Читать книгу Good Morning, Midnight - Reginald Hill - Страница 11

Sue-Lynn Maciver stretched her naked body languorously against her lover’s hand and laughed.

‘What?’ said Tom Lockridge.

‘I was thinking, first time I felt you inside me, it cost me a hundred quid.’

‘Wait till you get my bill for this.’

He spoke lightly but she knew he didn’t like being reminded he was still her doctor. When Pal had dropped him, his first reaction had been that her husband suspected something. Once reassured, his second reaction had been that this was a good opportunity for her to come off his list too.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she’d said. ‘Why give up the perfect cover for me visiting your surgery, you coming to the house?’

‘It’s just that, if it ever came out, the GMC don’t take kindly to doctors screwing their patients.’

‘Really? How else do they expect you to become stinking rich?’

When he didn’t laugh, she said, ‘Relax, Tom. It’s not going to come out, not from me, anyway. I’ve got even more reason to keep it from Pal than you have from your precious Council. Or your precious wife for that matter.’

She’d meant it. But nonetheless it wasn’t altogether displeasing to feel she had a hold over her lover that went beyond his desire.

He removed his hand from between her legs and pushed back the duvet.

She glanced at her watch and said, ‘What’s the hurry? We’ve got another hour at least.’

‘Just going to the loo,’ he said, rolling out of bed.

‘Why do men always have to pee after sex?’ she called after him.

He paused in the doorway and said, ‘I’ll draw you a diagram when I get back.’

She made a face at the prospect. Sometimes it wasn’t altogether comfortable screwing a man who knew so much about the internal workings of the human body. She reached out to the cigarette packet lying by the phone on the bedside table and lit one. He’d probably give her the antismoking lecture, but it was better than a conducted tour of his innards.

The phone rang.

She picked it up and said, ‘Hi.’

‘Sue-Lynn, it’s Jason.’

She stiffened then forced herself to relax.

‘Jase, shouldn’t you be chasing a little ball around a squash court with my husband?’

‘That’s why I’m ringing. He hasn’t turned up. My mobile’s on the blink and I thought he might have left a message with you.’

She stubbed her cigarette out, swung her legs off the bed, found her panties on the floor and started tugging them on one-handed as she replied, ‘Sorry, Jase. Not a word. But I shouldn’t worry. Probably a customer showed up as he was on his way out. You know Pal. He’d miss his own funeral if he thought there was a deal to be done. How’s Helen? Must be close now. Give her my best. Look, got to go. ’Bye.’

She put down the phone and was crouching on the floor searching for her bra when she heard the toilet flush. A moment later, Lockridge came through the door. He was smiling and there was evidence he was having serious thoughts about how to spend the next hour. The smile faded as he saw her rise on the far side of the bed with her bra in her hand.

‘Pal’s loose,’ she said before he could speak. ‘Get dressed.’

‘Shit. You don’t think he’s on to us? Jesus wept!’

He’d started dragging on his trousers with more haste than care and done something she didn’t care to think about with the zip.

‘Shouldn’t think so, but better safe than sorry … oh hell. Did you hear that?’

‘What?’

‘I don’t know. A noise. Downstairs. No … on the stairs.’

They both froze, mouths agape, eyes staring, she with her bra round her neck, he with his hand on his fly zipper, like a tableau vivant of Guilt Surprised, and were both in a state to take the flash of light that came through the open door as the harbinger of one of heaven’s avenging angels.