So here we have it, the first chapter in my book, hope you like it and I will  post some more next week ~marie

Shadows of a ghost

Lara felt the tiredness in every part of her body. She had been awake for forty eight hours and she felt it. Every muscle was screaming at her to sleep. But the desire, the overwhelming urge to keep moving kept one foot stepping after the next. Had it only been forty eight hours?  So little time, and yet so much had changed, and none of it for the best. Watching the person you had pledged to love the rest of your life die in front of your eyes had changed everything for Lara. And the pain that her body was feeling, well that was nothing to the gaping ache that sat like a stone in her chest.

In the distance she could hear a storm; the rolling of the thunder seemed to echo against the buildings that framed the street. The flashes of lightning were far enough away that they provided only a backdrop to the night. The streets were still dark and deserted. Lara took solace in the shadows; they hid her face from prying eyes. Here in the nights shroud she could let her tears fall, without wiping them away.

Tom, how could she describe a man in a few words, sure he was kind and loving, attentive, funny and sexy as hell. But he was more than those labels. He was a flesh and blood human, a heart stronger than steel. He was a smile that lit a room, two arms that offered a harbour when tears fell. He believed in the good, in a higher beauty and he loved like his life depended on it. And in the end it was love that all consuming beat of two souls coming together that led to his death. And now the road is Lara's companion, leading her, pulling her forward to find that what she has lost.

.....her home.

Chapter One.

Tom was going to be late, he was always late. Checking his watch for the twentieth time he looked at the line of cars in front of his. They stretched for miles up the motorway that now resembled a car park.

“Dammit!” Lara’s words echoed around his head as he sat in the silence of the car.

Remember to leave the office early or you will catch the traffic going into the yesteryear music festival!

Once again he should have listened to her but he never did, even though he knew she was always right. A smile played on his lips as he thought how she would love to hear him say she was right, not that he ever would. Playing the game was what kept their marriage so vibrant. He knew he was forever pushing his luck, so did she, but they never mentioned it.

Drumming his fingers against the steering wheel he pressed and opened the window a fraction, the cool air was a relief against the warmth of the car and Tom felt himself relaxing. Looking to his left he saw a young couple in a small red car. Both of them were staring straight ahead, not speaking nor reacting to the situation that presented to them. A young child sat in the back of the car, drawing shapes in the condensation that collected on the window. He smiled and the small child waved before sticking out its tongue returning to the shadow of the cars interior.

Tom thoughts turned to his Shelby, which wasn’t that hard to do, he thought of her most days. She loved sitting by the side of him when he was in the car. Her mouth never still nor quiet as she questioned everything she saw, or heard or thought of. With that mass of tight ginger curls she bobbed up and down with excitement, at everything. The only time she was ever still was when she was seriously regarding you with her vivid green eyes. At such a young age she seemed to sense when someone was telling a lie. Questioning them until she was satisfied that she had received the whole truth. Lara would laugh shaking her head at the pair of them as they sat like mini Buddha’s discussing the way of the world.

God he missed her.

Once when she had been ill he had held her close, feeling the softness of the curls as he breathed in the scent of her hair. Listening in an almost reverent silence as she suckled gently on the thumb resting in her mouth, a habit they had never managed to break.

It was a moment, in a life defined by moments this was the one he remembered most often.

Brought back to the present Tom eased forward in the traffic until he was back to a standstill again, at this rate he wasn’t only going to be late, but very late, Lara was going to have a fit! Fumbling in his bag he pulled out his phone and connected it to the blue tooth, pressing the number for home as he placed it on the holder. After a few rings Lara picked the phone up

“Please don’t tell me you are stuck in traffic?” Lara’s voice purred over the line, she had such a beautiful voice, he had first heard it when they had worked in different departments of the same firm, and it was that voice that had drawn him towards her.

“Yeah baby, I’m stuck in traffic. Right where you said I would be, I’m a klutz I know it!”He replied looking at the row of cars to his left that seemed to be moving a little faster than his lane.

“Oh Christ Tom, the babysitters already here and the Jenkins are expecting us at.....half past seven” he pictured her looking at the watch he had bought for her, that look of disappointment and anger that he found so sexy across her face as she did.

“I know baby, I’m an idiot. It could be another hour before I get off the motorway, so why don’t you go on and I’ll get home, shower and catch you up at the restaurant?” Tom could hear the sigh of disappointment from his wife, after a few seconds she spoke

“Ok, I will leave the restaurant details by the phone, text me when you are leaving”

After the usual goodbyes and love you’s the call disconnected and Tom was sat in the relative silence of the car once more.

Drumming his fingers against the wheel once more, Tom looked to see if he could see the car with the child in it, but it had either passed by or slipped behind, the vehicle next to him now proclaimed

Woods wood!! Better than real wood!!

A picture of an over happy man holding up a piece of laminate accompanied the logo and Tom chuckled to himself, the world had some strange ideas.

The cars began to edge forward again and Tom followed. This time he was close enough to see the problem. A line of cars were trying to get across to a field for the concert and one particularly old beetle had decided to leave most of its engine straddled across the two outer lanes of the motorway. A harassed looking policeman was trying his hardest to direct traffic, his face red and sweaty. 

The owner of the beetle a middle aged man with psychedelic trousers and long blonde dreadlocks puffed on a cigarette while staring at the remains of his car, sadness akin to grief etched upon his face. The traffic slowed to a halt again as a recovery lorry pulled up on the hard shoulder and with a spurt of frantic hand waving from the police officer managed to park itself in front of the gutted beetle.

Glancing at the led display in the car dashboard Tom watched as the time ticked over to seven thirty nine, dammit!! At this rate the restaurant would be closed by the time he got there and Lara would be more than annoyed. From behind him in the traffic he heard the squeal of brakes and the familiar sound of folding metal as it hit something, people not watching the road no doubt, thank goodness its behind me though Tom, his eyes watching the slow ministrations of the recovery driver who seemed to be on time and a half considering his pace of work. The police officer seemed to be distracted by something further up the motorway and after shouting something ineligible to the recovery guy he began to walk towards the sound of the accident, straight past Tom’s car. A series of shouts from behind Toms car and he switched off the engine, un clipped his seatbelt and was out of the car and in the road before he realised it, along with a few others who all looked off into the distance towards where the shouting had been coming from. Walking at a quick pace Tom saw the policeman returning back up the road, his face now pale.

“Get back in your cars now!! Or I will arrest all of you” He caught Toms eye for a second before looking away, and Tom recognised the look.

 It was fear.

He had seen that too many times in the eyes of Lara just recently.

A few drivers including Tom tried to see what was happening in the direction of the shouts but all was now silent

“Get in your cars now!! This is your last warning” the policeman shouted at the few drivers who were left before directing his gaze at the recovery guy and striding towards him.

“Get that engine off this road, now! I don’t care how you do it, just move it.”  He kept looking back up the road as if expecting something to follow him. Tom stepped back in the car and started the engine. The recovery van pulled both the beetle carcass and then the engine to the side of the road scraping a huge gouge in the tarmac. With a sense of urgency the solo police man began to wave the cars through, his face a look of concentration. As Tom passed him by, he looked over at the police officer and he saw the tears, streaming down his face.

Part of him wanted to know what would cause a grown man to cry like that and a trained police officer too. But the pit of fear in his stomach made him push down harder on the accelerator, and with the blockage cleared and the traffic increasing in speed. Tom drove faster than he had ever before, a sense of dread and the unknown chasing him up the motorway.