Games People Play Read Online Free PDF Page A

make it up, though, would she? And why hasn’t he told us?’
    Gordana leans against the spare wheel of the Range Rover, which is mounted on the back door of the car like a trophy. She is still clutching her wine glass.
    ‘It does not mean they arrest him. Maybe it is early business meeting.’ Then she grabs my arm with her free hand. ‘No! It cannot be raid. If it was raid, they take stuff out of house. Elsie didn’t say they take anything.’
    ‘That’s true,’ I said. ‘And what would they be raiding the house, for anyway? Illegal money? White slaves? Anthea’s diet pills?’
    But Gordana didn’t smile. ‘We must ring Anthea,’ she said, balancing her wine glass on top of the Range Rover’s spare wheel and pulling out her tiny silver phone. ‘Ivan’s telephone has been off all day.’
    She dials, as expertly as a City trader, and waits a moment. ‘Yes, Anthea, it is Gordana. Is Ivan there?... No, he is not here either…Where has he been today?...Out where?...You don’t know. Was anyone in the house today, this morning, I mean, early? Elsie say she saw some people… Right. I see. Please tell him to ring me when you see him. Thank you.’
    ‘Well?’
    ‘She say Jehovah’s Witnesses.’
    ‘At seven in the morning? Aren’t there usually just two of them? And why would he leave with them?’
    ‘I don’t know. She say she went out early too and when she come back he is not there. Something is not right.’
    The club’s adopted cat, Timothy, trots up to us and rubs himself against my legs. I think briefly of Mark.
    ‘I’m going to go home,’ I say, extracting my bike lights from my backpack. ‘We can’t lurk about in the car park all night. Are you going back inside?’
    Gordana draws herself up to her full height, I guess already mentally preparing to face Elsie again.
    ‘She’s just a silly, bitter, bored old woman with nothing else in her life,’ I say. ‘Don’t let her get to you. You know that nobody likes her, and they all love you. She hates that. And she’s jealous of you.’ I hug my beautiful grandmother as if she is my best friend. Which, in many ways, she is.
    ‘Very well,’ says Gordana, sniffing delicately, then stooping to stroke Timothy. ‘Ted is not coming to collect me until eleven-thirty. Will you ring me when you get home, and let me know...what is going on?’
    I sigh. ‘Of course, if I find out.’
    I clip the lights on to my bicycle, unlock the padlock, and cycle home, past the lighted, steamy windows of the pub Mark and his mates are in. I consider going in to tell him what’s happened, but decide against it. I’m too anxious to get home and find out for myself.
    Entirely selfishly, my heart sinks as I realize that if Dad’s really been arrested, he won’t be able to fly to Zurich with me tomorrow. It’s potentially a really big tournament for me – I haven’t had to qualify for it, since my current ranking means I’ve been automatically seeded. It would be hard to go without Dad.
    Even though he is no longer my coach, he comes to almost all my tournaments – it’s cheaper than paying José to come, and more often than not, Dad has his own players in the same tournaments, so we all travel together.
    I cycle on for another ten minutes through the dark quiet back streets, gulping in deep harsh breaths of cold, wet, air, the thrumming rotation of the wheels and the whiz of tyres on tarmac calming me down. It’s starting to hail. I hear the little stones rattling on my bike helmet and see them bouncing on the road around me.
    I’m sure he hasn’t really been arrested, and this whole thing is a ridiculous storm in a teacup.

Chapter 4
    Gordana
    What has he done? What has my silly, silly boy done?
    Oh, I knew there was something going on. He has been in funny mood for ages now. Elsie is a bitch and a gossip but she would not invent such a story. Those people came and took him away.
    No, Gordana, wait.
    It doesn’t mean he has done something bad. Think. Many