_OceanofPDF.com_The_Girl_on_the_Train_-_Paula_Hawkins

“I wanted . . . I thought you wouldn’t want to be alone.”
He looked at me as though I was insane. “I’m not alone,” he said. He
got up and pushed past me into the living room. For a moment, I just
stood there. I didn’t know whether to follow him or to leave, but then he
called out, “Do you want a coffee?”
There was a woman outside on the lawn, smoking. Tall, with salt-andpepper
hair, she was smartly dressed in black trousers and white blouse
done up to the throat. She was pacing up and down the patio, but as soon
as she caught sight of me, she stopped, flicked her cigarette onto the
paving stones and crushed it beneath her toe.
“Police?” she asked me doubtfully as she entered the kitchen.
“No, I’m—”
“This is Rachel Watson, Mum,” Scott said. “The woman who
contacted me about Abdic.”
She nodded slowly, as though Scott’s explanation didn’t really help
her; she took me in, her gaze sweeping rapidly over me from head to toe
and back again. “Oh.”
“I just, er . . .” I didn’t have a justifiable reason for being there. I
couldn’t say, could I, I just wanted to know. I wanted to see.
“Well, Scott is very grateful to you for coming forward. We’re
obviously waiting now to find out what exactly is going on.” She stepped
towards me, took me by the elbow and turned me gently towards the
front door. I glanced at Scott, but he wasn’t looking at me; his gaze was
fixed somewhere out of the window, across the tracks.
“Thank you for stopping by, Ms. Watson. We really are very grateful
to you.”
I found myself on the doorstep, the front door closed firmly behind
me, and when I looked up I saw them: Tom, pushing a buggy, and Anna
at his side. They stopped dead when they saw me. Anna raised her hand
to her mouth and swooped down to grab her child. The lioness protecting
her cub. I wanted to laugh at her, to tell her, I’m not here for you, I
couldn’t be less interested in your daughter.
I’m cast out. Scott’s mother made that clear. I’m cast out and I’m
disappointed, but it shouldn’t matter, because they have Kamal Abdic.
They’ve got him, and I helped. I did something right. They’ve got him,
and it can’t be long now before they find Megan and bring her home.