Dreamwalkers Book One - The Intruder. A Markland Garraway Paranormal Mystery Thriller by Andrew M Stafford

  Chapter 46

 

  Markland & Joan Garraway’s home

  8.05 p.m.

 

  Joan sat alone clutching a sliver framed photograph of herself and Markland. It had been taken earlier in the year when she and Markland had holidayed in Scotland. They had visited Ullapool, the town in which Markland had lived when he was a boy.

  She remembered their walk along the beach, and how her husband had stood for a few moments and had looked towards the early evening sky. She knew what had been on his mind. He’d been thinking about the UFO he’d allegedly seen from the beach when he was a teenager. Although Joan believed he saw something, she didn’t entertain the idea of visitors from another world.

  She had no idea that earlier in the day, her husband had been in a rented car, less than fifty metres from where she’d been comforted by PC Munroe. Had she seen him, would she have accepted that he wasn’t her Markland, but a Markland from another world? Probably not.

 

  Carol, her sister, had left twenty minutes earlier. She had offered to stay the night, but Joan had insisted that she return home to her husband.

  Joan wondered whether she’d said something to upset Markland, or perhaps he’d found out about the brief liaisons she’d had with Munroe?

  Two days earlier she’d awoken to find him gone. He’d taken nothing with him. No keys, no wallet, no phone. It was as if he’d left the house wearing the pyjamas he’d worn to bed.

  She was aware that he’d found retirement to be a struggle, and at times she’d found things awkward having him around the house, after many years working long and gruelling days as a Detective Superintendent. But she had no idea he’d been so unsettled, or unhappy enough to leave home. There had been no signs to indicate anything was that bad with their relationship.

  She regretted her brief fling with Derek Munroe and was nervous whenever he happened to drop by to say ‘hello’.

 

  She pulled the photograph close to her and wept. All she wanted was Markland. She was beside herself with worry and missed her husband terribly.