Free The Stranger Came by Frederic Lindsay Page B

a traffic warden had appeared .
    'N ot here, dear. You not see the double yellow line?'
    As Lucy moved to go past, the woman swung the car door further open, blocking her way.
    'Stopping on those lines could cause an accident,' the warden said. 'They're there for a purpose, you know.’
    'Would you be quiet?' the woman said to him, and to Lucy, 'Don't go!'
    'Are you drunk?' He pushed his face into hers and sniffed like a dog on a scent. 'If you're not safe, you shouldn't be in the vehicle.’
    'I have to talk to you,' she said to Lucy.
    'I'm talking to you . Are you listening to me?'
    'Not really,' she said to him and pushed the door of the car shut. 'I'm going now and that'll let you get on with whatever you do.’
    His voice followed them, 'I'll show you what I do,' but it sounded plaintive and deflated.
    She had wanted to cross the road. Why?
    She was trying to think about this, and the woman was an interruption walking close to her, too close.
    'There's somewhere I have to go,' Lucy said. 'I'm sorry I have no time.’
    'Are you all right?' the woman asked. And Lucy recognised her. 'Are you all right?' Sophie Lindgren asked.
    'I couldn't,' she felt sick, 'make up my mind where I wanted to go. Stupid – I was dreaming.’
    'Were you going to visit the Trust?'
    The girl was new, of course, and couldn't know how unlikely that would be.
    'It's not a nice day,' Lucy said, looking around her. 'Not a day for shopping.’ She felt her hair and the wetness of her cheeks. 'I've been walking in the rain.’
    'You weren't coming to see me, were you? '
    'What reason – Anyway how could I expect to see you here?' Lucy looked around. It was a street she did not recognise.
    'Because I live near here. But, of course, you know that,' the girl was saying. Something about where she lived? Was she trying to suggest she knew where she lived?
    'But you do! I'm sorry. I mean, you were there with the Professor.’
    Lucy shook her head. 'With my husband?'
    Sophie Lindgren indicated, pointing along the street. 'There – just where the terrace goes up a level. That's the place. You can see the windows from here.’
    And Lucy remembered. The kitchen with the dripping tap; the cheap reproduction pinned to a wall; the stale smell of cigarettes. I went there with Maitland and we met – we met –
    'I could offer you a coffee,' Sophie Lindgren said. 'It's just across the road.’
    There was somewhere she needed to go, was supposed to go. She couldn't think because of the girl. Question after question.
    'A drink then? That might be better. You wouldn't want to get a chill.’
    'I don't think so.’
    'But you must! You've shivering. You'll make yourself ill.’
    It seemed there was to be no peace. 'My husband suggested we buy one of the flats. As an investment. But he's not really a businessman.’ She heard herself laughing and said, 'I think I should be going home.’
    There was a place opposite, however, one of those squalid little hotels, and the girl was insisting.
    'After all my dreaming,' Lucy said, 'it seems I've decided to cross the road.’
    As she went up the hotel steps, noise jerked her head round. On a whooping double note the police car sliding from a side-street posted its ominous clamour ahead. Arms folded the warden stood across the street watching them.
     
    The drink was very sweet. She didn't know what it was, and wondered if Sophie Lindgren had brought it without asking what she wanted. While she was thinking about that, the girl began to make sharp gasping sounds.
    'I'm trying to picture May Stewart's face,' she said, and her shoulders shook with the little noises that although strange were more like laughter than anything else.
    'Mrs Stewart?' The secretary at the Gregory and Rintoul Trust; it took Lucy a moment to place the name.
    'It's her car, you see,' the girl said. 'Her lovely little Fiat with the, what is it she calls it? Two-colour toning. It'll be its very first parking ticket; I should think so, wouldn't you? With her