Trust No One - Keri Beevis Page 0,5

and the sound conjured memories she had tried to bury. The overwhelming fear, as she tried to register what was happening, paralysed her limbs. As she watched, frozen to the spot, the fire took hold, completely engulfing the man. His pitiful screams rang in her ears and the stench of smoke, petrol, and burning flesh filled her nostrils as the flames incinerated him.

More memories surfaced, awful pain-filled memories that threatened to swallow her and made it difficult to breathe.

Have to get out. Have to get out now.

The instruction from her brain finally connected with her shaking legs and she turned and fled from the kitchen, down the long hallway with the half-opened doors, her frazzled brain not even considering that someone might be in one of the rooms, watching and feeding from her reaction.

She tripped on the large stone step down to the path, landing painfully on her knees, scrambled to her feet again, and leaving the door wide open, stumbled past the car and down the long driveway into the road.

A horn beeping, the rush of an engine and the screeching of brakes all sounded in her ears, but a second too late as hard metal slammed into her.

3

Food shopping day was one of the highlights of Janice Plum’s week. It gave her the chance to get out of the house, have a chat with the checkout staff, and sometimes, if she was lucky, she would bump into one of her village friends and they would have lunch in the cafeteria together, where they would spend the afternoon having a gossip and putting the world to rights.

There was nothing to rush home for. Both her sons were in school and, despite her husband Martin’s hinting, she didn’t feel inclined to get a part-time job. She had her housework, her Zumba and Facebook to keep her busy, and she wasn’t prepared to give any of that up.

As she pushed her trolley around Sainsbury’s, she had one eye on her list, the other looking out for familiar faces. Although it was only the first week of December, the store was already playing Christmas songs and she drummed her fingers on the handle of the trolley, humming along quietly as she scanned the shelves.

After paying at the checkout, a little disappointed that she hadn’t seen any of her friends, she decided to treat herself to a pot of tea and a mince pie anyway. Her shopping bags in the trolley next to her table, she used the store’s complimentary wifi to log on to her Facebook account, and snapped a picture of the drink and mince pie, uploading it to her profile with the caption, ‘A little treat after my hard workout this morning.’

Truth was she had only managed ten minutes of her Zumba fitness DVD, due to her mother ringing for a chat, but her Facebook friends didn’t know that.

She had a quick skim through her newsfeed, liked a couple of memes and forwarded a chain email offering Christmas hugs, then clicked on to Fern St Clair’s profile. Her old school friend had so far ignored her attempts to contact her by Messenger and WhatsApp, though Janice knew she had read both messages.

Fern had been active on Facebook too, posting a couple of pouty selfies and a man-hating rant that looked vague enough, but would most likely be directed at the married boss she had been sleeping with for the past three years.

Janice liked the post with a sad face and added a comment. ‘Here if you want to talk, hun. Xxx’

As she finished her second cup of tea, she planned out her afternoon. There was no housework left to do and, eager as she was to put the tree up, she knew the boys would be disappointed if she decorated without them. It was Christmas tradition in the Plum household that they always did the tree together.

Janice glanced at the box of hair dye poking out of the top of one of the shopping bags.

She had bought a shade called Cherry Crush. She would be a vivacious redhead for the festive season. Maybe she would colour her hair this afternoon and give Martin a surprise when he came home.

Deciding that’s what she would do, she checked her mince pie photo on Facebook, pleased to see it already had two likes, plus a comment from her friend, Mandy. ‘Go ahead, Janice. You deserve it, babe. Xxx’

Janice liked the comment, replying with a heart emoji, before slipping her phone back into her