The Perfect Daughter Read Online Free Page A

too, a navy-blue suit and waistcoat, a bowler hat nicely brushed. He might as well have kept his uniform on and have done with it. I didn’t wait to see if he touched his hat to me – sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t – but I was aware of his eyes on my back as I walked along the street. That was what we wanted. It was all part of the plan.
    I kept to the pavement opposite my house, stopped and had a good look at it. Things weren’t as I’d left them the day before. The blind on the first-floor window was drawn almost all the way down. There was a narrow gap between the blind and the windowsill, just enough to show the top of a table inside and a row of medicine bottles standing on it. Although it was a warm day, a trail of smoke came up from the chimney. On the ground floor, the curtains of the living-room were drawn all the way across. Then, as I watched, one of them was twitched aside and a face looked out warily. It was a young woman’s face, round and pale, with the sort of red hair that looks as if it’s had an electric shock. Her name was Gwen Hoddy. She saw me, nodded and let the curtain drop back. I crossed to my own front door and knocked. She opened it.
    â€˜Hello, Gwen. Everything all right?’
    â€˜Where have you been, Nell?’
    â€˜Something happened. Did things go alright here?’
    She nodded uncertainly and opened the door to let me in. I hesitated on the doorstep, giving Detective Constable Gradey time to get a good look at us.
    â€˜She’s upstairs?’
    â€˜Since yesterday night.’
    â€˜Any callers?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜I passed Special Branch on the corner.’
    â€˜The plump one in the bowler? He’s been prowling up and down all afternoon.’
    â€˜Did anybody see the stretcher come in?’
    â€˜Half the neighbourhood probably.’
    I took my hat and coat off and sprawled in the armchair. It was hot in the room with the fire going and there was already an invalid fug to the place.
    â€˜You look tired. Want some tea?’
    I said yes please, though it was obvious from the violet rings round her eyes that Gwen was tired as well. She got the teapot and warmed it from the kettle on the hob, moving easily around my book- and paper-cluttered living-room in spite of the iron brace on her wasted leg.
    â€˜Shouldn’t Amy be here?’
    â€˜She’s on duty upstairs.’
    We were speaking in low voices, the way you do in a house where somebody’s seriously ill. We said nothing while the tea was brewing. Gwen and the others were owed an apology because I should have been back the night before, but I didn’t want to explain about Verona.
    â€˜So June had a bad time?’
    She nodded, not looking at me. June Price and Gwen shared lodgings and were inseparable most of the time, except when June was in Holloway. Gwen couldn’t take part in the kind of things that got people sent to prison because of her leg, so she probably suffered worse than June did.
    â€˜She’s worn to nothing, transparent nearly. Heart palpitations. And she’s got abscesses from when they broke her teeth trying to get the tube down. It’ll kill her if they get her in there again.’
    The boards creaked upstairs. Somebody was moving around in the bedroom. Gwen sighed, poured two more cups of tea, one strong, one weak and milky. I opened the door for her to take them upstairs. When she came down a few minutes later, she was looking worried.
    â€˜How is she?’
    â€˜Restless.’
    â€˜Given her temperament, that was predictable.’
    â€˜She says she hates being passive – hates just waiting.’
    â€˜No choice at the moment.’
    â€˜She expected the police to come yesterday.’
    â€˜Yesterday midday was when the licence ran out?’
    Gwen nodded, staring out of the gap between the curtains. I’d have liked to pull the curtains aside, open the window, let some air in, but