Kate sat on a stool in the corner of the room. It was well after midnight, she didn’t know anyone at the party except the host, and the drink had made her maudlin. It was still pouring outside. As she put up her umbrella and headed back to the car, she saw that there was a man behind her; moreover, he was staring at her.
She recognized me immediately. A startlingly good memory.
She became a widow a year ago. She doesn’t usually wear much make-up, but she has beautiful bone structure and great big eyes, and she does a thirty-five-minute workout every day. She studied art in Paris, and she enjoys reading detective stories by American writers. She has few friends.
As we walked along the road in the moonlight, I felt a sudden impulse to tell her that I loved her.
The man moved closer. She found his total absence of facial expression disconcerting, and she turned quickly, rattled by his presence.
“Please just leave me alone.”
She twisted her head around to look at him. He was short and bald, and he had a moustache. He was carrying a coil of rope.
She tripped and fell with a thud.
I was surprised at how easy it was. The road ahead was blocked, it was very late, and the streets were empt—
She kneed him in the groin and cracked him across the forehead. She stood for a few moments, catching her breath, turning her face upwards to the drizzling rain.
Sources: Collins COBUILD Primary Learner’s Dictionary
He stopped at the mouth of the tunnel, deep in the woods. The walls were slimy with lichens, and there was a mushroomy smell of disuse and moldering books. The cry of a strange bird sounded like a whistle or a freight train. He opened his case, took out a folder, then closed it again. He frowned as he reread the letter. He pulled up his jacket collar in the cold wind; it was plain to him what he had to do.
His daughter had disappeared thirteen years ago. Investigators suspected a thunderstorm in the area might have had something to do with the plane’s disappearance. Witnesses say they saw an explosion. He put up posters around the city. Police found a corpse in a nearby river, but she was elderly and silver-haired. A scrap of red paper was found in her handbag.
He was breathing fast. He was talking to himself. He felt sick with apprehension. The light was already fading, but he pushed on, a day’s growth of unshaven stubble on his chin. The walls threw back the echoes of his footsteps.
The investigation was a long and slow process. Debris from the plane was found over an area the size of a football pitch. There is a video recording of his police interview, his eyes glowing with insane fury. As he grew older, he seldom stirred from his apartment.
The end of the tunnel came into view: the dying embers of a fire; a pile of castoff clothes; a red paint mark on the wall. A terrible realization struck him. His mouth fell open as he perceived the truth. The stranger gave a terrible smile. As he spoke, the words were accompanied by a white plume of breath: “It’s a pity you arrived so late.”
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Primary Learner’s Dictionary