The Various Haunts of Men Read Online Free

out in her family – though Simon, she thought, came close to sharing her conviction.
    As she went up to the Communion rail, there came vividly into her mind the last time she and her brother had been here side by side. It had been at the funeral of three young brothers murdered by theiruncle. Simon had been in the cathedral officially, as the officer in charge of the police investigation, Cat as the family GP. It had been a heart-breaking service. On her other side had been Paula Osgood, forensic pathologist at the murder scene and at the post-mortem, and who had later confided to Cat that she was pregnant with her second child. How had she coped, Cat still wondered, with professionaldetachment and calm when examining those three small bodies, killed with an axe and a butcher’s knife? People like that, policemen like Simon – they were the ones who needed all the strength and support they could get. Beside their jobs, that of a GP in a pleasant town like Lafferton was a doddle.
    The short service ended and the ribbon of smoke from the snuffed-out candles drifted down to her… She stood. A woman already making her way down the aisle caught Cat’s eye, and immediately after her so did another. Both smiled.
    Cat stayed back for a few seconds, letting them get ahead, before slipping out and making quickly for the door on the other side of the centre aisle. From here, she could make a getaway across Cathedral Green and down the path that led into the close before anyonemanaged to waylay her for an apologetic, unofficial consultation.
*
    Apart from some cathedral clergy, few people now lived in the fine Georgian houses of the small close, most of which had long ago become offices.
    Simon Serrailler’s building was at the far end, with windows both on to the close and, at the back, overlooking the River Gleen, a quiet stretch of which flowed through this part ofLafferton. The entrance to 6 St Michael’s was here beside a curved iron bridge leading to the opposite towpath. A posse of mallards was swirling about beneath it. Higher up, a swan trod water. In the spring it was possible to sit at Simon’s window and watch kingfishers flash between the banks.
    Case and Chaundy. Solicitors
    Diocesan Outreach
    Parker, Phipps, Burns. Chartered Accountants
    Davies,Davies, Coop. Solicitors
.
    Cat pressed the bell at the top of the stepping stones of brass plates, beside a narrow wood strip elegantly lettered.
Serrailler
.
    Knowing her brother as she did – as well as anyone could be said to know Simon – she had never been surprised at his choosing to live alone at the top of a building surrounded by offices which were empty for most of the time he was at homeand with only the ducks, the dark water slipping below the windows and the cathedral bells for company.
    Si was different – different from either of his triplet siblings, Cat and Ivo, even more different from their parents and the extended Serrailler family. He had been the odd one out from as early in their childhood as Cat could remember, never fitting easily into a family ofloudly argumentative,practical-joking medics. How such a quiet, self-contained man fitted, and fitted extremely well, into the police force was another mystery.
    The building was dim and silent. Cat’s footsteps echoed on the wooden stairs, up and up, four narrow flights. At each landing she pushed the timed light switch, which always clicked off just before she made it to the next.
Serrailler
. The same lettering onthe plate beside the bell.
    ‘Cat, Hi!’ Her brother bent from his six feet four to envelop her in a bear hug.
    ‘I had an early call and then went to the seven o’clock service.’
    ‘So you’re here for breakfast.’
    ‘Coffee anyway. I shouldn’t think you’ve got any food in. How was Italy?’
    Simon went into the kitchen but Cat did not follow, not yet, she wanted to luxuriate in this room. It ran the lengthof the house and had long windows. From the kitchen there was a glimpse