can get way too caught up in something if I’m given half the chance. My recent strangeness has only come about with the best of intentions – and I need Nolan to know that.
Surely if he sees that I have developed this odd, judgemental attitude only because I am now dedicated to the same cause as him, it’ll smooth things over? He can surely appreciate that, can’t he? My heart’s in the right place, even if my brain possibly hasn’t been.
Yes.
That sounds about right to me.
My justifications are convincing. It should all be fine.
So why do my hands get very cold and sweaty as I turn into Nolan’s road?
Just take some deep breaths.
The only parking space I can find is about twenty yards away from Nolan’s house. As I squeeze my hybrid Mercedes into the space between two parked cars that I would never get into were it not for the super-duper park-assist technology that the car comes with, I look in the rear-view mirror to see someone coming out of Nolan’s front door.
My hackles immediately go up, as this person is dressed in an extremely shifty manner. He’s wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses and a dark-blue hooded top, with the hood up over the cap. As he walks down the three steps that lead to Nolan’s front door, he looks in both directions up and down the street.
Burglar.
That’s who this person is!
Someone has burgled poor Nolan and is making off with his valuables—
Wait a minute.
That’s not a burglar doing Nolan’s pad over.
That is Nolan.
He’s just briefly taken off the sunglasses to give them a wipe as he crosses the street, and I’d know those kind, easy-going grey eyes anywhere!
What is he doing?
Why is he dressed like that? And why is he acting in such a furtive manner?
Part of me wants to jump out of the car and go over to him to confront him, and see what he’s up to . . . but there’s another part of me that just wants to sit here and see what happens.
It’s a very primal part of my personality. Something that I’m sure is a holdover from one of my distant ancestors, who knew that discretion was the better part of valour sometimes – especially when it came to observing that massive sabre-toothed tiger in the grass over there.
Okay, I don’t think Nolan poses any real kind of threat to me just because he’s dressed like that, but something very strange is going on, and alarm bells are ringing in my head.
I hunker down in my seat a little and turn to look through the rear windscreen as Nolan walks straight past his neat little Tesla – and goes straight towards a frankly enormous bright-green BMW M3.
I’ve noticed that gaudy fucker a couple of times when I’ve come down this street in Nolan’s car, and have blanched at it every time. It must be hideously bad for the environment. The fact that the bonnet bulges outwards must mean the engine underneath is gigantic.
Maybe Nolan is going over to vandalise it?
That’s why he’s wearing those odd clothes and looking so suspicious?
Oh God.
I have to stop him. Being dedicated to an environmental cause is one thing, but committing criminal damage to someone’s property is quite another! I must stop him before he—
Hang on a bloody minute . . .
He’s not vandalising the stupid green BMW – he’s climbing into it!
Nolan Reece is getting into an overblown German muscle car, and is starting the engine.
What the hell is going on?!
I can hear the loud, guttural roar coming from the BMW very easily, despite the fact that I am in my own hermetically sealed Mercedes car cabin. The sound of it must echo around the street like a jet aircraft taking off.
My jaw goes slack as I watch Nolan pull out of the parking space in the brutish sports car and drive past me. Instinct tells me I need to duck my head so he doesn’t see me.
I have to see what Nolan is up to, and I won’t get to do that if I am discovered . . .
As Nolan reaches the end of the street, I fire up my own nearly silent car, and follow along behind him, keeping enough distance to stop him from noticing that he now has a tail.
Bloody hell.
I came here this morning to make my apologies and make amends. I didn’t expect to find myself thrust into an impromptu spy thriller!