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Diana laughed
I do quite like her, Cat thought She is not like le to be and can never achieve – set on with her if … if it were not for Si The ‘if’ hat ainst Si every so often in London was about right Noto make any difference, is it?’
‘Probably not I just needed to talk about him Has he always been like this … closed-off?’
‘He’s just the way he is He seems fine to me but then I’ come and I do understand and I feel for you’
Diana stood ‘But you won’t talk about your brother Fair enough’
‘I’ here Does he?’
‘What, come here? Yes He just turns up But just now they’re in the thick of thiselse’
‘Do you have a photo of him?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘No’
‘Keep it that way The fewer reminders the better’
There was a s a neurotic patient
As they went to the front door, Chris’s car pulled up and Sam and Hannah spilled out of the back doors then froze
‘Hello I’
She went up to Chris and held out her hand ‘I’m Diana Mason But I’o on –’
‘I’ on my own Thank you, Cat Thank you more than I can say’ She swept herself up and into the car and the car down the drive and aithout looking back
Cat went up to Chris and put her arht it was the Percys’ lift today?’
‘Was but a clinic was cancelled – bothSo I scooped up the Percy brats and our brats and … who the hell was that?’
He walked into the house with his arm round Cat’s shoulders
‘Si’s London lady’
‘Smart Old’
‘Desperate’
‘Tears?’
Chris felt the teapot and went to empty it and make fresh
‘Yes No shame at all She’s crazy about hiot a whole lot worse’
‘Easy to s to throttleperfectly nice woet his coood?’
‘Hope so Dick is taking an evening surgery for ency on call’
He went to look down at his sleeping son Froh-pitched sounds of an American cartoon which Sam and Hannah were forbidden to watch She hesitated on her way to switch it off ‘Love you,’ she said
Chris s round the kitchen This is what she wants with Sireat many people want
‘You two How many more times do I have to tell you …’
Chris Deerbon poured hi of tea, took it over to the sofa, picked up the paper and ie and on to Chris’s sto thinand fell on to the stairs In the hall, it shone in lozenge shapes on to the floor
She slipped down through the house like a frail little ghost, us was asleep She went to bed before nine o’clock and slept, soot herself up and dressed and out of the house She walked to the school bus on the corner There were always friends Friends looked out for her now
She did not switch on the light until she had closed the kitchen door The blue-white tubes shie and took out a carton of milk
The fruit boas empty apart from talnuts and a small shrivelled, darkened apple Before, the fruit boas always full of oranges, pears, plums, a pineapple, kiwis, bananas Before
She reached for a new packet of biscuits, slit it open and sat at the table The fridge hummed
What happened next surprised her There was no difference tonight fro had changed She felt the sa looked the same But suddenly, her head was full of it, clear, whole and coh or work her way towards it It was there, worked out for her Planned
She got up, opened the door that led to the utility room and from there to the outside door She unbolted it It slid back smoothly and without any sound The key turned easily She went outside
It was not cold The ht From next door, across the drive, she could hear the faint sounds ofbarked
She stood looking down the drive to the gate
There The path The hedge The gateposts
Beyond that, the pavement and the road
There
He had been there and then he was not there
She tried again to iht The only thing different hat had happened a few o inside her head
A car went fast down the road The headlights flashed over the gateposts
The dog barked again
She slipped back into the house and her head was full and everything was suddenly clear to her The h on her way upstairs
Fifty-six
Si it over It was nearly eight o’clock
‘Enough Co to eat?’
He and Jiether all afternoon, brainstor apart between them Jim had moulded himself in from the start, an outside reviewer and yet also at one with the i attention to soht have been done differently, and yet reassuring Serrailler and the rest that he was one of theet a pint and a decent ood a tiht He had last been to his favourite Italian restaurant with Freya, it was there that he had looked at her and wondered if he had found not just a good new colleague but …
‘Italian?’
‘So long as they do a decent spaghetti’
‘Can Pavarotti sing? Come on’
He would not want to take any other wohtforward Yorkshire DCS that he felt relaxed enough to go there with him and banish the unhappy ht
Chapman’s car was in the forecourt next to Simon’s own ‘A bottle of wine?’
‘With a couple of pints first, aye’
‘Then let’s walk I live not far from the restaurant, your hotel is just as near If you don’t ht’