Moon Read Free Page A

here, and it was the school's principal, Estelle Piprelly, eager for his computer skills, who had directed him towards the place. Her considerable influence had also helped him obtain the lease.
        In the far distance, on the peninsula, he could just make out the college itself, an odd assortment of buildings, expanding over the years in various, unbalanced styles. The predominant structure, with its tower, was white. From that far away, it was no more than a rain-blurred greyish projection, the sky behind gloomed with rolling clouds.
        When Childes had fled the mainland, away from pernicious publicity, the curious stares, not just of friends and colleagues, but of complete strangers who had seen his face on TV or in the newspapers, the island had provided a halcyon refuge. Here was a tight community existing within itself, the mainland and its complexities held at arm's length. Yet, close-knit though their society was, it had proved relatively easy for him to be absorbed into the population of over fifty thousand. Morbid interest and -he clenched the glass hard - and accusations had been left behind. He wanted it to stay that way.
        Childes drained the Scotch and poured another; like the brandy earlier, it helped purge the foul taste that lingered in his mouth. He returned to the window and this time saw only the ghost of his own reflection. The day outside had considerably darkened.
        Was it the same? Had the images his mind had seen beneath the sea anything to do with those terrible, nightmare, visions which had haunted him so long ago? He couldn't tell: nearly drowning had altered the sensation. For a moment, though, during and shortly after, when he had lain gasping on the beach, he had been sure, certain the sightings had returned.
        Dread filled him.
        He was cold, yet perspiration dampened his brow. Apprehension gripped him, and then a fresh anxiety homed in.
        He went out into the hallway and picked up the phone, dialled.
        After a while, a breathless voice answered.
        'Fran?' he said, eyes on the wall but seeing her face.
        'Who else? That you, Jon?'
        'Yeah.'
        A long pause, then his ex-wife said, 'You called me. Did you have something to say?'
        'Where's, uh, how's Gabby?'
        'She's fine, considering. She's next door with Annabel playing at who can create most havoc. I think Melanie planned to banish them to the garden for the afternoon, but the weather won't allow. How's it over there? - it's piddling here.'
        'Yeah, the same. I think it's working its way up to a storm.'
        Another silence.
        'I'm kinda busy, Jonathan. I have to be in town by four.'
        'You working on a Saturday?'
        'Sort of. A new author's arriving in London today and the publisher wants me to cosy him, give him a prelim on his tour next week.'
        'Couldn't Ashby have handled it?'
        Her tone was sharp. 'We run the agency on a partnership basis - I carry my load. Anyway, what do you expect of a born-again career woman?'
        The barely veiled accusation stung and, not for the first time, he wondered if she would ever come to terms with his walking out. Walking out is how she would have put it.
        'Who's taking care of Gabby?'
        'She'll have dinner at Melanie's and Janet'll collect her later.' Janet was the young girl his former wife had hired as a daily nanny. 'She'll stay with Gabby until I get home. Is that good enough for you?'
        'Fran, I didn't mean-'
        'You didn't have to go, Jon. Nobody pushed you out.’
        'You didn't have to stay there,' he replied quietly. 'You wanted me to give up too much.’
        'The agency was only part-time then.'
        'But it was important to me. Now it's even more so - it has to be. And there were other reasons. Our life here.'
        'It'd become unbearable.'
        'Whose fault was that?' Her voice softened, as though she