Cold Eye of Heaven, The Read Online Free

break the news to him in person. The car slips by, a stranger’s face at the wheel. No. No, of course not. He’d had to hear it from Mrs Waugh last night. And she’d only phoned because the cat had gone missing: ‘I can’t stop thinking the worst,’ she had said. ‘I mean, every time I open the back door, I keep expecting to find him frozen stiff on the step, like that poor man in Wexford found at his own back door –
imagine
.’
    He hadn’t liked to point out that it was hardly the same thing; a man, a cat. And that anyway a cat would be far more likely to survive with its pelt of fur and its natural slyness, than some poor snow-bewildered fool who’d probably just locked himself out of his house by mistake.
    â€˜Ah, he’ll be back, Mrs Waugh,’ he’d said, ‘don’t you worry, he’s just gone off on a ramble, cats are like that, you know.’
    â€˜He’s been neutered,’ she’d sniffed, like he’d been trying to insult the cat’s character. And then just as she’d been about to ring off, like an afterthought she could just as easily have forgotten: ‘Ah, comere you’ll never guess who’s after dyin!?’
    The way she had said it. Detached but affectionate – the way people are when an old actor or television personality pops off. A distant death anyhow. For some reason Bruce Forsyth had come dancing into his head.
    â€˜Who would that be, Mrs Waugh?’ he had asked, wondering how much longer he was going to have to stand freezing his balls off in the hall.
    â€˜Ah, you know, your man, what’s his name? Always drove the big car – even when no one else had a car. Ah God, what’s this his name was?’
    An alarm went off in his head – the car.
    Mrs Waugh cackled, ‘Ah, what am I talkin about – sure you probably know all about this already – didn’t you used work for him?’
    Silence. He couldn’t think of the smallest word to break out of his silence. He was sure she would notice and wonder.
    â€˜Slowey!’ she squealed, all delighted with herself for remembering. ‘That’s right, Mister Slowey. Of course, I didn’t know him meself, just to see, like in passing, he might give a wave out the car and that. Fine-lookingman but. They had the house with all the extensions on it – that’s right. A few kids – hadn’t they? Two boys and a girl? No, three boys. One of the boys emigrated – am I right? ’
    â€˜Yes,’ he’d said. ‘No, yes. I mean, no.’
    â€˜How old would he have been – in his seventies anyway, I suppose – was he?’
    â€˜Seventy-seven last week.’
    â€˜Go away! Well, he didn’t look that now. Not a bit. Harriet got the impression the removal was Friday, which struck me as a bit funny because you’d think it’d be tomorrow. Like if he died this morning? The snow maybe, delayed matters.’
    â€˜Harriet…?’
    â€˜Ah, you know Harriet?’
    â€˜O, of course,’ he had lied, just to avoid a big long explanation of whoever Harriet and all belonging to her might be.
    â€˜She heard it in Centra. Anyway. There you go! Another one gone! Which one of us will be next, I ask! So listen – won’tin you not forget now to give us a ring if Shifty turns up?’
    â€˜Who?’
    â€˜Shifty, the
cat
. If he turns up. And meanwhile if he comes home I’ll be sure to let you know straight away.’
    â€˜O, please do,’ he’d said, as if he gave a fuck about her or her stupid cat.
    Farley looks into the snowy estate and slowly lets go of the front door knob – there will be nothing to hold onto for the ten steps or so that it will take to get him from here to the gate. He looks up at the sky, a fragile blue curve above the dark houses that puts him in mind of a china bowl from a long-ago sideboard; his mother’s or maybe his