had they been after her? Had they been looking for something? Presumably whatever it was they had been after at her flat.

‘Nothing appears to have been taken,’ Julia was saying, ‘but they left it in a terrible mess and the TV is in pieces. I hope it’s insured; you know how your father loved cutting corners.’

In the distance Sophie could hear a tannoy announcement; she didn’t understand it, but she recognised the word ‘Nice’.

‘Mum, I have to go,’ she said.

‘Sophie, please, we need to talk. Are you sure you’re all right? I’m at my wits’ end.’

People were moving towards the platforms now. She couldn’t be on the phone when Josh came looking for her.

‘Sorry, Mum. I love you.’

She put down the receiver and hurried back to the kiosk just as Josh came striding towards her.

‘Everything set?’ he said, tapping two train tickets against the palm of his hand. ‘They’ve announced the platform, we’d better get moving.’

Sophie forced a smile and picked up her bag.

‘Let’s go.’

They climbed on board just as the guard blew his whistle, and moved through the gently swaying train to find their allocated sleeper cabin. It was tiny. Two bunk beds on top of each other with just about enough room to sit and a metal sink of the type you’d get in a lavatory.

‘Cosy,’ said Josh, locking the door behind them.

‘You can go on top,’ said Sophie, putting her bag on the bottom bunk.

‘Just how I like it,’ he quipped, but Sophie ignored him.

‘Well, I don’t think they have a disco on the train, so I guess we’d better get some sleep,’ added Josh, climbing into the top bunk. ‘Early start tomorrow.’

Sophie got into her bunk and, making sure she was out of his line of view, undressed and slipped into the lightweight sleeping bag.