غریبه

chapter one

The stranger

I don’t usually pick up hitch-hikers, but this one was different. He wasn’t young, like the others, and he didn’t have a bag, or a girlfriend, or a sign with ‘London’ or ‘Lancaster’ on it. He just stood there, beside the road, with his hand out, waiting. He was a man about forty years old, in a grey suit and red tie. He was just watching the cars and waiting.

He was watching me while I slowed down. I remember his eyes. Very pale blue eyes, staring at me through thin gold glasses. They looked surprised. Perhaps I was something strange, something not quite real to him. Or perhaps he just had bad eyes. Perhaps he couldn’t see very well.

I stopped the car and opened the window. ‘Where are you going,’ I asked.

‘I’m going into town,’ he said. ‘Into Lancaster. Could you give me a lift, please?’

‘Yes, OK,’ I said. ‘I’m going that way. Jump in.’

He got in and sat down beside me. ‘Thank you very much,’ he said. ‘It’s very kind of you.’

‘That’s all right,’ I said. ‘It’s my pleasure.’

I started the car and thought about the words he had used. There was something strange about them. Hitchhikers don’t usually speak like that. They usually say something like ‘Are you going to Lancaster? Oh good, thanks a lot’. He spoke politely, like an older man. But this man wasn’t very old. ‘Perhaps he’s foreign,’ I thought.

I looked at him, and noticed something else.

‘Could you put your seat-belt on, please,’ I said.

He looked at me. ‘I’m all right,’ he said. ‘I don’t like seat-belts very much. I feel like a prisoner in the car.’

‘It’s the law, you know. And I’m a police sergeant, so I think you should wear one in my car.’

‘Oh, yes. I’m so sorry. The law. Yes– yes, I forgot.’ He looked around him, but for a moment he couldn’t find the seat-belt.

‘It’s there, behind you,’ I said. ‘You do it like this.’ I helped him to put on the seat-belt.

‘Yes, thank you,’ he said. ‘I’m terribly sorry. I never remember these things.’

‘Oh, really,’ I said. ‘Why? Don’t you have a car?’

‘No. Not now. I don’t like them. I did have one once, but that was a long time ago–’ For a moment I thought he would continue, but then he stopped talking and stared quietly out of the window.

I looked at him again. I’m a police officer, so it’s my job to look at people and to think carefully about them. I was sure there was something strange about this man. His hair - nobody has their hair cut quite like that now.

And that suit - it was quite clean, quite new, but the trousers and lapels were wider than they usually are… Where had I seen a suit like that before?

‘Do you live near here,’ I asked. I was still wondering about him. Was he a foreigner?

He smiled at me. ‘I live in Lancaster. In the centre of the town, in fact.’

I was listening carefully. ‘He speaks very good English,’ I thought. ‘He speaks in the local way. I don’t think he is a foreigner. But that face! It’s the middle of summer now, and we’ve had a lot of sun this year. Why is he so pale?’

‘What sort of job do you do,’ I asked.

He smiled at me again. ‘Oh, I don’t have a job at the moment,’ he said. ‘That’s why I don’t have a car now, you see.’

‘You haven’t driven for a long time, then,’ I said.

He looked at me again. That same quiet, surprised look. ‘No, I haven’t,’ he said. ‘Not for a long time.’

I smiled at him. ‘I thought you hadn’t,’ I said. ‘You’ve had to wear seat-belts in a car for many years. Sorry,’ I continued. ‘It’s my job. Police officers always play at detectives!’

‘Yes, I see,’ he said. He smiled. A quiet, polite smile was on his mouth, but those pale eyes were still and empty.

Then for a moment I stopped thinking about him because there was a lot of traffic on the road. Cars were moving very slowly, and I saw a policeman in front, with several police cars and flashing blue lights.

I knew the policeman, so I stopped the car beside him. ‘What’s the matter, John,’ I asked.

‘It’s an accident, Sue,’ he said. ‘One car stopped suddenly, and another car went into the back of it.’

‘Anyone hurt?’

Three people, I think, but they don’t look too bad. The ambulance will be here soon.’

‘Do you need any help?’ I wasn’t in uniform, but I had to ask.

He thought for a moment, and I heard the sound of the ambulance. It was coming towards us. ‘Well, it looks quite nasty, but we’ll be OK when the ambulance comes, Sue. There are two police cars here already. But you can ask the sergeant over there, if you like. He’ll know.’

‘All right, John, thanks.’ I drove on slowly to the accident. There was glass all over the road, and the two damaged cars were by the side of the road on the left. It seemed that one car had hit the back of the other, and pushed it off the road.

A young girl was sitting at the side of the road with a policeman. Her face was covered in blood. A man was lying on the ground beside the second car, and another policeman was kneeling beside him. The sergeant was talking to the driver of the first car, who was still in his seat.