Free TICK TOCK RUN (Romantic Mystery Suspense) by H Elliston Page B

viruses.”
    Slowly our eyes connected.  Like smoke drifting away after a fire, my cloudy mind started to clear. 
    Lee scratched his chin.  “I thought Laura was your best friend.”
    “She is.”
    “So she must have questioned you, right?  Had an opinion as to what it’s about.”
    A bad sensation stirred within me.  “Not really.”
    “How could she not be concerned?”
    I jerked forward.  He’d said my exact thought.
    Was Laura just uninterested, or avoiding the subject?  My head scribbled circles.  Then I drifted back to the hen night.
    Laura said she hadn’t overheard my conversation with Lee in the bar.  Why?  She’d been standing right next to me.  She must have overheard some of it.  Then, I remembered her not wanting me to meet Lee last night, and questioning me about him over the phone.  Why didn’t she want me to be with Lee?  Her strange behaviour gnawed away inside me.  My stomach twisted, feeling like a tight knot had formed in its centre. 
    “She probably is a little worried for you, right?”
    I thought about how Paul had described Laura earlier.  “No.  More like... irritated.”  I felt my scalp tingle.  “And she has been snappy and distant lately.”
    “Hey, look out.”  Suddenly, Lee dashed across the room.  He grabbed the mug from my hand just as it tilted.  Coffee spilled over the rim and splashed onto the laminate floor. 
    I stood.  Lost in thought, I left Lee to wipe the spillage while I paced the room numerous times.  “Why would she be irritated?”  Every step pressed down faster, fiercer, until my head was filled to the brim with accusations.  Paul was right.  Laura’s recent behaviour was so out of character; the ever-rising wall between us, her secrecy, the outburst about the parcel she collected in town, wedding nerves distracting me from... lies? 
    I whirled around, faced the opposing wall and perched my hands on my hips.
    “Chelsea?”
    I ignored Lee.
    Maybe my best friend wasn’t actually as sweet as her voice suggested.  Out of everyone I knew, Laura had the biggest reason of all to hate me.

 
    CHAPTER 9
     
    I drove my Corsa through the rain-soaked streets, anxious to beat the traffic lights at every junction.  Nervous energy made my body jitter and the heavy rain heightened my agitated mood.  “I haven’t got a clue where Daryl fits in.  All I know is, Laura has one mother of a reason to hate me.” 
    “What reason?  And keep calm,” Lee said.
    “Calm?  My best friend could be involved in a plot against me!”  I slapped the steering wheel.  “And according to your theory, a plot to kill me!  Ugh!  I have to talk to her, right now.”
    “Are you going to tell me what this thing with Laura is about?”
    I shifted my weight as I turned the steering wheel, skidded round the next corner, right onto Laura’s street. 
    “Wish I’d brought a crash helmet.”  Lee gripped the dashboard.  “I’ll drive next time, or they’ll be a few less cats in the neighbourhood.”
    “Suit yourself.”
    I parked behind Laura’s BMW and darted to her house.
    I pressed the bell several times and banged the door with my fist. 
    Lee stood behind me under the porch.  His breath blew warm on my neck.  “The door’s not to blame,” he said, as I continued pounding on it, floating on the edge of upset and anger. 
    The handle clicked and the door swung inwards. 
    I stared at Laura, my knocking fist still in the air.
    Laura’s dazzling smile drooped.  “What’s wrong?”
    I stepped over the threshold.  “Please, tell me you’ve got nothing to do with this.” 
    “With what?”  She cast a nervous glance over my shoulder, perhaps looking at Lee, or perhaps wishing she hadn’t opened the door.
    “The email.”  I walked towards her.
    “Oh, not that again.”  She backed up.  The wall brought her to a halt and she had nowhere to go.  “What’s this about, Chelsea?”
    “Did you send, or know who’s sending me the