Thirteen Steps Down by Ruth Rendell Read Free Book Online

late for the woman in Addison Road. All the way to
    the back of this big house and down the basement stairs, she lectured
    him on punctuality as if she were his employer, not his client. Mix nearly
    told her that, in his opinion, the damage to the climbing machine was
    caused by disuse, not wear and tear, and he wasn't surprised when he
    looked at the shape and size of her. But he didn't. She had an elliptical
    cross-trainer on order from Fiterama Accessories, and if he was rude
    she'd withdraw her custom.
    Nothing like that mattered now he'd found the gym Nerissa went to. Pity
    about the number though. Along with his other occult beliefs and fears,
    Mix was superstitious, especially about walking under ladders and the
    number thirteen. He always avoided having anything to do with it when
    he could. When this phobia or whatever it was had started he didn't
    know, though it was true that Javy, whom his mother had married on
    the thirteenth of the month, had his birthday on the thirteenth of April.
    The day he had beaten Mix so badly it had nearly killed him had very
    likely been the thirteenth, but Mix had been too young then to remember
    or even to have known.

    The Cockatoodle Club in Soho was overheated, smelled of various kinds
    of smoke and Thai green curry and was none too clean. So, at any rate,
    said the girl who Ed's girlfriend Steph had brought along for Mix. Ed was
    another rep-engineer at Fiterama and Mix's friend, Steph his live-in
    partner. The other girl kept running her finger along the chair legs and
    under thetables and holding it up to show everyone.
    "You remind me of my gran," said Steph.
    "A place where people eat ought to be clean."
    "Eat! Chance'd be a fine thing. It's a good three-quarters of an hour
    since we ordered those prawns."
    The other girl, whose name was Lara, and who had hay fever or
    something that made her sniff a lot, resumed her fingerdusting of the
    area below their table. Steph lit a cigarette. Mix, who didn't approve of
    smoking, calculated that it was her eighth since they had come in here.
    The music, which was hiphop, was too loud for normal speech, and to
    make yourself heard you had to shout. How Steph managed with her
    damaged lungs, Mix didn't know, imagining the villi all lying prone in
    there. Just as the waitress appeared with curried prawns for the girls
    and cottage pie for the men, Lara's questing finger touched his knee and
    was pulled away as if he'd stung her.
    They exchanged resentful looks. What with the noise and this awful girl
    and the cottage pie smelling as if green curry had got into it, Mix felt like
    going home. He wasn't very old, but he was too old for this. Lara said a
    waitress dressed like that was an insult to all the women patrons.
    "Why? She's lovely. I love her skirt."
    "Yes, you would, Ed. That's my point. More like a belt than a skirt, if
    you ask me."
    "I didn't ask you," Ed yelled at the top of his voice. "As for insults, I'm
    only looking, I'm not going to screw her."
    "You wish."
    "Oh, shut up," said Steph, taking Ed's hand affectionately.
    No one was much enjoying themselves. But they stayed. Ed bought a
    bottle of Moravian champagne and he and Steph tried to dance, but the
    tiny floor space was too crowded, not just to move but to keep upright.
    Lara started sneezing and had to use her table napkin for a tissue. They
    didn't leave till two. That was the earliest any of them felt the heavens
    wouldn't fall if they went home. Mix got into one of his fantasies, a
    vindictive one this time, in which he gave a lift to Lara but instead of
    driving her home to Palmers Green--that was a fine distance at this time
    of night for a bloke who lived in Notting Dale—he imagined taking her up
    to Victoria Park or London Fields and pushing her out of the car to find
    her own way home. If by that time she hadn't been the prey of the
    homicidal maniacs who allegedly haunted those places. Reggie, he
    thought, Reggie would have dealt with her.
    They proceeded