In the Still of the Night

Her eyes widened in surprise; she had forgotten that she had ever told him about that.

When she didn’t deny it, Sean said curtly, ‘I told you to rest today. You shouldn’t have gone out!’

‘Oh, stop ordering me around!’

Sean and Harriet did a double-take, their eyes meeting in surprise. Annie had never snapped back at them like that before.

‘We’re not ordering you around,’ Harriet protested. ‘We’re worried about you, Annie.’ She put her arm round her and Annie shook her off.

‘Well, just leave me alone, will you?’ Annie walked away towards her front door and they followed her.

As she opened the door Sean bit out, ‘Fenn is dead, murdered.’

Annie turned, going white with shock. ‘Derek? Dead? Murdered?’

Harriet gave Sean an incredulous, furious look. ‘What a way to tell her! What’s the matter with you?’

Sean shrugged grimly; he hadn’t meant to break it like that but his temper had got out of hand. He’d wanted to hit her for looking the way she did, for the sensuality you could see throbbing in her body, in her eyes and mouth.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Who was this man who could make her look like that? Was he the reason why there had been no man in her life before? Had she just been waiting for her old lover to return? All these years?

What annoyed him most was that he’d stupidly thought she must be waiting for the right man, had never met him and wasn’t prepared to compromise with anyone else.

He’d even begun to think it might be him, the right man for Annie – hope it might, anyway. He should have known better; dreams were just that, dreams. They didn’t come true. His whole life had told him that. You couldn’t work in the police force for years without realising what a bloody awful world this was, and how unlikely you were ever to get what you dreamt about.

But he had had one dream come true – he had become a writer, a professional, highly paid writer at that, something he had never dared hope for at one time, and he had let himself begin to hope another dream might come true. From the minute he met Annie he’d been stunned by her delicate beauty, by the sudden radiance of her smiles, by her soft, clear voice. Even her coolness towards him had pleased him. Sean didn’t like women to be too eager, to flirt or come on to him before he showed a sign of being interested. If there was any chasing to be done, Sean wanted to do it, but he liked to take his time. He hated making mistakes about anything, especially about women. So he’d been slowly working his way round to asking Annie out. How was he to guess she was going to meet this old flame again?

Harriet put an arm round Annie and took her into the house. Sean followed angrily and found them in the living-room, Annie half sitting, half lying on a couch, shivering, while Harriet piled cushions behind her head.

Annie looked at Sean, her eyes huge with distress. ‘What happened to Derek?’

‘He was strangled.’

She drew breath audibly. ‘God.’ She shivered.

Sean did not fill her in on the more lurid details. No doubt when the press got on to the story she would read all about it. He grimaced at the realisation that this was all going to hit the headlines. The press would have a field day. For once Billy Grenaby wasn’t going to welcome the publicity. Billy! he thought. They’d have to tell him and at once before he heard it from someone else. Billy would want to get the studio publicity machine into operation with a damage-containment programme.

‘Billy!’ he mouthed to Harriet above Annie’s head and Harriet shut her eyes, gave a smothered groan.

‘I’d better ring him now. He mustn’t hear about it from the press first. If he did, and then found out we knew and hadn’t told him, he’d fire us both.’

How was she going to tell Billy and avoid an outburst of rage? She was going to need all her powers of tact and persuasion to stop him going spare.

Grimacing, Harriet hurried out. Annie hardly noticed her go. She seemed too dazed to notice anything.

Sean looked down at her and took a grip on his temper. It was pointless being furious with her; she had no idea how he felt. He hoped she didn’t guess, anyway. He hated to think of her knowing, being kind, because Annie would be kind; he had seen her with her mother, with Harriet, or Jason, her driver, with others in the cast when they were hurt or upset. She was one of those people who noticed if someone was having a bad time and he didn’t want her feeling sorry for him. His pride couldn’t stand it.

Trying to sound calm and patient, he asked, ‘Are you OK? You’d better have a drink, some brandy.’

She shook her head, said shakily, ‘Who did it, Sean? Do the police know?’

‘We only just found the body.’

‘We? You mean, you did?’ She looked startled, stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. ‘Where? Where did it happen?’

Sean told her tersely and she listened in shocked silence.

‘I’ll make us all some coffee,’ offered Harriet from the door. As Sean looked round at her she added, ‘I talked to Billy, he’s coping.’