Dancing in the Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

company?” I asked lightly.
    I always felt at my oddest with George, as if one day he would see what a fake I was, and never speak to me again.
    “Oh, I dunno.” He shrugged. “It was Annabel’s birthday on Monday. She was sixteen. Thought about whizzing over to France on Eurostar but told myself Stock Masterton would collapse without me. Really, I was scared I wouldn’t be welcome. I’m supposed to be having her and Bill for Christmas, but I shan’t be at all surprised if they don’t come.”
    It was my turn to pat his hand. “I bet Annabel would have been thrilled to see you. As for Christmas, it’s months off. Try not to start worrying yet.”
    “Families, eh!” He chuckled. “They’re a pain in the arse when you’ve got them, and a pain when they’re not there. Diana calls her old dad everything but now he’s ill she’s terrified he’ll die. Poor chap, it sounds like cancer.
    Anyway, how’s your lot over in Kirkby?”
    “Same as usual.” I told him about Auntie Flo’s flat, and he said bring the boxes in tomorrow and put them in the stationery cupboard until I found time to go. He asked where the flat was.
    “Toxteth, William Square. I don’t know round there all that well.”
    His sandwich arrived. Between mouthfuls, he explained that William Square had once been very beautiful.
    “They’re five-storeyed properties, including the basement where the skivvies used to work. Lovely stately houses, massive pillars, intricate wrought-iron balconies like bloody lace, bay windows at least twelve feet high. It’s where the nobs used to live at the turn of the century, though it’s gone seriously downhill since the war.” He paused over the last of the sandwich. “Sure you’ll be safe? Wasn’t there a chap shot in that area a few weeks ago?”
    “I’ll go in daylight. Trouble is, finding the time. Things keep coming up.”
    George grinned. “Such as me demanding your company!
    Sorry about that. Look, take tomorrow afternoon off. I’d feel happier about you going then. Don’t forget to take your mobile and you can call for help if you get in trouble.”
    “For goodness sake, George, you’d think I was going to a war zone!”
    “Toxteth’s been compared to one before now. As far as I’m concerned, it’s as bad as Bosnia used to be.”
    At two o’clock on a brilliantly sunny afternoon, William Square still looked beautiful when I drove in. I found an empty parking space some distance past the house I wanted, number one, and sat in the car for several minutes, taking in the big, gracious houses on all four sides. On close inspection, they appeared anything but beautiful. The elaborate stucco decorating the fronts had dropped off leaving bare patches like sores. Most of the front doors were a mass of peeling paint, and some houses were without a knocker, the letterbox a gaping hole.
    Several windows were broken and had been repaired with cardboard.
    The big oblong garden in the centre of the square was now, according to George, maintained by the council.
    Evergreen trees with thick rubbery leaves were clumped densely behind high black railings. I thought it gloomy, and the square depressed me.
    With a sigh, I got out of the car, collected some boxes and trudged along to number one. Two small boys, playing cricket on the pavement, watched me curiously.
    The house looked clean, but shabby. Someone had brushed the wide steps leading up to the front door recently. There was a row of four buzzers with a name beside each, so faded they were unreadable. I ignored these and used the knocker—Charmian Smith lived on the ground floor.
    A few seconds later the door was opened by a statuesque black woman not much older than me, wearing a lime green T-shirt and a wrap-round skirt patterned with tropical fruit. Her midriff was bare, revealing satin smooth skin. She held a baby in one arm. Two small children, a boy and a girl, stood either side of her, clutching her skirt. They stared at me shyly, and the