The Cat Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page A

part of her mind recognised the moment being replayed from the past, realising that it was the past. Another part fought to keep a grasp on the present, the reality. Claudia was dead.
    Dead … but the gurgling laugh still rang in Margot’s ears, she could sense the hair brush her face as Claudia leaned closer to whisper something, feel the force of that larger-than-life personality vibrating in the atmosphere.
    The Centurion had been a figment of active imaginations, but Claudia had been real – and now it was Claudia who was haunting her dreams. Perhaps everyone’s dreams.
    And not just Claudia. Chloe was there, too, drifting aimlessly on the fringe of the dreamscape. In Claudia’s shadow, as she had always been in real life. The shadow twin, with Claudia’s face, Claudia’s form, Claudia’s voice, but without Claudia’s personality … without Claudia’s husband …
    Was that why Chloe had done it? Jealousy?
    I’m dreaming, the small sentient corner of her mind assured her. This is all a dream. I wasn’t even here when it happened, I wasn’t even in this country.
    But it was happening again now. Chloe crept out of the shadows, heading purposefully towards Claudia, whose laughter had taken on a mocking, taunting note. Claudia, who had everything –
    Light flashed along the length of the sharp glittering blade as Chloe raised the knife and struck.
    Claudia stopped laughing, her eyes widened in shock, she stumbled and fell, pitching forward, falling on to Margot, her hair pressing into Margot’s face …
    â€˜No!’ Margot choked, wrenched out of her nightmare, dazed and disoriented. But the hair was still there, still pressing against her cheek like a warm living entity. She reached up to brush it away. It brushed back and began purring.

    â€˜Tikki!’ She sat up and gave a shaky laugh. ‘You frightened me.’ The clinging shreds of the dream fell away and her mind cleared. ‘How did you get back in? Nan threw you out.’
    Tikki pranced back and forth across her thighs, headbutted her fondly in the midriff and purred more loudly than ever, clearly delighted to have someone awake and ready to pat him.
    â€˜But Nan had a point,’ she said softly. ‘Uncle Wilfred has enough to contend with right now. From the way he was carrying on about you tonight, the sight of you might just be the last straw.’
    She gathered the cat into her arms and slid out of bed, groping with her feet for her slippers. Tikki rubbed his head against the underside of her chin.
    The hallway was dimly illuminated by the shaded nightlight bulb plugged into the skirting-board socket beside the bathroom door. Margot paused to get her bearings. Familiar though this house had once been, the reshuffling needed to accommodate the descent of far-flung family members meant that she no longer had any idea who occupied which room. The fact that Fred and Milly had ceded the master bedroom to Lynette was, alone, enough to destabilise all her memories.
    Tikki stiffened abruptly in her arms and stared down the hallway at something she could not see. His ears pricked and seemed to turn in the same direction.
    She heard it then. A faint erratic sound, muffled but persistent, strangely harrowing. She felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck, yet noticed that Tikki’s fur was not bristling. Perhaps he knew something she didn’t know.
    As she listened, clutching Tikki as her aunt had clutched her book, as though he were a shield to hide behind, the sound became identifiable: someone was sobbing. Torn with anguish, trying to muffle the choking sobs, someone was crying her heart out. Or, possibly, his. Tears had no gender, heartbreak was universal.

    Especially in this house. There was a lot to cry about here. An upper lip that had been suitably stiff and impassive during the day had quivered and given way in the depths of the night, when there was no one around