‘There’ll be a trial, then?’
‘If Buster survives. He’s pretty old, and he’s got no good reason to live. If he gets pneumonia it’ll probably be the end of him. It might be better all round if he didn’t make it – it’ll be the devil of a case to put across, and it’ll cause everyone misery. And how long’s he going to survive in gaol anyway? Sometimes I don’t like this job.’ He hadn’t told Joanna about Atherton’s momentary lapse in Buster’s bathroom. There were some things said that were better forgotten. ‘Oh well, it won’t be Barrington’s problem anyway.’
‘You’ll have a new boss to get used to,’ she said, pushing the toast-rack towards him. ‘Won’t that be fun?’
He gave her a tired smile. ‘It couldn’t be any worse than it was before.’
‘Any idea who it might be?’
‘None at all. I can think of some I’d like more than others, but in the long run it won’t make much difference. The job is the job. Clearing up after other people’s sin. The public refuse department.’
‘In other words,’ she said, ‘everything’s rotten. Life isn’t worth living. Might as well end it all here and now.’
He smiled slowly. ‘Oh no, I wouldn’t say that.’
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘After all, I am going to be able to get rid of the house in Ruislip. The architect in me will rejoice at that.’
She grinned. ‘If anyone will buy it.’
‘Everyone isn’t sensitive like me. And I’ll have you know it’s a much sought-after area.’
‘That only means no-one can find it on the map.’
‘There’ll be a bit of money left over, after paying back the mortgage and giving Irene her half. Not much, but a bit. Enough for a deposit,’ Slider said, and stopped. He felt too tired to start again. Lawyers, maintenance payments, removal men, custody agreements – a swarm of ants would have to pick over the bones of his old life before he could embark on a new one, and even then it would not be a clean start. You never shook free of your baggage, of course: failure and the consequences of it, responsibility, debt. That was why children could run up hills while adults always walked. Lucky Kate and Matthew. Lucky Joanna, for that matter, he thought, with nothing to be sorted out. She was just there, comfortably established, waiting for him to move in. And all he wanted to do now was curl up in her.
He had already forgotten his last sentence, but Joanna heard it echoing on the following silence. They still hadn’t talked about future plans – not even the practicalities of where they was going to live, assuming they were going to live together. But she could see the time wasn’t yet, and she wasn’t sorry to put it off a bit longer. It was still a bit of a nervous notion. She was used to her little ground-floor flat and her independence, and the second toothbrush on the window-sill would take some adjustment on both sides. She looked at his heavy eyes and grey skin, and said, ‘I’ll tell you one piece of good news, though.’
‘Hmm?’
‘I haven’t got to go to work until this afternoon, so you can go to bed and get some sleep, and I’ll still be here when you wake up.’
He pulled himself back across the chasm and reached over the table to take her hand. ‘Sleep? Who needs sleep?’ he said.
She grinned. ‘You’re an ambitious man, Bill Slider. You’ll go far.’
Dead End Page 27