The Silver Mark by Sarah Painter

Author:Sarah Painter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Siskin Press Ltd

* * *

So, Christopher Westcott didn’t have a booking at the hotel he had told his wife he was staying at. Lydia put her head on her knees and tried to think. Her brain refused to cooperate. It was filled, not with helpful sleuthing suggestions, but with images of a mystery woman attempting to get inside her home. At least it wasn’t Maddie. At least that world of terror was still safely out of her life. Haunting her dreams, but still. Dreams couldn’t kill her.

Lydia forced herself to her feet and walked up and down the street. She didn’t really expect to see Christopher, but felt as if she ought to at least try... The sky was pale purple and the air was cooler than it had been for weeks. Lydia didn’t know if it was the unfamiliar area or her sense of abject failure, but she felt uneasy. Unlocking the car, she settled in for a long wait and checked for nearby hotels on her phone. Perhaps if she cold-called them all she would get lucky and find out exactly where Christopher was staying. Or if she trawled every bar and restaurant in the area. He could have got into a taxi, though. Or a car with a friend. Or headed to the tube.

It was hopeless and Lydia banged her head on the back of the seat. Her phone buzzed and she saw Emma’s number. She pressed answer and felt her muscles relax at the sound of Emma’a voice. ‘Do you know how many times I’ve played the shopping game this evening?’

‘How many?’

‘Five,’ Emma said. ‘In a row.’

‘Intense.’

‘Five. In a row. Guess how many I won?’

‘None?’

‘Bingo,’ Emma said. ‘I was going to play properly, so that I could start teaching Archie that he won’t always win, but his little face.... I just couldn’t do it. Do you think that’s okay?’

‘I think you’re amazing,’ Lydia said. ‘I think Archie and Maise-Maise are the luckiest kids in London.’

‘Thanks,’ Emma said. ‘What are you up to? I haven’t seen you.’

‘I know, sorry.’ The guilt punched Lydia in the solar plexus. She had planned to be a better friend. Camberwell to Beckenham was so much closer than Aberdeen, but somehow it still felt like a world away. Life priorities, schedules, work. All the usual excuses.

‘It’s okay,’ Emma was saying. ‘I know you’re working.’

‘Next week? Drinks? I can come to yours if you can’t get out.’

‘Sounds good,’ Emma’s voice was downbeat.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, it’s nothing.’

‘What is nothing?’

‘Do you think men still go to strip clubs? I mean, married men. Ordinary men.’

‘On stag nights, maybe.’

‘That’s what I thought. It’s just a cliche, now, right?’

‘Of course,’ Lydia lied. She had caught one of her client’s husbands stuffing ten pound notes into the g-string of a nineteen year old just last month. Couple of pictures taken with her spy camera and that was another marriage over. Lydia felt the weight stretch across her shoulders.

‘Couples go together, now,’ Lydia said, trying to distract them both.

‘What? No!’

‘For kicks, yeah. Spice things up with a little shared thrill.

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