The Solitary Man by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page B

of time before they brought her down. He massaged the back of his neck, wondering if the feeling of unease was nothing more than the onset of flu. Around him spectators were cheering the girl and whistling at the security guards. Hastings shivered. He looked over to his left. All eyes were on the streaker, with one exception.
    A grey-haired man in his late fifties was looking away from the pitch, towards where Hastings was sitting. He was about two THE SOLITARY MAN 35 hundred feet away, in the top tier of the stadium, five rows from the front, high up beyond the corporate boxes. He was wearing an off-white jacket and a dark shirt and smoking a large cigar. Hastings frowned. The man was too far away for Hastings to make out his features, but he was sure that the man was staring right at him, staring at him and grinning. It was an eerie sensation, as if something physical linked the two men, something that cut through the crowds and set them apart from everybody else.
    The noise of the crowd swelled to a deafening roar. Metcalfe grabbed Hastings by the shoulder and shook him. Hastings looked at the pitch. Three Gurkhas had wrestled the naked girl to the ground but she was covered in perspiration and they were having difficulty holding on to her as she wriggled and shook like a stranded fish.
    Hastings twisted around to look at the upper tier again but he couldn't see the man with the cigar. The spectators at the front of the tier were waving a large South African flag and cheering. Hastings craned his neck but the flag blocked his view.
    Down below, the Gurkhas carried the naked girl off the pitch and the spectators sat down, eager for the game to restart. On the upper tier, the South African supporters dropped back down into their seats. Hastings cupped his hands around his eyes to shield them from the sun. The seat where the man with the cigar had been sitting was empty. Hastings wracked his brains, trying to remember where he'd seen the man before.
    'What's up, Warren?' asked Davies.
    'Nothing,' said Hastings, sitting down.
    'You look like somebody just walked over your grave.'
    Hastings shivered again. Davies was right. That was exactly what it had felt like.
    PADDY DUNNE USED HIS key to open the front door of his sister's house. On previous visits he'd rung the doorbell, but she'd paid it no attention as if unwilling to allow anything to intrude on her grief. 'Tess,' he called. 'It's me, Tess.'
    There were three letters on the carpet, an electricity bill and 36 STEPHEN LEATHER two circulars, and Dunne put them on the hall table. He went through to the kitchen where his sister was sitting at a wooden table, a cup of tea in front of her. The tea had long since gone cold and a brown scum had settled on to its surface. Tess was staring at the cup as if it were a crystal ball into which she was looking for some sign of what the future held for her.
    'How about a smile for your brother, then?' said Dunne as cheerfully as possible.
    Tess didn't look up. Dunne was carrying a plastic bag of provisions which he took over to the refrigerator. He opened the door and put the carton of milk and the packets of cheese and butter on to the top shelf, then put a loaf of brown bread into the pine bread bin by the stove. He looked in the sink. There were no dirty dishes there, no sign that his sister had eaten breakfast.
    'Are you hungry, Tess, love?' he asked. She didn't even bother to shake her head. 'How about a nice piece of toast? With some lemon curd, like we used to have when we were kids? How about that, Tess? Does that sound nice?'
    Dunne sat down opposite her and took her hands in his. Her skin was cold and dry, the nails bitten to the quick. He held her hands gently as if afraid they might break. 'It's going to be all right,' he said. 'Mr McCormack phoned me this morning.' He hunched forward over the table. He was twelve years older than his sister, but since her son had been arrested she'd aged dramatically, and the life seemed to