Free This Way Out by Sheila Radley Page A

soon as possible, don’t you? We must meet within the next day or two and make arrangements.’
    Derek had told him to go to hell.
    â€˜Don’t be like that!’ Packer had said. ‘You’ve got a problem, and I’m offering to solve it for you. All you have to do is stay out of the way for an hour or two while I do it. What could be simpler? Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll be in touch.’
    No wonder, Derek thought, that his breath was bad. What was stirring his gut and sending a sour taste up into his mouth was panic.
    â€˜I don’t want one of your mother’s heavy meals,’ he burst out, hearing – without being able to control it – the crack of anger in his voice. ‘I can’t eat it, not after a conference lunch. Why the hell can’t she stay in her own room and leave us alone?’
    Christine stared at him over an armful of curtain. ‘All right, Derek,’ she said, audibly controlling her own irritation. ‘No need to make a major issue out of a chicken and apricot casserole. If you don’t want to eat it, don’t. I didn’t ask Mum to cook it – she insisted, and I’m not going to waste my energy arguing with her. After all, she’s only trying to help.’
    â€˜Help be damned,’ said Derek bitterly. ‘If she really wanted to help, she’d –’
    He stopped in mid-sentence, irradiated with unaccustomed hope. Of course! He drew a deep breath and then let it out slowly, feeling his tensed-up muscles relax. There was no need for him to go on agitating about his mother-in-law. Enid had just been made redundant.
    Derek supposed – he could only suppose, since she had never offered him an explanation – that when Christine had allowed her mother to stay on at the Brickyard it was because she was in need of feminine moral support after her operation. That was why he had felt unable to refuse Enid house-room. Now, though, the situation had changed.
    While he was away at the conference, being pressured by Hugh Packer into imagining that the only way of getting rid of his mother-in-law was by conspiring to have her murdered, Christine had been making a new local friend. A friend, what’s more, who’d had the same operation, and would therefore be able to support her far more effectively than her mother ever could.
    Enid was no longer needed! She could start packing her bags right away, and he would take her back to Southwold on Sunday. End of problem , thank God.
    End of nightmares; end of the evil persuasions of that bastard Packer. Oh, thank God. Thank God!
    But when Derek seized his wife’s hand and made the eager suggestion Christine turned away from him immediately, and all she said was, ‘No.’

Chapter Seven
    â€˜ Why , Christine? Just tell me why!’
    Set-faced, his wife fixed another hook in the curtain tape. ‘She’s my mother, isn’t she?’
    â€˜What’s that got to do with it? It’s not as if she’s ancient, or incapable. She doesn’t need you. And now you’re feeling so much better, and you’ve found a new friend, you don’t need her either. It’s not even as if you enjoy each other’s company. You don’t get on with her as well as I do.’
    â€˜If you get on with her so well,’ Christine retorted, ‘why are you so anxious to push her out?’
    What could he say? Because I’m desperately afraid that you’re not going to live much longer? Because I want us to be alone together during what little time we’ve got left?
    He drew a steadying breath, and tried to be patient. ‘My love, I know how fractious you and your mother get with each other. I want to save you from stress, so you can concentrate on getting well – that’s all.’
    â€˜Thank you, Derek,’ said Christine composedly, ‘but I don’t need that kind of help.’
    â€˜Oh for God’s sake