Free Belshazzar's Daughter by Barbara Nadel Page B

cigarette. ‘That I was in the area near to where the murder was committed at four-thirty yesterday and that I saw and heard nothing unusual. I saw a woman—’
     
    She jumped. ‘The one you think was me?’
    He paused. Now she was scared. He’d only seen her like this once before. In Balat. That same face. He shuddered. It was almost tempting to string her along, let her believe he’d told the police, see how she would react. But Robert knew that was not in his temperament. That was her trick.
    ‘No, I didn’t tell them about … you.’ Her face relaxed, just a fraction, but enough for him to notice. “I couldn’t be a hundred per cent certain it was you and if it wasn’t, I didn’t want to make unnecessary trouble. The woman I told them about was standing in a doorway, she was old, I doubt very much whether she could harm anybody.’
    “I could not hurt people!’ She folded both her hands around his and gripped tightly. “I not there, Robert!’
    She wanted him to believe her, which was precisely why he couldn’t. He felt a sudden need to draw his hand away from her. He pulled his arm back sharply and her hands fell apart and rested limply on the top of the table. For the first time in their relationship he felt as if he was in control. He smelt her fear. It was an intoxicating experience.
    “I want to believe you, Natalia, but, quite frankly, it’s difficult. I can’t very well call my own eyes liars.’ He paused. That had been a stupid thing to say and she, as well as he, must know it. But he had to go on. “I know we’ve been seeing each other for some time, but I still don’t really know you. I don’t even know where you live, for God’s sake!’
    She looked down at the table again. Her hands, resting on the white linen cloth, trembled very slightly. It was mention of the police that had first rattled her. Right up until then she had been her usual cool, haughty self. Of course she had been in Balat! He had seen her. Her repeated denials were ridiculous! Was what she had been doing there so terrible?
    He couldn’t believe it. If she had been unfaithful, he would forgive her - probably - she knew that. And why was she so alarmed by police involvement in a crime that had nothing to do with either of them? Or did it?
    He looked at her sad, down-turned face, her soft rounded shoulders. Oh God, but of course, that touch! The thin, wasted bone that had slipped through his fingers like an oiled fish. It didn’t make any sense. And why on earth would a beautiful young girl like Natalia murder some penniless old alkie? Robert inwardly chided himself. Now he really was wandering into the realms of fantasy!
    She raised her head, and, to his surprise, she smiled.
    ‘Look, Robert, I tell you the truth about Balat, I not there, but …’ She shrugged helplessly, a little nervous laugh accompanying the gesture. “I understand what you say. We very close now and you know little of my life.
    Perhaps time to change that. You maybe come to my
    home, meet my family …’
    Her words caught him off guard. An invitation to her |
    home was the last thing he had expected. It was quite obviously a ploy to distract him from the issue. Christ, it must have been her! And yet an invitation to her home …
    Greed, the kind of selfish, thoughtless longing that makes all lovers occasionally act against their better judgement, possessed him. Ever since he had realised that he was in love with Natalia, Robert had harboured secret and long-term ambitions for this relationship. The failure of his previous marriage had all but destroyed any confidence he may have had with women. To a certain extent Natalia, simply by not leaving him, had given him back some of that confidence.
    Although educated, Robert was simplistic in his thinking when it came to his personal life. He didn’t want to be single any more. And if Natalia wasn’t the right woman, then who was? There was nobody else! Meeting her family was surely a significant