Free The Lie by Petra Hammesfahr Page B

her a sudden feeling of unease. Nadia must love her husband very much, otherwise she would hardly have transferred his picture from one car to the other. But to her way of thinking loving a man very much was incompatible with this kind of deception. Even if he was cheating on her.
    Nadia surveyed Susanne’s hairdo and face with a look of approval, checked the shape of her eyebrows and fingernails, and even went
so far as to inspect her shins to make sure all growth really had been removed. Then she took the headscarf and large sunglasses out of the glove compartment and told her to put them on. Finally she drove the Alfa Spider out into the street, asking, “Did you manage to get some driving in?”
    â€œJust one session,” Susanne lied. “It went OK. I surprised myself. But the instructor said it’s like swimming or riding a bike - you never forget how to do it.”
    â€œGreat,” said Nadia. “Then that shouldn’t be a problem. There won’t be any others, either, you look perfect. How was it at the hairdresser’s?” She listened to Susanne’s account and headed for the autobahn, telling her, “Remember this route.”
    There wasn’t much to remember. They went past three exits - and that pretty quickly although the traffic was fairly heavy. Even if the Alfa Spider was less powerful than the Porsche, it was hardly noticeable. Nor was it inferior to the white sports car as far as manoeuvrability was concerned. When the fourth exit approached, Nadia finally cut down her speed. Then there came a country road lined with young trees. Nadia pulled in on the verge between two very thin trunks and pointed ahead. There was virtually nothing to be seen, just a hint of roof tiles in the green shade of countless leafy treetops.
    â€œFrom here it’s easy to find,” Nadia said. “Stay on this road. After you get to the village you have to turn left twice, then right. You can’t miss it. There are only five houses on Marienweg, two on one side, three on the other. My house is the middle one of the three.”
    Then came a long explanation of the alarm system. It sounded extremely complicated, as if she’d need an instruction manual just to open the front door. When she’d finished, Nadia did a three-point turn, which Susanne would have thought impossible on the narrow country road and drove back, explaining that in the coming week she had no time for further meetings and that her first appearance would be - next Sunday!
    No more talk of weeks of intensive training. Nadia maintained that it was a good opportunity, not a full weekend and no risk of a short-notice party at Jo and Lilo Kogler’s with Wolfgang and Ilona Blasting. Just a few hours. And Michael would have to go to the lab in the late afternoon.

    â€œThere’s a new series of tests running,” said Nadia indignantly. “That’s always a good pretext for a rendezvous with a laboratory mouse.”
    But given the situation, Nadia said, it would be child’s play. Michael would scarcely be in the mood for a close encounter of any kind before he left. At lunch she would express her resentment at having to spend the evening alone and then say she had to go out too. All Susanne would have to do would be to show Michael the cold shoulder and meet any excuses or attempts to make up with a scornful laugh before flouncing out of the room where he was or to which he had followed her.
    â€œYou won’t have to put up with him for long, anyway,” Nadia said. “He has to leave at five. We’ll meet at three in the multi-storey, that’ll give you time for the drive there.”
    She managed a nod. She hadn’t expected things to move forward so quickly. Her heart was pounding, she could feel the throb right to the tips of her fingers and was relieved that it didn’t occur to Nadia to get her to drive. There was no question but she would have seen through