Walking in Darkness Read Online Free PDF

you asking me all these questions? Did Senator Gowrie send you?’
    ‘The senator?’ As if she had pressed a button they exchanged looks. The tall one said, ‘Of course not, we haven’t spoken to him. You weren’t on our list, that’s all. We had to check you out. That’s our job. Well, thank you, Miss Narodni.’
    They walked away towards the lifts and Steve got the impression of a tactical retreat – now why had they suddenly taken fright and left? This got more interesting by the minute.
    Sophie Narodni began to walk across the lobby towards the main exit; Steve quickly caught up and fell in step with her. ‘About that drink?’
    She gave him a startled look, as if she had forgotten all about him. ‘Oh. Sorry. I don’t have the time.’ He got the impression she then really noticed him for the first time. ‘You’re a TV reporter, aren’t you? I saw you in there. You asked him a question.’
    ‘Steve Colbourne.’ He offered his hand, smiling, and after a brief pause she held out her own hand.
    ‘Hello.’ Her hand was slender, cool to the touch; she took it away almost at once. ‘Do you know him? I mean, have you actually met him?’
    ‘Do you?’
    Her eyes widened, startled. ‘Me? No, oh, no.’
    He got the impression the question had scared her, and of course if she was Gowrie’s secret mistress it would. He wouldn’t find out by a frontal assault. He smiled again. ‘No? Well, I do a political programme on network TV once a week. I don’t know if you’ve ever caught it?’
    Blankly, she shook her head. ‘Sorry, no.’
    He didn’t know whether or not to believe her. But maybe she never watched TV? ‘I give a round-up of life in Washington, news from Congress, gossip, interviews with major players . . .’
    ‘Major players?’ she interrupted.
    ‘Important politicians,’ he translated. ‘Until recently Don Gowrie wasn’t one of them. He’s come up on the outside, out of the blue, surprising everybody, including me, and I’ve known him for years.’
    Steve felt the leap of her attention; looking into her blue eyes he was certain that, whether or not she was sleeping with Gowrie, there was something going on here and he had to know what it was.
    ‘When you say you know him . . . have you ever met his family?’ she asked. ‘His wife . . . his children?’
    ‘Come and have that drink, and we’ll talk,’ he invited again, and knew that this time she would not turn him down.
    They didn’t go into the bar where the rest of the press were beginning to gather again – they walked past it, across the lobby, threading through little groups of chattering hotel guests, and went into a circular bar with smoked glass windows, low-lit, panelled, with a soothing hush that made Sophie’s stretched nerves quiver with relief. She had been on edge for days, knowing what was ahead of her, and now it was over. She sat down, sighing deeply as she leaned back against yielding red-velvet cushions. She had almost forgotten the TV reporter and when he sat down next to her it made her start, her eyes jumping up to stare at his face.
    Her first impression of him had been that he was a big man with a hard face, not so very different from the security men who had been interrogating her a few minutes ago, and looking at him more closely didn’t change her impression, although he was not so much big as muscular and tall. She didn’t know much about men’s clothes, at least in America, but even a casual glance told her that he looked expensively dressed: well-pressed dark grey suit, crisp white shirt and a discreet tie. If you were in front of a camera all the time obviously you had to look good, and he did, although the elegance of the suit did not disguise the formidable structure of the body under it.
    ‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked, watching her in his turn, and Sophie felt his curious, probing stare like a needle under her skin. It wasn’t safe to relax, she thought; she still needed to be on