Page 177 - My Home on the Earth

and took her coat off the hook. Slamming the front door behind her she walked to the lift and waited. Rather than suffer embarrassment in the main lobby downstairs she decided against it and took the service stairway. Halfway down she sat and cried. There was only one place left for her to go. I’ll stay with Jake in the shed – perhaps he’ll nip out for some fish and chips for our supper, she thought. Wiping her eyes, she lugged the case down the stairs and quietly left by the back door.
Mockery wasn’t a quality she’d noticed in her sister, but tonight it was visible and Melanie realised there was no going back. Closing the service exit door, she stepped through the wooden gate and began a long walk to the factory. Without a torch, she stumbled and fell in the heathland.
****
Kate received an alert on her phone. Someone had stepped on a pressure sensor hidden close to the perimeter wire
fence. Cameras picked up a figure heading towards the cabin but it wasn’t Jake: it was the woman. Kate sent a message to Stuart Bannister.
Melanie wound her way across the factory yard, dragging her suitcase. With a cool wind blowing off the water, she stepped over stones and timber before arriving at the cabin. She banged on the door. ‘Jake, open this door, now! Let me in. I’m in trouble. Let me in.’ She bent over to lift every stone in the hope of finding a key and then fell to her knees on damp soil in utter distress.
****
That evening, Kate waited for a response from Stuart
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