Behind you.

Norah turned and froze. Backed away. Because of course she recognised him instantly, the man standing before her, staring at her out of the darkness.

Arthur Grimm didn’t have the kind of face you forgot in a hurry.

28

He stood directly in front of her on the dark pavement, only his posture betraying his tension. Norah’s head was suddenly clear. They’d never met. He couldn’t know she was here because of him. She would simply carry on walking, a mere passer-by.

She stepped aside to pass him, but he stood in her way.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked.

He spoke softly, but with a distinctly aggressive undertone.

Norah was taken aback. The man couldn’t know that she’d found out about him, got hold of his address and come here to have a good look at him. Did he think she was someone else?

She set her chin and slipped her left hand into her coat pocket where she kept her phone.

‘Do I know you?’ she asked.

The man didn’t reply.

‘Let me past, please,’ Norah said, ‘or I’ll call the police.’

His eyes narrowed.

She took her phone from her pocket. She only had to press the Home button twice and the Emergency Call option would appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen…

‘Piss off,’ the man said and let her past.

Norah kept going until there were a few metres between them. Just go home, she thought. He’s not right in the head. Keep walking and don’t look back.

‘I don’t want to see you here again,’ Arthur Grimm called out to her. ‘That’s a warning.’

Norah paused mid-step and turned to face him—she couldn’t stop herself.

‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’ she said. ‘This is a public street. As far as I’m aware, there’s no law against walking down the road. So either tell me what your problem is or I would suggest you leave me in peace.’

The man said nothing—only stared at her with his deep-set eyes. He had a strange face; Norah had noticed when she saw his photo on the internet that there was something funny about it. But she couldn’t work out what.

Arthur Grimm looked at her as if he were weighing things up.

He’s going to attack me, Norah thought. He’s going to drag me between the parked cars, wrestle me to the ground and bash my head against the road till I stop breathing.

No, that was irrational; he wouldn’t dare—not here in public, in full view of a whole street of lighted windows. Norah fought the impulse to back away from him. Whatever she did, she mustn’t show him she was scared. He was still staring at her. Then a jolt went through his body.

‘I don’t know why I’m even talking to you.’

And he turned and walked slowly away.

Norah watched him go, uncertain what to think. He blurred and merged into the darkness and it was only when he reached the light of his doorway that she saw him more clearly again. He turned to face her once more and there was no mistaking the menace in the look he gave her.