CHAPTER 8
SHE WAS AWAKE at her usual early hour, eager to greet the new day. The sun was up after breakfast, and she decided to take a walk along the beach. Grabbing her coat and scarf from the hook behind the front door, she strode out briskly into the crisp morning.
The path that led down to the sea was damp with the morning dew. Boarded-up ice cream kiosks and abandoned stripy huts along the beach below told her the new season had not yet begun.
Good; that’s how she preferred it.
She nodded to a couple of dog-walkers, but otherwise she was pleased to be left alone.
The tide was receding, and there was a firm stretch of wet sand where the sea had been. She walked down close to the shoreline, felt the cold wind on her face, and thought about life being hers for the taking if she
