Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham Read Free Book Online Page A

everyone had been talking about what they were
     reading on holiday, though he’d mostly thrown in the odd comment about downloading books off the internet, which Ed had not
     been very happy about for some reason. Mind you, Ed was the sort of bloke who disagreed with what you were saying just for
     the sake of it.
    Ed was probably the one Dave was least looking forward to seeing.
    It would be good to see Sue and Angie again, though.
    They were nice.
    Barry was a bit of a black hole, but harmless enough …
    He spooned out the last of the froth from his mug and wondered what
they
all thought about
him
. He thought through the time they had spent together, ran through as many of the conversations as he could remember. He felt
     pretty sure that they would all think he was OK. Even Ed.
    He’d certainly worked hard enough.
    Dave checked his watch. It was time to head across to collect Marina. He picked up his bag and, on the way to the door, he
     placed his empty mug and cup back on the counter.
    He said, ‘Laters,’ and Devon or Deron said, ‘Yeah.’

SIX
    While Dave stands in the shallow end and watches him, Ed is swimming lengths. He has done ten or more already, taking care
     to steer clear of the middle-aged woman who is moving rather more slowly than he is, and the young boy, eight or nine years
     old, who keeps throwing a nickel into the water before diving down to retrieve it.
    Each time the boy comes up clutching the coin, a short, hirsute man on one of the sunbeds claps and shouts, ‘Way to go, Timmy.’
    Barry walks slowly along the edge of the pool. Though he is a better colour now, he wears a baggy, black T-shirt over his
     shorts and a straw trilby to protect the bald patch at the back of his head. He reaches into his bum-bag for his cigarettes.
     As he is about to light one, the woman sitting at the table beneath the coconut palm says, ‘You want one of these?’
    Barry turns round and says, ‘Sorry?’
    The woman is sitting across from her daughter, smoking and flicking through a magazine. The girl is frowning as she scribbles
     in a colouring book. The woman picks up a yellow packet of cigarettes from the table and holds them out. ‘American Spirit,’
     she says. ‘All natural. None of the crap, you know?’
    ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a go,’ Barry says. ‘Thanks.’ He puts his own cigarettes away as he walks over, and takes one from the
     woman’s packet. She leans forward to light it for him. She is wearing a bikini today, and her blonde hair is tucked away beneath
     a white baseball cap with an ‘A’ embroidered on the front.
    She sees him looking at it. ‘Atlanta Braves,’ she says. ‘You know anything about baseball?’
    ‘Same as rounders,’ Barry says. ‘Just a bit more complicated.’
    The woman shakes her head, not getting it. She lifts her sunglasses and puts a hand on her daughter’s arm. ‘Thanks again for
     the other night, by the way. For being so sweet about everything.’
    ‘Not a problem,’ Barry says. He takes another long drag and says, ‘These aren’t bad, as it happens.’
    The girl looks up and blinks at him, then turns to her mother. ‘When can I go swimming, Mom?’ she asks.
    ‘Soon, OK.’
    ‘I want to go swimming now.’
    The woman rolls her eyes at Barry. ‘The pool’s still a little busy right now,’ she says. ‘So you’ll have to wait.’
    ‘I want to go swimming.’
    ‘She’s hot,’ the woman explains to Barry. ‘But she can get a little noisy, well, you
know
… so I thought I’d wait until things got quieter.’
    It’s not clear if either Ed or Dave has heard what the woman or her daughter were saying, but Ed stops at the end of the next
     length and Dave moves to the end of the pool and climbs out. Dave walks back to his sunbed to pick up a towel before moving
     across to stand next to Barry. Ed just heaves himself out of the pool and walks, dripping, towards the table. He stops just
     short of it and shakes his head like a dog.
    The