Relics by Shaun Hutson Read Free Book Online Page A

impending night. As she returned to her seat she glanced at the three framed photos which stood on top of the record cabinet. Two of them showed her daughter, Clare, as a baby. The other was more recent and in it, the girl was clutching a battered teddy bear, smiling happily at the camera. The picture had been taken a few months before . . .
    Kim pushed the thought to one side for a moment. Was it really that painful to think about? Her ex-husband had taken the picture. Photography had always been one of his consuming passions. That and womanizing. It was true to form, Kim thought, that within ten months of becoming a professional photographer he’d run off with one of his models. Walked out on five years of marriage and memories as if he were erasing a tape. She may as well never have existed as far as he was concerned. He hadn’t contested custody of Clare at the divorce proceedings, hadn’t baulked at paying maintainence (a pittance anyway as far as Kim was concerned). He’d been only too glad to get the case over with and get back to his model. He hadn’t even asked for visiting rights where his own child was concerned and that was one of the things which she could not understand, one of the things which made her hate him a little. The other was the blow he’d delivered to her own self-esteem. At twenty-five, Kim Nichols was a very attractive young woman with fresh, natural good looks. The soft air of sexuality she exuded was all the more potent because it was uncontrived.
    She had everything that her husband’s lover had, so what had made him throw away his settled family life for a fly-by-night tart? It was a question she had asked herself many times and one to which she would probably never know the answer.
    She sat down, massaging the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger, trying to force the thoughts from her mind. They still hurt, even after two years.
    ‘Mummy, I’ve finished.’
    The call came from upstairs. From the bathroom.
    ‘Kim smiled and got to her feet, padding up the stairs in time to see Clare emerging onto the landing, her rabbit-motif dressing gown flapping open, her glistening blonde hair flowing behind her like a diaphanous train, reaching as far as the middle of her back.
    ‘I cleaned my teeth,’ Clare said, grinning broadly to show her handiwork.
    Kim nodded approvingly and kissed the top of her daughter’s head as they walked into the smaller bedroom with its brightly coloured wallpaper and mobiles hung from the ceiling. Clare clambered into bed and pulled the covers up around her neck, looking into her mother’s face. Kim leant forward and kissed the child once more, but as she pulled back, Clare touched her cheek, drawing one small index finger through the single tear which had slid down from her mother’s eye.
    ‘Why are you sad, Mummy?’ she asked.
    ‘I’m not,’ Kim whispered. ‘People cry when they’re happy, too, you know. I’m happy because I’ve got you and I love you.’ She pulled the covers more tightly around her daughter and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Now, you go to sleep.’
    ‘Were you thinking about Daddy?’
    The question came so unexpectedly that Kim was momentarily speechless. She swallowed hard and then shrugged.
    ‘No,’ she lied. ‘Why do you ask?’
    ‘I think about him sometimes but I don’t miss him. Not as long as you’re here. You won’t go away, will you, Mummy?’
    Kim shook her head and hugged Clare tightly, aware of more tears trickling down her face. She hurriedly wiped them away as she stood up.
    ‘Sleep,’ she said, flicking off the bedside light. ‘Love you.’
    She retreated slowly from the room, pulling the door closed behind her, pausing on the landing for a moment before making her way downstairs. As she reached the hall there was a knock on the door. Kim opened it to find Inspector Wallace standing there. He smiled and reached for his I.D. card, but Kim chuckled.
    ‘It’s all right, Inspector,’ she said.