Older Man Rich Girl. (Completed)

Chapter 2. Three Years Ago.

The other man's smile wasn't genuine, Harry could tell. Why would any man grimace in that way? The silent snarl said a lot of things - mean, jubilant, on a high from some evil thought or deed.

Harry had simply parked his car in the rest area off the French motorway, the A7 Autoroute du Soleil, north of Marseille. He hadn't got out of his car. It was Monique who wanted to stop. As they drove in convoy away from Marseille, she had phoned him from her car, travelling one hundred yards behind his, to request a stop at the next lay-by, an 'aire de repos', as the French call it. She needed to pee.

The rest area was basic, the women's toilet facilities were closed, no shop existed, just shade from the hot summer sun from a small forest of trees to one side, and a few picnic tables. Harry had parked his car towards the exit of the parking area so he could lead the way back onto the motorway. His short-sleeve polo shirt stuck to his back in the heat as he pushed the driver's seat to give his legs more room. He listened to the radio for five minutes, his attention distracted for a moment by the white car, which must have entered the lay-by without him noticing, but now slowly passed him two yards away. The driver looked at Harry, feigned a smile, somehow ugly, and drove at speed to join the traffic on the A7.

In his rear view mirror, Harry noted Monique's car was still parked fifty yards behind, in the shade. Previously he had watched her walk into the trees for, what they jokingly called, a 'wild pee'.

The smile on his face receded as he calculated how long Monique had been away from her car. Seven or eight minutes in total. Five minutes too long.

In one swift movement he jumped out of his car and ran. Instinct told him something was wrong. As he sprinted to her car, he confirmed there were no other parked cars. Only moving cars and lorries passed by on the motorway, a constant hum of traffic noise. Twenty yards away from her car he could see she definitely wasn't in it. He cut the angle and stopped at the edge of the trees. His shouts for Monique drew a sombre silence from the wood. He jogged into the trees in a semi-circle until he found her.