Free When Night Closes in by Iris Gower

moved out of the shadows. Lowri stepped back, her heart thumping, her mouth suddenly dry.
    â€˜I want a word with you, Miss Richards.’ Sarah Brandon was dressed all in black and, in the pale light of the moon, her face seemed devoid of colour. Somehow, Lowri knew that her appearance on the doorstep meant trouble. She glanced behind her but all she could see were the tail-lights of a car disappearing into the distance. The small street was deserted.
    â€˜I’m rather tired, Mrs Brandon.’
    â€˜This won’t take very long and I mean to talk to you if I have to stand outside your door all night.’
    There was an edge of hysteria in Sarah’s voice that filled Lowri with a sense of foreboding. She knew that what she was about to hear would not be good news. She switched on the light and held the door wide. ‘You’d better come inside,’ she said.

5
    Sarah Brandon looked out of place in the small lounge, her elegantly painted fingernails resting on an expensive leather handbag. Her feet were tucked under the chair, as though there was not enough room to accommodate her long legs.
    â€˜It’s rather late, please keep your voice down, my mother is in bed,’ Lowri said. ‘What can I do for you, is it about the lease on Plunch Lane?’
    â€˜You could say that.’ Sarah’s voice sounded strange. ‘It’s about the time when you were there, in early spring it must have been.’ Her large eyes were narrowed. She appeared like a cat about to pounce on an unwary mouse.
    Sarah paused as if to examine one of her fingers and Lowri saw the glint of a gold wedding ring. ‘I found a photograph, you see.’ She paused as though to take a breath. ‘You were naked, abandoned. It was quite obvious from the photograph that you had just been making love to my husband.’
    Lowri felt as though she had been slapped in the face. She ran her fingers through her hair, not sure what to say. There was no point in denying it; the photograph was proof enough.
    â€˜Where did you find it?’ she asked.
    â€˜That’s not important.’ Sarah’s tone was icy.
    â€˜It is to me,’ Lowri said.
    â€˜That’s just too bad! Now, how long has this affair been going on?’
    â€˜Look!’ Lowri was aware of the anger in her voice but there was little point in trying to hide how she felt. ‘I’ve been going out with Jon for almost six months. It wasn’t just a cheap affair, far from it, I thought he loved me.’ She was near to tears. ‘So don’t you dare come here attacking me in my own home! None of this is my fault. I have done nothing wrong, get that into your head once and for all, Mrs Brandon.’
    â€˜Nothing wrong?’ Sarah’s voice rose. ‘You sleep with my husband in my bed and leave your stink on my sheets. You call that nothing wrong? What sort of woman are you?’
    Lowri’s small rush of anger faded. ‘I’m the gullible sort.’ She looked across at Sarah. ‘I didn’t know he was married.’
    â€˜Don’t lie!’ Sarah’s eyes were blazing. ‘You might say you’re gullible but I am not. You slept with Jon, time and time again. How many times, Miss Richards, or are they too many to count?’
    Lowri shook her head, crushed with guilt in the face of Sarah’s pain. But Sarah went on relentlessly.
    â€˜You spent that last weekend with him at the Swan, didn’t you?’
    â€˜Yes, I did.’
    â€˜And he’s never been seen since. What happened, did you have a row, did he walk out on you?’
    Lowri rubbed her eyes. ‘I don’t know what happened.’ She felt beaten. ‘He just vanished from the hotel. It’s as if he never existed.’
    â€˜I loved him so much,’ Sarah said in a low voice. ‘But you are the last straw, I could never live with Jon now, not after this.’
    Lowri was silent. How could she defend