Free The Watcher by Charlotte Link Page B

especially this much of it. It was not a double. It must be at least a quadruple. And she had not eaten much all day. Afterwards she would pick her daughter up and drive home, pretty tipsy. She brushed aside her misgivings and took the next sip. For the moment she only wanted the relaxation that alcohol brought her. Distance from everything. From her worries and fears and her sadness.
    ‘Would you . . . would you like to talk about what’s upsetting you?’ asked John after a while.
    Why not?
    ‘To put it simply, my daughter rejects me because she feels I make all her decisions for her and don’t give her enough freedom. And my husband no longer notices me. So just the usual, I suppose.’ She gave a forced little laugh.
    John Burton did not join in. He looked at her thoughtfully. ‘I can’t say anything about your husband. But I know your daughter quite well. I like Becky. She’s sporty, ambitious, she’s a team player. She has a strong and independent nature. Yes, she’s also pig-headed and difficult sometimes. But she might just be going through a difficult phase and hurting the people who are closest to her. Don’t worry too much: it will all work out in the end.’
    Surprised by the clarity of his pronouncement, she said, ‘You’re sure?’
    He nodded. ‘I’d bet on it.’
    ‘Thank you,’ she said. She was amazed that in a few words he had managed to give her a feeling of relief. It was not that all her problems were solved immediately, but she did feel better. He had taken her seriously and also tried to provide her with some comfort. Unlike Tom, who normally just said that she was imagining it. Unlike Tara, who immediately created such complex psychological scenarios that she felt quite dizzy. Unlike Diana, who whenever Gillian complained, only insisted on how happy she was with her own low-maintenance daughters.
    For the first time, Gillian had the impression that someone had really helped her.
    ‘You understand a lot about children,’ she said.
    ‘I understand something about sport. And you find out a lot about people when you watch them playing a team sport. Whether they are children, young people or adults. They basically all act just like they would in real life.’
    She looked at him with curiosity. ‘Is it actually true that you used to be in Scotland Yard?’
    His features hardened. ‘Yes.’
    It was obvious that he did not want to talk about his former career and, above all, about the circumstances that had led to his leaving it. So Gillian turned the conversation in another direction.
    ‘What do you think about the terrible murder of that old woman in Hackney?’
    ‘There’s not much I can say. I know no more than what’s in the papers.’
    ‘But you used to be involved with things like that.’
    ‘Yes, but in this case I can’t tell much. The police are keeping quiet about how the victim was killed. It seems it was done in some unusual way that they are not revealing now, that could help them convict the culprit later. I just read that she was neither robbed nor raped. So it wasn’t for money or for sex; at least not the main motive.’
    ‘Main motive?’
    ‘If she was killed in a particularly sadistic way, then sexual motives may have played a role.’
    ‘Do you think it will happen again? That there will be another victim?’
    ‘Possibly. Perhaps there was a personal issue between the murderer and the victim, but even then, someone who is capable of such a crime is a ticking time bomb. It’s certainly not the usual way to sort out quarrels or disagreements.’
    ‘It’s scary,’ said Gillian. ‘Whenever I read such things, I think that just getting through life halfway unharmed is a miracle.’
    ‘It will all be sorted out. Most crimes are in the end.’
    ‘But not all of them.’
    ‘Not all of them,’ he admitted.
    She risked touching on his past again. ‘Is that why you left? The police, I mean? Because it was unbearable to be confronted with terrible violence and