Killing Me Softly Read Online Free PDF Page B

decided to take her recommendation. ‘What about a pudding?’
    â€˜You won’t want much after all that.’
    â€˜Right, we shan’t! I’ve some good cheese, and some fruit. It’ll be better appreciated, anyway.’
    â€˜I like a man who prefers cheese, any day,’ said Barbie. There wouldn’t have been all this careful thought if it had been a woman who was being entertained, her smile implied. Abigail hoped this wasn’t true, but thought rather guiltily that it might be.
    â€˜Give my love to Ellie, tell her I’ll ring her, fix something up,’ she said as she paid for her packages, aware that she’d neglected to contact Ellie for too long, that a budding friendship needed nurturing if it was to thrive.
    â€˜Sure. Don’t forget to follow the instructions exactly, that’s important, and bon appétit. Take care. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, mind.’ Barbie’s rich laugh followed Abigail as she left.
    She was pleased with her purchases, and it was barely six. What a good idea it had been to pick the meal up here! There were no prizes for slaving over a hot stove. There’d even be enough time now to wash the fog out of her hair and have a leisurely soak.
    The weather seemed to have got worse. The sodium lights glowed eerily through the soupy darkness. Buildings loomed either side. She pulled up her collar and headed for her car. Her keys were in the lock when the figure, tall and sinister, loomed up right in front of her. And instead of dropping everything and going into attack mode, she found herself clutching her chilly packages defensively to her chest with her free hand as if that might still the banging of her heart.
    â€˜Hello, Abigail.’
    â€˜Nick.’ She released her held-in breath. ‘God, you scared me!’ She’d been expecting to see him for some time, she’d heard he was around, and knew a meeting had to come, sooner or later. But she wished it hadn’t been now. His timing had never been good.
    â€˜Come and have a drink,’ he said. ‘For old times’ sake.’
    â€˜I can’t, Nick, I’m in a hurry –’
    Then she decided that she could manage a quick one, if she dispensed with the soak she’d promised herself, because she wanted – no, needed – to get it over, this moment she had, if the truth were told, been dreading.
    It was the same pub they’d often used for anonymity in the old days, a noisy one in a street off the Cornmarket. Nothing had changed, the same smell of chips, the same Space Invaders, the same beery crowd. Only Nick Spalding was different, in some way she couldn’t pin down, although he seemed no less enigmatic, or unfathomable. Deep, that was Nick. Too serious and intense, but that was nothing new. It was part of what had helped to break them up.
    â€˜What brings you back to Lavenstock, Nick?’ she asked when he’d put the glass of tomato juice she’d requested in front of her. ‘You couldn’t wait to shake the dust off.’
    He hadn’t lost his old manner of answering obliquely, either. ‘I’ve left the force, you know.’
    Impossible to feign a surprise she didn’t feel. She’d heard about it, and it had always been on the cards, anyway: he’d always been something of a misfit, a maverick, had never worked well as part of a team, though he was an able policeman for all that. She thought about the rumours she’d heard, wondered if they were true, and didn’t welcome the thought. He’d been a disruptive influence in her life, and one of her few mistakes, career-wise. She thought he might be disruptive in anyone’s life, but it was something she, at any rate, could do without.
    â€˜Roz?’ she inquired, carefully, forcing herself to ask. She’d only met his wife once, briefly, when recrimination had cracked across the space between