Free A Place of Hope by Anna Jacobs Page A

walked away, whistling cheerfully, stopping to talk to the neighbour across the street, with whom he’d struck up an acquaintance.
    Rachel watched him chat for a while, then go back inside Emily’s house. She’d seen him look reasonably suave, in an expensive business suit, but today he had a swaggering bully’s walk, and his meaty hands were swinging free instead of clutching a briefcase. In fact, he looked like a caricature of a gangster. Emily said he was something in sales and was doing well. Amazing, that. Rachel would never buy anything from a man like him. No, he was connected to engineering, industrial pumps, perhaps. It wasn’t like shop sales. But still . . . he wasn’t a likeable man.
    She shut the front door and locked it, her thoughts going back to her friend. She and Emily hadn’t had time to plan the escape in detail before they’d been cut off. She could only hope she’d heard enough to know she was supposed to pick Emily up from the northern car park of the hospital at one o’clock on Saturday morning.
    When Rachel went outside the following afternoon, intending to go to the shops, she found that all four of her tyres had been slashed. She’d heard nothing, seen nothing.
    She felt so threatened by this, she went inside and locked all the doors and windows. She was quite sure who’d done it, not at all sure how best to deal with it.
    In fact, she felt out of her depth about the whole business of getting Emily free.
    George’s car had gone, and she didn’t know when he’d be coming back, but that didn’t stop her feeling nervous.
    If she got the tyres repaired before closing time, he might slash them again during the night. She didn’t have a garage to keep her car in, so it stood on the drive. And the drive was sheltered by bushes and trees, so anyone could creep up to the car without the neighbours seeing.
    How was she going to help Emily now? They’d only have one chance for this escape, Rachel was sure.
    After some consideration of the problem over a cup of strong coffee, she came to the conclusion that she had to find help. She simply couldn’t do this on her own.
    As she prepared to escape, the most difficult thing for Emily was staying awake until after the late shift came on duty. Several times she found herself nodding off.
    By midnight the bustle of changeover had died down. She waited until the night nurse had finished her first ward round, then got up and dressed quickly, shaping what she hoped looked like a sleeping figure under the bedding.
    She put her dressing gown on over her outdoor clothing, in case anyone was monitoring the CCTV system. Maybe if someone saw her, they’d think she was just walking round the floor.
    She saw a shadow on the floor of the corridor, approaching her room slowly, and stiffened. Please let it be Chad! She couldn’t bear to fail before she even started.
    The shadow jerked and moved along the floor, coming closer and closer.
    Not until the figure stopped outside her door could she tell that it was him. She let out a sigh of relief and went to join him, holding out her hand.
    He took hers and gave it a slight squeeze. She felt better for the touch, so very much better knowing she wasn’t trying to escape on her own.
    ‘All right?’ he mouthed.
    She could only nod, because her throat was suddenly dry.
    They got outside the unit without any hassles, taking the stairs and using the code she’d memorized for the lock. To her huge relief the same code opened the outer door as well.
    Suddenly Chad tugged her back into the shadows behind some bushes and put his forefinger across her lips. She didn’t know why, but stayed silent.
    A security guard appeared, checking the outer doors and flashing his torch around.
    When the man had moved past, Chad grinned, his teeth shining white in the moonlight. ‘I always did have excellent hearing.’
    ‘Thank goodness!’
    Moving as quickly as they could, they made their way across the first car park, meeting no