The Crooked House by Christobel Kent

Author:Christobel Kent [Kent, Christobel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780751557503
Publisher: Sphere
Published: 2014-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

The night Joshua Watts dies. November.

They’re sitting by the fire when the telephone rings. Dad’s been fidgety all evening after the second hospital visit, looking up from his paper to the bottles on the sideboard every five minutes, and Esme knows he’s making the same calculation each time, the half-inch of cooking brandy, the old vermouth, the Campari there was nothing to mix with. In and out of the kitchen, cups of tea he leaves to go cold. The twins are on the rug playing Monopoly as the fire smoulders, the logs are wet as usual and Dad just pokes it distractedly; it collapses white into ash.

In the hall the phone rings and the girls jump up from Monopoly and run to answer it, squabbling. Letty gets there first, frowning into the receiver, her face falling, holding it up through the doorway to someone else, to Dad, to Esme, back to Dad.

‘It’s Joe,’ she says. ‘He sounds funny.’

Dad takes it from her, his face set. ‘All right,’ he says into the receiver, Letty skirting round him back into the room. ‘How much have you had? All right. All right. Where are you then? Mum’ll come for you.’

That’s when Esme knows Dad’s got a stash somewhere else. He won’t get in the car if he’s had a drink. In and out of the kitchen; it must be in there, in the back of a cupboard, under the sink, somewhere Mum won’t find it. He’s been in the yard.

Dad comes back into the room, talking to himself. Esme is on her knees with the girls tidying the Monopoly. They don’t look up.

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.