Free The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths

even if he insists on a Catholic school at least she’ll be safe with him and Michelle. All this passes through Ruth’s mind in the split second between pulling out onto the road and finding herself in the hedge.
    ‘Are you OK Kate?’ she asks.
    ‘Yes,’ says Kate in a very small voice. Ruth looks round and her daughter smiles at her, almost as if she is reassuring her. Clarence Clemons is beginning a saxophone solo. After a few seconds Ruth becomes aware that someone is banging on her window. She tries to wind down the window, can’t find the handle and opens the door instead. She gets out, dimly aware that her legs are shaking.
    A man is standing on the grass verge. His car, a black Lexus, is on the opposite side of the road. Ruth notices a dead rabbit in the gutter and hopes that it wasn’t an innocent victim of the crash.
    ‘Jesus Christ,’ the man is saying. ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘Yes,’ says Ruth and her voice sounds strange and dreamy. ‘Look at that rabbit.’
    ‘You need to sit down,’ says the man, ‘you must beshocked. Look, it was all my fault. I was on the wrong side of the road.’
    An indignant squawk from the back of the car rouses Ruth.
    ‘Kate,’ she says. ‘Coming darling.’
    ‘Oh God,’ says the man, ‘you’ve got a baby in there. Is she OK?’
    Ruth opens the back door and lifts Kate out. She stands there, holding her daughter. .
    ‘Is the baby OK?’ says the man again.
    ‘I’m not a baby,’ says Kate scornfully.
    ‘Sorry, honey,’ says the man. ‘I can see you’re not. Are you all right, sweetheart?’
    ‘I’m nearly three,’ says Kate. ‘Not a baby.’ In fact, she’s just over two and a half but Ruth doesn’t correct her.
    Ruth thinks she should put a stop to this conversation. ‘Shouldn’t we be exchanging numbers or something?’ she says.
    ‘Sure,’ says the man, getting a notebook from his pocket. ‘But, like I say, it’s all my fault. I thought I’d got used to driving on the left but I guess I lost concentration.’
    Ruth notices for the first time that he has an American accent. He’s a tall man, powerfully built with thick grey hair. There’s something rather powerful about him too, even though he is apologising and promising to pay for the damage. Ruth thinks of a sheriff or an old-style New York cop. Maybe it’s just the way he drawls his rs.
    ‘Is your car damaged?’ says the man, handing Ruth a page from the notebook.
    ‘I don’t think so,’ says Ruth, scribbling. Her ancient Renault looks pretty battered but then it always looks like that. Nelson often mutters about her needing a new car. ‘Something safer for Katie.’ She won’t tell him about today’s adventure.
    ‘I think I swerved just in time,’ she says. ‘I must have driven right over to the other side of the road.’ As she says this, she realises that she doesn’t remember anything after swerving to avoid the Lexus.
    ‘But you might have whiplash,’ says the man. ‘I think you should see a doctor.’
    Whiplash always sounds dodgy to Ruth. ‘I’m OK,’ she says.
    They exchange addresses and Ruth puts Kate back into the car.
    ‘Look,’ says the man. ‘I’m not sure you should drive. You’ve had one hell of a shock.’
    ‘I’m OK,’ says Ruth again. ‘And I’ve got to go. Got to drop my daughter off and I’m late for work.’ She gives him a bland, social smile. ‘Goodbye.’ She has to stop herself from adding ‘nice to meet you’.
    She starts up the car and bumps over the verge, back onto the road. In the mirror she can see the American standing by the hedge, gazing after her.
    *
    She doesn’t tell Sandra about the crash as she doesn’t want to get into the whole ‘are you all right, have a cup of tea, are you sure you haven’t got whiplash’ thing. Kate seems unconcerned and that’s all that matters. Besides,now Ruth really is late. The TV people are coming at nine and she’d wanted to have half an hour to prepare herself but it’s now eight