A Deadly Habit by Simon Brett

Author:Simon Brett [Simon Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2018-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

When he arrived at Gower House, he had been surprised at its grandeur. A tall Victorian villa in Finchley, whose value, given London’s rocketing prices, must have been in multiple millions. Whether the whole house was given over to TAUT, he had no means of knowing. The waiting room to which he had been directed was white-emulsioned and functional. There was a small stainless-steel sink in the corner, and next to it a surface littered with mugs, kettles, boxes of tea bags and industrial-sized tins of instant coffee. On corkboards on the walls were flyers about addiction support from the NHS and other, less official, organizations. One wall was painted with a not-very-good mural of a faceless man breaking free from heavy chains.

As he entered, a smiling man was making himself a mug of tea. ‘You want a hot drink?’ he offered cheerily.

‘No, thanks. Just had some coffee,’ Charles lied.

‘Well, take a seat.’

The man volunteered his name, but Charles didn’t know whether he was on the staff or one of the … what was the right word? Patients? Customers? Addicts?

‘All first names here,’ the man said, and introduced the two other seated men. They looked relaxed. This was clearly a venue they knew well. The only female in the room, an unhealthily thin girl who had the shakes, said nothing.

‘I’m Charles,’ he responded, cutting off the insane impulse to add, ‘and I’m an alcoholic.’

‘So how much would you say you are drinking, Charles?’

‘Well, if you count the last few days, very little.’ He conveniently forgot the couple of large glasses of Bell’s he had downed when he got back to Hereford Road the previous evening.

‘But presumably that’s not typical, or you wouldn’t have got in touch with us?’

Erica was probably ten years younger than Charles. A thickset woman with dark-rimmed glasses and black hair caught up with a rubber band into a kind of untidy topknot. No wedding ring, jeans and a purple fleece. She wore no make-up, and her face looked as if it wasn’t used to smiling. But maybe that was just a mask she wore professionally. The problems she was dealing with were, Charles imagined, rarely funny.

She had a pad of paper on the table between them, and was making notes on Charles’s answers. ‘So how much do you usually drink, Charles?’

‘Are you talking in units, like government health guidelines?’

‘I’m not too worried about those. Tell me in terms of glasses per day. Or bottles, if that’s more appropriate.’ Still no hint of a smile, accompanying what some people might have considered a joke.

‘Well, it depends really on what’s happening in my life.’

‘You’re an actor, you say?’

‘Yes. I’ve just opened in a show in the West End.’ She showed no interest in what that show might be. ‘So, the pattern’s different when I’m actually in work.’

‘And actors do spend quite a lot of time out of work, I believe.’

‘It depends what kind of actor you are. I spend quite a lot of time out of work.’

‘Do you drink more, or less, when you’re out of work?’

‘Hard to say.

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