Читать книгу For All Our Sins - T.M.E. Walsh - Страница 15

CHAPTER 6

The light from the sun beating down on her head flashed across the black plastic of her sunglasses as she tilted her head towards the sky.

Drawing the last pull on the cigarette pinched tightly between her fingers, Claire exhaled a stream of smoke from between parched lips, and felt as if her very being was becoming more withered with each step she took.

She glanced down at the butt of the cigarette, stopped in her tracks and flicked it to the ground. She watched it roll into the gutter, joining the rest that had been discarded near the entrance of Gladstone Court.

Claire cocked her head skyward once again.

Her second visit here today in such a short space of time. Someone’s idea of a sick joke. Was this all her life was meant to be from now on?

The old council block loomed above, the dull redbrick cutting an ominous shape through the bright blue sky.

To Claire, coming here meant putting on a brave face. It meant trying to cast aside the memories of the past, if only temporarily. It meant casting away the pain she had tried to bury for all these years.

She fumbled in her bag for the separate keyring she deliberately kept away from her main set. It was an attempt to, symbolically at least, keep this part of her life, the one inside the building, from clashing with the other.

Her fingers felt like ice as she clasped the fob and pulled it from her bag. She swiped it over the sensor on the wall beside her and the front door to the building gave an audible click and a green light flashed on the panel.

Grasping the handle, Claire yanked it and went inside.

As usual the lift was out of order, so she took a slow walk up the stairs to the fourth floor. The air on this level was stale. The large windows on this floor, at this time in the afternoon, allowed direct sunlight through the thin single-glazing glass. The heat generated was relentless and Claire popped open another button of her shirt.

There were two flats on this side of the building, and Claire now stood in front of the second one and steeled herself inside.

She pushed her spare key into the lock…