In Too Deep Read Online Free PDF

enough. Today, as soon as I saw you, I knew.’
    â€˜From all the way across the street. Am I that obvious?’
    â€˜Let’s put it this way: you’re not difficult to read.’
    She pressed her mouth against the lobe of his ear and kissed the falling line of his jaw. When she smiled, sadly, he could feel it seeping into the bones of his skull. ‘What was it for you? An orphanage, a neighbour, a teacher at school? An uncle?’
    He made a sound with his throat and scraped it clear, but he could still hear it in his mind. ‘One of those, all of those,’ he said, and then she had reached his lips and he closed his eyes and let her in, surrendering to her, the first person in a long, long time that he really wanted to grant some access to his life, the first who seemed to understand what he was all about.
    â€˜If you are serious about surviving, you can’t allow the details to matter,’ she said. With his eyes closed he could imagine colours in that voice, tangled brown and grey ribbons of smoke or muddy, burnt-out rainbows, and he shifted and reawakened, trying desperately not to fall in love, not yet ready for something as drastic and over-whelming as that.
    Without noticing, the hour had grown late, verging close to midnight, and a lamp was burning across the room. ‘Do you always sleep with the light on? ’ he asked.
    He felt her nod her head. ‘Don’t you?’
    Rather than answer, he let it go. He watched her fingers worry the fringe of the blanket, and felt his heart break more than a little at the sight of her badly chewed fingernails. A moment earlier, he had been planning the easiest possible manner of escape, working up the excuse that would allow him to just slip away. Now, it seemed easier and better to stay. The tiniest details made all the difference. She propped herself up on one elbow, peeled a rope of fringe back off her face and tucked it behind her right ear. It held its forced position for just a beat, then tumbled back down across her eyes again. He reached out and ran a hand from her armpit slowly down to the jagged peak of her hip, and then she was looming above him again, her mouth smiling, answering some perceived invitation, with every shift of her china doll’s body asking the sort of questions that didn’t need words. He met her smile and returned it, and though their second attempt was nowhere near a triumph, it was at least a little more successful than the first had been. What was more, it felt like they had sealed some important deal.

The Cost of Living
    â€˜I don’t look at it that way, Mrs Malone, ’ I said, helping myself to another sip of Scotch. The living room was expensively decorated, a classy joint from start to finish. The stuff on show was enough to hurt my eyes, but at least it provided a distraction. Too much looking at a girl like Susan Malone could play havoc with a man’s best intentions.
    â€˜Murder is such an ugly word. I prefer to think of it as business. I’m a problem-solver. People come to me with a problem and I try to help out, if I’m in a position to do so and if the monetary compensation strikes me as acceptable. But I’m not in this business to get caught. I don’t gamble, I only play the safe odds.’
    God, she was something. You know the type: early thirties, tall and slim, but not skin and bone, with eyes the subtle blue of smoke and long blonde hair bouncing in curls around her bare shoulders. She wore a tasty black satin number, discreetly cut to emphasise her shape. I didn’t want to stare, but I guess she was resigned to men staring by then.
    â€˜All right,’ she said. ‘So, what about my problem? Can you help?’
    I shrugged. ‘Yeah, I guess I can do something for you.’ I hadn’t noticed before, but she was nervous. Some people move around when they are nervous, others just freeze. I had her down as the cold type.
    The details