Tuesday's Gone by Nicci French

Author:Nicci French [French, Nicci]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9780670025671
Amazon: 0670025674
Barnesnoble: 0670025674
Goodreads: 13613568
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-eight

‘I know what you’re thinking.’

‘What’s that?’

‘You’re thinking he must have had some ulterior motive, right?’

‘What makes you say so?’

‘Look, I’m no fool. I know what I look like to you – an ageing has-been, with a string of failed relationships behind me, now alone, surrounded by mementoes of her not-so-glorious past. I can see myself through your eyes: my dyed hair, my pathetic attempts to hold on to my youth. Am I right?’

‘No, you’re not right.’

‘What, then?’

‘Try: a successful woman, who’s managed to hold her own in a difficult profession and who’s hung on to her dignity and self-respect.’

Jasmine Shreeve’s face softened. She sat down opposite Frieda and leaned forward. ‘Sorry. I get defensive.’

‘That’s all right.’

‘Do you really think that?’

‘I don’t know enough about your life, but it’s another way of looking at it.’

‘So you don’t just assume that Robbie was out to exploit me?’

‘He seems to have specialized in inserting himself into vulnerable people’s lives,’ said Frieda, thinking of Mary Orton as she’d last seen her – a small, shrunken figure with her two tall sons on either side.

‘So you do think I’m vulnerable.’

‘We’re all vulnerable, in one way or another. Poole seems to have had a knack for finding people’s weak points.’

‘Well, he was kind to me. He seemed to like me.’ Frieda didn’t say anything and Jasmine Shreeve stiffened again. ‘You people think there always has to be something under the surface. That there are meanings beneath the meanings we give things. I say he liked me and I can see your eyes gleam. Every word becomes dangerous.’

‘Are you angry with therapists because your own therapy didn’t help you?’

‘What?’

‘Perhaps you feel that we promise answers and only give more questions.’

‘How did you know I had therapy? Who’s been talking about me?’

Jasmine Shreeve didn’t just seem angry, but properly scared. Her voice quivered and she put one hand up to her face in a self-protective gesture that Frieda was familiar with from her patients.

‘Nobody’s been talking about you. It just seemed likely.’

‘What have I said? I’ve said nothing! What else do you know? Go on. Tell me. Don’t just sit there staring at me like that, as if you can see inside me.’

Frieda sat back and paused. ‘Did the therapy help with your drinking?’

‘Not really. I …’ Jasmine stopped. ‘Did you read about it in some vicious blog and store it up to use against me? That’s bloody contemptible.’

Frieda looked at her curiously. ‘Do you really think I would do something like that to you?’

‘It would be a way of getting power over me. How else would you know?’

Frieda thought about that. How did she know? ‘I just felt it.’ She looked around. ‘You’re surrounded by so many things, everything you’ve collected through your life.’ She gestured at the open-plan room. ‘These little bowls, photographs in frames, china figurines, that little chest open to show its contents. Everything’s on view. But there are no wine glasses, no decanters, no bottles. And it’s nearly seven o’clock in the evening and you offered me tea, not a drink.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.