The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

dream. By the time they’d renovated the building and made it what they wanted, she was ready to pursue a different dream. Yet he had no regrets. She’d steered him through a hard time, and he owed her for that.
    ‘She rang last night, while you were at your party. She’d had a bit to drink.’
    Louise’s eyes narrowed. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’
    ‘You never liked her, did you?’
    ‘She was wrong for you.’
    People could say the same about you and Stuart Wagg, he thought, but he kept his mouth clamped shut.
    ‘I mean,’ Louise said in a softer tone, ‘she might have been pretty, but she was never a long-term bet.’
    ‘Too much the drama queen, you once told me.’
    ‘Someone had to say it, Daniel. So – was she all maudlin and hankering after old times?’
    ‘She’s split up with Ethan and he’s dropped her from the magazine. She’s working freelance for a couple of glossies at the moment, but she sounded at a loose end. Said she might come back up here sometime for a break.’
    ‘For God’s sake. I hope you didn’t encourage her.’ Louise uttered a theatrical groan. ‘Remember, she fell in love with the Lakes for all of five minutes before the bright lights of the big city dragged her back down south. She’s so bloody unpredictable.’
    ‘When she left, we agreed to stay friends. I’m glad she’s kept in touch.’
    ‘She used you before. She’ll use you again, if you don’t watch out. And you’ll be the one left picking up the pieces. Not her ladyship.’
    Daniel perched on the arm of a leather chair. ‘That’s what people do, isn’t it? We all use each other, in one way or another. Does no harm, between consenting adults.’
    ‘And I thought I was the family cynic.’
    ‘You never told me who you met last night.’
    ‘Do you really want to know?’
    Her gaze settled on him, cool and probing, as if he were a criminal in the dock about to be quizzed by counsel for the prosecution. How come she’d never practised as a courtroom lawyer? Her cross-examination technique would have wowed them down at the Bailey.
    ‘Sure.’ A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, she was amusing herself at his expense. OK, he’d hazard a guess, even if it smacked of wish fulfilment. ‘It wasn’t Hannah Scarlett, by any chance?’
    ‘The one and only.’ She inspected her fingernails. A vivid turquoise. He couldn’t remember her painting them in the past. ‘Father’s fancy woman.’
    ‘Don’t be absurd.’ He couldn’t help snapping back. ‘There was nothing between them.’
    ‘How can you be so sure?’
    ‘For God’s sake. Dad was so much older. He ran off with Cheryl, don’t forget. Not Hannah.’
    ‘No, I don’t forget.’ Her eyes glinted with satisfaction. ‘Actually, Hannah seems like a nice woman.’
    ‘High praise, huh?’
    ‘I don’t mean to sound patronising. She told me Dad taught her all she knows about detective work. She admired him.’
    ‘So, did I.’
    A sigh. ‘Suppose I was too hard on him.’
    Daniel had waited half a lifetime for that admission. She’d shared her mother’s fury at Ben Kind’s desertion. He’d walked out on all three of them and moved up to the Lake District to make a new life with a young woman. For years Louise refused to refer to her by name: she was never Cheryl, only the Blonde Bitch.
    ‘So, you and Hannah had a chat?’
    ‘Until we were interrupted by a contretemps. She was looking good, actually. Very svelte.’ Louise paused before adding, ‘She asked after you.’
    ‘Yeah?’ He wanted to sound casual, but knew he’d failed.
    ‘She hadn’t heard you were back in Britain. It seemed to come as a shock. Pleasant one, though.’
    Better make it clear that he remembered Hannah wasn’t available.
    ‘I must visit Marc Amos’s bookshop. See if he has any local stuff about De Quincey.’
    ‘He was there too. When I spotted him, he was ogling one of the waitresses.’
    ‘Marc is a decent guy.’
    Daniel had never broken up