The Darkness and the Deep Read Online Free PDF

playing with boats in his bath from now on.
    ‘Were you busy earlier?’ He looked round; the bar was quiet enough at the moment, with half a dozen people at the tables and three of the regulars watching the television in the corner, expressing their disgust at Ayr United’s defeat.
    ‘No, very quiet. The weather’s probably kept them at home.’
    ‘It’s clearing now.’ Rob picked up a dish-towel and began to dry the tumblers upside down on the draining board beside the sink. ‘We’ll maybe get a rush later now the match is over.’
    ‘Yes.’ Katy sounded distracted and he looked at her sharply. ‘All right, love?’
    ‘Yes, fine. Well, at least – Rob, have you seen Nat this evening?’
    ‘Nat?’ Oh God, not problems again! He adored his wife of four years, and the proof of that was taking on Nat, who took after his unpleasant father and was the stepson from hell. But Katy suffered enough without him adding to it by complaining about the little creep. ‘Why, did you want him for something?’
    ‘No, not really. Oh, he should be in doing his homework, of course, but I’ve stopped crying for the moon. No, he went out around the time the maroons went off and I haven’t seen him since. He’s – he’s taken my car again and he didn’t come in for his tea.’
    Rob had already told her what he thought she should do about Nat’s joyriding habits. Trying to hide the keys simply wasn’t enough; Nat always managed to find out where she put them. He needed a short, sharp lesson, but her fear that he’d kill himself – and somebody else as well – wasn’t great enough to persuade her to report him to the police and have him end up with a criminal record. This time, he ducked the issue.
    ‘Probably got chips instead. And now I think about it, there was a group of lads hanging around the shed when we came back – he could have been with them. He’ll turn up when he’s hungry.’
    And he mustn’t even allow himself to wish that Nat had done a runner, because it would break Katy’s heart. Not that Nat wasn’t all set to break it anyway.
    As Ritchie Elder parked the Mitsubishi outside Bayview House, he glanced up at the impressive, pseudo-Palladian frontage with its pillared porch. It was, of course, one of his own Executive Homes, only built on a uniquely lavish scale on a site about a mile south of Knockhaven by the main coast road which, as a prospectus would say, boasted spectacular sea views. It was a statement about his status as local lad made good.
    One wing was dedicated to a swimming pool, sauna and gym area, a double-height temple to the Gods of Fitness and the Body Beautiful, of which cult Joanna seemed to be becoming a High Priestess. The lights were on there now; no doubt she was exercising. He wondered, sometimes, if she ever did anything else nowadays.
    He’d married a girl with the face of a Dresden shepherdess and a delicate physique, ready to be the perfect wife for a man who was Going Places, with no inconvenient ambition except to be hostess for him and mother to his children. Unfortunately, the delicate physique had recently proved not up to the second of these tasks.
    He was disappointed, admittedly – what man wouldn’t like a son to carry on the name and the business? – but there were many compensations for being childfree. Joanna, on the other hand, was distraught. It seemed that despite wanting for nothing in terms of luxury and comfort, her life was pointless if the outcome wasn’t small, squally, smelly things to mother. He’d suggested puppies; she’d looked at him as if he was a monster.
    The lights were on in the gym area. She’d be pounding away on the treadmill, no doubt, although she had thinned down to little more than bones and whipcord muscle already. Ashley somehow managed to stay seriously fit while retaining those silken rounded curves that could drive a man mad. Hastily, he tried to think of something else. It was getting harder and harder to think about