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here, there’s still an awful lot that I need to teach you. It’s likely to be a long, hard, night.’
     

Chapter 11
     
    The phone rang at seven thirty and dragged me back to a state of reluctant consciousness. I felt heavy limbed and still half-saturated with lager and red wine from the previous nights festivities with Lee, and my head had developed a heartbeat all of its own. I could hear Lee singing in the shower, and my puerile mind quickly made a quip about early risers. He never seemed to suffer the way that I did after a night of over indulgence, but then again he was still only a baby at side of me, I reflected bitterly.
    'Damn it!'
    I stumbled clumsily into the bedroom doorframe and bashed my shoulder hard enough to bring tears to the corners of my eyes, but at least it woke me up enough to slide unsteadily down the stairs, clutching onto the banister for support.
    'I'm coming, I'm coming for Christ's sake!'
    I shouted at the insistent ringing from the hallway.
    'What?'
    I answered the phone aggressively, forgoing my usual pleasantries in annoyance. My number was ex-directory and registered with the Telephone Preference Service, so it couldn't be a random sales call. Who the hell rang at seven thirty on a Sunday anyway?
    'Wow! Nice to speak to you too big sis. Didn't wake you up did I?'
    My baby sister Emily's voice emanated from the receiver and my heart sank.
    'Whatever gave you that impression? After all it's practically the middle of the day.'
    I knew as I spoke that the sarcasm would be wasted on her, she's as immune to it as she is to insults.
    'Good. I've been up since six with the kids as usual, no rest for the wicked. Have you been drinking, you sound kind of slurry?'
    I sighed deeply, rubbing at my temple with my free hand and silently praying for her to emigrate some time very soon.
    'No, I had a stroke when I heard your voice coming down my phone. Have you called for anything in particular, or just out of concern about my drinking habits?'
    Lee emerged from the bathroom and started to come down the stairs with a cream coloured bath towel wrapped around his waist. He caught me admiring his toned torso as he passed, and promptly whipped the towel away to give me a view of his bare backside, prompting my first grin of the day in spite of how I was feeling.
    'David's gone and left me again. Can I come and stay with you for a few days?'
    She spoke matter of factly, this would be the third time that her cheating rat of a husband had walked away and we were all starting to get used to the cycle. Even Mum and Dad had started to come round to my viewpoint and had recently started telling Emily that she was better off without him. I couldn't understand what she'd seen in him in the first place. He was habitually arrogant, aloof and cold towards virtually everybody around him, and I'd made no secret of the fact that I didn't like him on the few occasions when we'd been forced to spend time together. His family were little better, with his father expecting his poor downtrodden mother to run around after them all like a good little wifey. But then I guess some people seem happier that way.
    'What about the children? I don't exactly have acres of space around here, as you know.'
    I wondered why she hadn't gone to our parents place like last time, but after their change of heart about David I thought that might be at least part of the answer.
    'They're staying with David's parents for the time being while we both get away for a few days to think about our future. So can I stay? You know I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate.'
    I heard the coffee maker coming to the boil through in the kitchen and I wobbled before finally caving in.
    'Okay, but just for a few days. I'm in the middle of a big murder enquiry and I don't have time to sit in and deal with your problems for you.'
    I put the receiver back down so I wouldn't have to listen to her gratitude and wandered through to pour myself an industrial sized mug of