The Headhunters Read Online Free PDF Page B

operations.
    ‘Don’t suppose I’ll get much,’ she ranted on. ‘They have a system of ordering here and I missed the chance to see what’s on offer. I’ll get the leftovers, I expect, cold stew and semolina.’
    ‘You must be feeling better if you can think about food.’
    ‘I wouldn’t mind a drink right now.’
    Jo reached for the jug of water on the cabinet.
    ‘I mean a tipple, not that stuff.’
    ‘You’re here to get your head right, Mummy.’
    ‘Fiddlesticks. What have you been up to? Ages since we saw you. It’s a funny old world when it takes something like this to get you calling on your parents. Are you still working in the glasshouse?’
    ‘Garden centre, Mummy. Yes, I am.’
    ‘What do you do—water the plants?’
    ‘I’ve told you before. Lots of things.’
    ‘It’s not good for you, working under glass. It’s no protection from those rays. You can get skin cancer. Tell her, Willy.’
    ‘I’m not telling her anything,’ her father said.
    Mummy was unfazed. ‘She should get a different job. With the education we gave her, she ought to be doing something better than watering pansies.’
    Daddy rolled his eyes and was silent.
    ‘Come on, dear,’ Mummy insisted. ‘What have you been up to? Is there a man in your life? I wish there was, someone you could start a family with, legally of course. No such luck, I suppose?’
    Jo was beginning to think she would leave. She hadn’t come here for an inquisition into her private life. ‘How is the horse?’
    ‘Which horse?’
    ‘Penrose. Did he fall as well?’
    ‘I’ve no idea. I told you it’s a blur and you’re trying to change the subject.’
    Her father said, ‘The stable lad who phoned said you went under a tree and got knocked off by a low branch.’
    ‘That doesn’t add up,’ Mummy said. ‘I’m too experienced for that.’
    ‘It happened before.’
    ‘Willy, I was a novice then. I don’t make basic errors these days.’
    ‘Something unseated you.’
    ‘I expect the horse reared. You can’t do much when that happens. A dog must have frightened him. People should keep them on leads. And muzzled. Josephine, you didn’t answer my question. What sort of company are you keeping?’
    ‘Mummy, I’m thirty-six years old. I don’t have to account to you for the friends I have.’
    ‘Be like that. I wouldn’t mind betting you won’t be so reticent when you want us to fork out for a big white wedding in the cathedral.’
    ‘Ha!’
    ‘What does that mean?’
    ‘It means don’t worry. It won’t happen.’
    ‘I’m not worried. We took out insurance shortly after you were born.’
    ‘You what?’
    ‘Tell her it’s true, Willy. She can have a white Rolls Royce and a champagne reception for a hundred guests.’
    He confirmed it with a shrug.
    Instead of feeling grateful for such foresight, Jo thought it mercenary. She decided if she ever did get hitched she’d go to a register office and tell her parents later. The last thing she wanted was a monster shindig managed by her mother.
    ‘You’re getting overwrought,’ she said. ‘I’m going to leave. Get some rest while you’ve got the chance.’
    Driving home, Jo had to admit she was the one who was overwrought. They still had the capacity to make her feel eleven years old. Maybe she should have gone for the Italian with Daddy. Stupid old man, he was no use at fending for himself. Never had been. Even if he’d offered, Mummy wouldn’t have wanted him in her kitchen.
    One night of cheese sandwiches wouldn’t hurt him, she told herself, but she still felt bad about it.
    THERE WAS a message on the answerphone. ‘Jo, this is only me.’ (It was Gemma’s voice) ‘Disappointed? I bet you are. I don’t know if you’ve seen the local rag, but you’re in it, babe. Front page news. “Woman’s Grim Discovery at Selsey. Miss Josephine Stevens, twenty-nine.” That’s pushing it a bit, isn’t it? I thought we agreed we were roughly the same age and I won’t see