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Back Platform Seven Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover
  2. Landing Page
  3. Platform Seven
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. PART ONE
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. PART TWO
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. PART THREE
  16. 7
  17. 8
  18. 9
  19. PART FOUR
  20. 10
  21. 11
  22. 12
  23. 13
  24. 14
  25. PART FIVE
  26. 15
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. PART SIX
  30. 18
  31. 19
  32. 20
  33. PART SEVEN
  34. 21
  35. 22
  36. 23
  37. 24
  38. 25
  39. Acknowledgements
  40. About the Author
  41. By the Same Author
  42. Copyright

Inside the flat, I kicked off my shoes and let my shoulder bag drop and arranged the flowers in a vase immediately. I placed the arrangement on the end of the kitchen counter, so they would be visible as soon as he got in the door. I washed my hands: Matty was big on washing hands. I wasn’t a good cook like him, I was a plain and hearty one, but I made a risotto with prawns and tomato that he liked. There was a bag of salad somewhere in the fridge. I extracted it and ripped it open then fiddled with the leaves, dropping them into the salad bowl one by one, discarding the ones that were starting to go limp and discoloured.

I had just finished laying the table when there was the sound of Matthew’s key in the door. I went straight over to him and rested my hand on the side of his cheek and kissed him and said, ‘Thank you, they are beautiful. Caused quite a stir in the staff room.’

He looked at the flowers, then at me. ‘Good.’

*

That night, I was sitting up in bed reading when he came out of the bathroom in his boxers and got into bed beside me. He took the book out of my hands and, without looking at it, closed it and tossed it across me so that it landed on the floor on my side. He moved up close to me then and I turned to him, expecting sex, but instead, he reached out and put one hand on my chin, cupping it so I couldn’t move. With the other hand, he used two fingers to press hard against my jawbone on one side. ‘You’ve got a nerve, here,’ he said.

‘Ouch,’ I said.

‘It’s right here,’ he continued. ‘It’s called the branchial motor, it’s part of the facial nerve system. If you press on that and the back of the head at the same time you can really disable someone. There’s a technique to manipulate that nerve: you have to use the pad of the thumb, not the nail. If you use the nail it breaks the nerve rather than manipulates it; incredibly painful, apparently.’ I tried to move my head but the other hand held it still. ‘I know all about your nervous system, you know.’

He released me, turned away and picked up his phone from the bedside table.