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I’m fascinated by how life can be going along perfectly fine one minute then goes drastically wrong the next. We see this all the time in the news, don’t we? People have gone out on an errand never to return. Someone might decide to take a walk down the street then get attacked. Or they’ve gone on holiday and found themselves embroiled in something so far removed from lounging about reading novels and drinking alcohol that they can’t believe it.

In Covert Affair, Mandy and Leon discover that a week away isn’t necessarily a good thing. Without going into details here and spoiling the plot, I’ve chosen an excerpt that I hope shows how things can turn on a dime. How, when we wake up on any given morning, and we think the day will go a certain way, it doesn’t. Ever had one of those days? You go through your morning routine, thinking the next few hours will play out just like they have on any other day. Except they don’t. It can be a phone call, a knock on the front door, a chance meeting in the street where someone tells you something””or does something to you””and the day has been turned on its head. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a bad way either. Good things can happen out of the blue, changing your life, your outlook, and which paths you’ll choose in the future””very different paths to the ones you’d imagined taking.

When I spot something in the news where a day has switched from normal to insane or from normal to extremely exciting, I always think the same thing. Wow, who knew when they got up that morning that this would happen? With the negative instances it serves as a warning never to take life or happiness for granted. With the exciting things, it reminds us that just when we are losing hope or thinking things can’t get any worse, greatness is just around the corner.

In this excerpt, although Mandy and Leon have been through a fair few odd occurrences, Mandy thinks things will settle down now and the pair can get back to normal. She’s on her way to the rest room, feeling happy and relaxed, minding her own business, so to speak. But life, or fate, has other things in mind, and this is where my theme comes back into play. There’s always something””good or bad””lurking around the corner to either trip you up or send you soaring into happiness.

***

Excerpt:

A tap on my shoulder stopped me from going farther. I turned, expecting to see our waiter, but it was a tall, thin man in a suit, the one from the reception desk who’d greeted us when we’d come in.

“Pardon me,” he said, “but there’s a policeman here to see you.”

I frowned. What the hell could Broadley or Mattheson want? I looked back at the potted fern in front of our table, thinking that Leon was playing silly buggers and had set this whole thing up. I wouldn’t put it past him to have rung the desk and made up some silly caper.

“Oh, okay.” I smiled and followed the man from the room and out into the foyer. Neither detective was there. “Excuse me.” I patted the man on the arm. “Have they gone into another room or something?”

“I have no idea.” He turned in a circle, his forehead streaked with deep lines, eyebrows raised. “A policeman was just here, I can assure you. One moment, please.”

He went to the desk, picked up a phone and dialled. I got the jitters, wondering whether an officer had been sent to find us because”¦ Because what?

The man finished his call and returned to me. “I’m afraid to say, according to our security fellow, the policeman left. I do apologise for disturbing you.” He scanned the reception area. “Ah, there he is, out there, look.”

I stared outside through the glass door. A uniformed officer was on a mobile phone, the peak of his hat shielding his face. He paced, not talking but listening to whoever was on the other end of the call. Perhaps he was waiting for Broadley or Mattheson.

“Would you mind letting my boyfriend know I’m out here?” I asked the man. “Only, he thinks I’m in the toilet.”

“Certainly. The table in the far corner, isn’t it?” He smiled, folding his hands over his concave belly.

“That’s the one. Thank you.”

I pushed open the door and went outside. The policeman stopped pacing, mumbled something into his phone then slipped it into his trouser pocket.

He smiled. “Mandy?” His voice was soft, had made him sound kind.

“Yes?” My belly rolled over. What was he about to tell me? I wanted to know yet didn’t. It had to be something important for him to have been sent out to find me. And who knew we were at this restaurant anyway? Had Mattheson arranged for us to be watched after all?

“If you could just come with me,” he said.

“Pardon?” I didn’t want to go anywhere with him, not without Leon.

He grimaced. Looked up at the stars then back to me. He attempted a smile. “If you could just come with me”¦”

“Come where?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave the relative safety of the restaurant, even though it was with an officer. “I’d prefer it if you came inside and spoke to me with my boyfriend there. I”””

“And I’d prefer it if you came with me.”

He gripped my arm, tight and hard, and the first tendrils of fear set up home in my gut. I slapped at him to make him let go but he held on tighter. I looked back over my shoulder into the restaurant. The reception was empty and I cursed myself for sending that man off to tell Leon where I was. Then again, Leon might come out here, wanting to be with me.

“Get off!” I said, fight or flight taking over, some sixth sense kicking in. This wasn’t right, and I wasn’t about to go anywhere with him, officer or not. “Let me go!”

He squeezed my arm painfully then tried to drag me away from the building. “You’ll do as you’re f**king told, all right?”

Gone was the soft tone. He’d sounded far from kind just then, more mean and demanding. If he was an officer I’d eat my knickers. I yanked my arm, trying to throw him off, but he was having none of it. Instinct drove me and I kicked his calf, the pointy toe of my stiletto meeting muscle with a satisfying whack.

“I said get off!” I pulled my arm free and pelted away from him, smacking into the restaurant window in my attempt to get inside.

He came up behind me, securing my arm up against my back, and pressed me into the glass. “I only wanted a little chat, and you go and spoil it all.”

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