Free The Watchful Eye by Priscilla Masters

stepped aside for Claudine to walk before him through the kitchen door, back into the dining room, but that meant she must squeeze between him and the fridge freezer. Their kitchen was not big.
    At the same time Anderton must have fancied a third or fourth lager. He walked in at just the worst possible moment. Daniel and Claudine were pressed together.
    Anderton said nothing but his eyes were wary and suspicious.
    Daniel spoke. ‘I’m sorry.’ For one brief second he had felt the curve of her buttocks against him and pulled back.
    ‘OK. OK. No problem,’ she said, it seemed both to Daniel and her husband.
     
    Wisely, after the satisfying meal, she had prepared a small cheese board with some Comte, a strong Cheddar and a wedge of Shropshire Blue. It was served on a blue and white Wedgwood plate with some oat biscuits and a bunch of grapes artisticallydraped over the cheeses. Dessert was the best
mousse au chocolat
he had eaten in his entire life and that included lunches at the Savoy when his mother had treated the impoverished medical student to decent food. Since first trying it then it had been his abiding favourite, so he considered himself an expert on the subject.
    He shared this with Claudine and took pleasure in her broad smile. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘A compliment indeed and from such an authority on chocolate mousse.’ She frowned and teased him further. ‘Such an extensive subject and one that requires hours of research and a lot of dedication.’ She opened her eyes very wide as she spoke. He and the girls giggled with her, trying to ignore the fact that Brian had made no comment but was scowling into his lager can.
    They lingered over a last glass of wine but Holly was getting sleepy and it would take them ten minutes to walk home. At ten o’clock he finally stood up, effusive in his thanks. Claudine offered him both cheeks to kiss and Bethan gave her rediscovered friend a hug. Brian merely nodded without looking up.
    The police house door closed behind them and they set off for home.
     
    There was a short cut that threaded behind the church, through some new builds, which would shorten their walk home. The night was chilly and Holly started grumbling at having to walk at all but there was no way he was going to risk being banned from driving. It could cost him his job. So they set out. The new builds were still little more than a building site, lit by orange arc lights to discourage theft.
    A hooded figure walked towards him and he clutched atHolly’s hand, thinking about Anderton’s little problem.
    ‘Evening, Doctor.’
    He couldn’t be sure who it was. Some patient he had had a brushing encounter with. It started him thinking how very sinister hooded figures could be – from yardies to hoodies, from monks’ cowls to the burkha. There is something scary about people who veil their faces against recognition.
     
    He puzzled about the hooded figure’s identity most of the way home, then gave up.
    Holly was tired. Her eyelids were drooping even as she washed, cleaned her teeth and put her nightdress on. He started to read her part of the
Narnia Chronicles
but she was asleep before he’d got to the bottom of the first page.
    A message was flashing on the answerphone. He pressed play and heard his ex-wife’s solicitous enquiry about Holly which made him angry. Surely she could trust him to look after his own daughter? Then he realised she was doing it simply to rile him. Elaine had a real talent for selecting the very phrases that would most annoy him.
    Daniel banged his finger down to press delete, poured himself another glass of wine and slumped in front of the usual Saturday night dreadful telly.
    He couldn’t concentrate on the film at all, a weird murder mystery that shoe-horned Martians, flesh-eaters and a cat burglar together with a woman with impossibly pointed breasts into the same one and a half hours. He sat back, his eyes on the TV but his mind wandering through the past