Read Watched: When Road Rage Follows You Home for Free Online Page A

asked.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘The car from yesterday. You said it followed you but never described it.’
    ‘Oh…’ Esther shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself even though the morning was already warm. ‘…it was this blue thing. You know the type – big exhaust, loud stereo, really low to the ground.’
    ‘Do you know the make?’
    She shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t look for things like that.’
    Charlie didn’t know why he’d asked – car makes and models weren’t the type of thing he’d notice either unless someone pointed it out.
    He kissed her on the forehead again, before standing awkwardly, trying to think of something better to say than ‘goodbye’. When nothing came, he turned and climbed into his car, watching Esther’s mournful shape through the windscreen before pulling away.
    It was an assumption that whoever had terrorised Esther the day before had come back to go through their bins, find out their phone number, slash her tyres and dump rubbish on their driveway – but they didn’t know anyone else in the area. Aside from Esther’s brief chat with Liz next door, they hadn’t spoken to anyone. He’d not even given his address to the hotel yet because it had slipped his mind the previous day.
    Charlie reached the end of the road and decided to do some exploring. If this was the work of the man with the blue car, he must live nearby. Esther said he’d driven off outside the shop and she would have noticed him following her later on. That meant the only way he could know where they lived was if he happened to be driving past their house and recognised her car on the driveway.
    After flicking on the air-conditioning, Charlie turned left, cruising along the empty street. It was a beautiful morning: blue skies, sunny and warm. He had to squint as he took the next left, turning onto the road that ran parallel to theirs. The speed limit was twenty but Charlie was barely doing that, twisting his head from side to side and checking each driveway.
    He turned into a cul-de-sac, reaching the end and doing a three-point turn before heading back. There was the odd blue car but nothing like the type Esther had described. He’d known exactly what she was talking about: every estate had them. Someone who’d bought a car and spent the next five years constantly adding parts to it until it was a howling monstrosity that you could hear from half-a-mile away.
    Charlie turned into the next street, drifting along and checking both sides until he reached the end, almost back where he’d begun on the parallel road. He checked the clock on the dashboard – if he didn’t get going, he was going to be late, which was hardly an example to set on his second day. Driving along every small side street was going to take hours.
    Knowing he couldn’t do anything else, Charlie started driving along the road that ran parallel to theirs again. At the end, it was a short series of turns and he’d be on the dual carriageway. Even if the traffic lights were against him, he should still be on time.
    He gave way at a traffic island and then accelerated, touching twenty-five before easing off. As he was about to brake for the next island, he felt an unexplainable pull to face left. Whether it was the angle of the sun, or a sixth sense that there was something to see, Charlie turned to spot a tree overhanging a driveway. Parked front-first underneath was a metallic blue hatchback, angled crookedly so it was half across the drive, half across the pavement.
    Charlie peered over the top of the adjacent property, deep into the bright sky. Although it was three-quarters-of-a-mile following the road, in a straight line, their house was barely a couple of hundred metres away.

FIVE: ESTHER
     
    Esther had just about finished packing the rubbish from their driveway into black bags when the recovery vehicle pulled up. A cheery looking man in overalls climbed out of the driver’s seat, checking his phone.
    ‘Are you Esther