Walking in Darkness

It was strange, though, that she was so distressed by seeing a picture of a child who had died before she was born. What did the dead child mean to her to upset her like this?

‘I’m having another set of photos printed,’ he told her gently. ‘You can keep these. Maybe soon you’ll trust me enough to tell me why the originals were stolen from the apartment.’

He waited a moment but she didn’t answer or even look up, so eventually he walked away. He was almost at the door when Sophie whispered, ‘I’m sorry. I do trust you . . . I think I do . . . but I still can’t tell you, I can’t tell anyone.’

Don Gowrie lay on his back watching the gleam of pale, pearly flesh and black lace suspenders holding up black silk stockings, as it climbed on top of him.

‘She wouldn’t let me buy her off, she wouldn’t go back where she came from, she wouldn’t swear not to tell Cathy,’ he said, his voice thick with rage and frustration. ‘She’s going to get to her somehow, whatever I say or do. I can’t stop her because I can’t tell Cathy or her husband why I want to keep this girl away from Cathy. And she’s going to tell her, and that will bring everything crashing down on all of us.’

A scarlet-nailed hand trailed slowly down his belly and his flesh hardened and lifted as the fingertips brushed it. ‘My way is the only way, you know that. Let me deal with it.’

He closed his eyes to enjoy the sensations pulsing through him. ‘You tried once and you failed. All that achieved was to make Steve Colbourne curious, the last thing I need.’

The stroking hand was joined by a hot, moist mouth; he groaned suddenly with sharp, intense pleasure.

‘Good?’ whispered the mouth, licking him.

Good,’ he gasped. ‘Ah . . . yes . . .’

‘I won’t fail next time. Trust me. She won’t ever reach London,’ the reddened, glossy lips whispered as they began to suck.

He began to pant, groaning, his mouth wide open. ‘Ahhhh . . .’ His mind stopped working; he gave himself up to the expert, tormenting mouth and tongue, shuddering violently, jerking, as the liquid heat finally gushed out of him.

His deep grunts of satisfaction dying away, he lay there, breathing audibly, still and flaccid, eyes shut, sated and at rest for a while. He needed the release, the letting go, the brief peace. The strain of his life was sometimes unbearable, weighing down on him until he was bowed down with it. Only this brief, ecstatic pleasure could help when it got too much.

Slowly his mind began to work again, to worry, question. ‘I’m not sure. Do we have to go that far? She says she only wants to see Cathy. What if it’s true? What if she doesn’t mean to tell Cathy the truth? I wish I knew for certain what was best. Maybe there’s some other way of dealing with this? If only she wasn’t so obstinate. God, why is this happening? Why now? It’s like some crazy doomsday judgment. It isn’t fair. Just when I need everything to go right for me.’

‘Crawling out of the woodwork like a bug.’ The other body slid off the bed; gathered up clothes, a suit, a shirt, a tie. ‘You know what you do with bugs. You squash them. Ruthlessly. You can’t waste time arguing over the moral rights and wrongs. You just stamp on them. Isn’t Colbourne going to be at this dinner tonight?’

‘He’s on the press guest list.’

‘Then I’ll deal with her tonight, while he’s out of the way.’

‘Be careful,’ Don said, as he had said before, but with more violence. ‘For Christ’s sweet sake, be very careful.’

Sophie was watching TV when the phone rang, making her jump and look at it as if it was an exploding bomb. Who could that be? She wasn’t expecting a call.

Then she remembered that she had rung Vladimir. She got up and ran to pick the phone up, saying breathlessly, ‘Hello?’

It wasn’t Vlad, it was Lilli, sounding very cheerful. ‘Sophie, Theo and I are downstairs in the lobby – are you in bed, or are you up and dressed?’

‘I’m up and dressed. This is nice of you. Come on up.’

‘No, listen – I wondered, hav

e you eaten? Because we thought we could eat down here. The main restaurants are out of our price bracket, but there’s a trattoria in a corner of the lobby, and the menu prices aren’t bad at all, for a hotel like this. Are you hungry? Will you come down and join us?’

‘Give me two seconds,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you at the trattoria.’

It took her ten minutes, in fact, because she had to wash, change into something a little more stylish than jeans and a sweater, do her make-up and hair and spray on a little perfume.

Lilli eyed her from head to foot, taking in the pretty angora pink sweater, the cheap fake pearls which still managed to gleam softly against her skin, the dark grey straight skirt, the black high heels which made her long legs look slender and graceful. ‘Well, you look better than the last time I saw you, in that hospital bed,’ she said approvingly.

Theo’s eyes were bright with male appreciation; he bent his grizzled grey head to kiss her hand with his usual heavy Continental gallantry.

‘Ah, Sophie . . . even lovelier than usual.’ He straightened, almost creaking, a hand at his back. Lilli claimed he wore a corset to maintain that upright, boyish figure now that he was nearly seventy and at times Sophie believed her. ‘I was sorry, so sorry to hear about your accident. I would have sent you flowers but Lilli told me you were only staying in hospital one night. No ill-effects, huh?’

‘I’m fine, thanks. How are you, Theo? You look wonderful. Retirement obviously suits you.’