Stalked By Shadows Read Free Page B

the pace. It had been good. Just thinking about it tugged pleasantly at his groin.
    And finally, even after all this time, Mariner was plagued by the dual and entirely irrational guilt brought on by perceived disloyalty and infidelity. These last two were groundless, deep down he knew that, but somehow it was masochistically comforting to continue believing in their existence. He allowed his thoughts to wander as far as what Anna might be doing now. Waking up in bed beside her new partner, she may even be getting a little early-morning action of her own, he thought miserably, and the dull ache that had for so many weeks been resident just under his diaphragm returned . Last night’s diversion was exactly like the last time - great while it lasted but afterwards it felt like shit.
     
    Letting himself back into his small canalside home, Mariner was greeted by the warm smell of frying bacon. Kat was in the kitchen, prodding at the pan on the cooker. ‘Hello,’ she greeted him brightly, with not a hint of reproach. Had she put two and two together? ‘You like some breakfast?’
    ‘No time,’ Mariner called from halfway up the stairs, wanting to avoid that conversation until he was ready for it. ‘I’ll get something at the station.’
    Ten minutes later he was back down again, showered and changed, and Kat was at the table poised to tuck into the full English. It made Mariner feel slightly queasy. It was a mystery how she got away with it, although at twenty she did, of course, have age on her side. She’d been staying with him for six months now, and had succumbed to all the worst of the British junk-food habits. Her diet was far removed from the one she’d been used to in her native Albania, yet she remained as skinny as a rake. ‘You have a good meeting yesterday?’ she asked.
    ‘Oh, it was the usual thing,’ Mariner said.
    ‘It finish late.’ She was all innocent observation. ‘You find a woman?’ She could be disarmingly direct.
    Mariner’s face flamed. ‘It wasn’t -’ Like that? But that’s exactly how it was. He gave up.
    ‘Is a good thing,’ she said brightly. ‘You should meet a nice woman.’ When Mariner didn’t respond her hand shot guiltily to her mouth. ‘I’m sorry. Is not my business.’
    ‘That’s OK. I know what you meant. Where’s Millie?’ Mariner thought his DC, who had quickly also become Kat’s friend and chaperone, would have appeared by now, but perhaps she’d already gone.
    Kat shrugged. ‘She can’t come. I think her family . . .’ She trailed off vaguely.
    ‘So you were here on your own all night?’ Mariner was mortified.
    ‘Is OK. I watch TV and go to bed.’ No big deal , she was saying.
    Mariner studied her expression for the brave face she must be faking, but slightly to his disappointment she looked genuinely unfazed. ‘I’ll get home early tonight,’ he said. ‘Get in a couple of films.’
    She shrugged again. ‘OK.’
    ‘OK.’ Now Mariner was the one disconcerted. She’d come a long way from the terrified young woman he’d first encountered cowering in a filthy room during a raid on a brothel.
    Mariner had been well aware of the raised eyebrows when he’d offered to accommodate Kat, and he knew that the common consensus was that sharing his house with the stunningly attractive twenty-year-old would only lead to one inevitable conclusion, especially when he and Anna had so recently split up. It was only meant to be a temporary arrangement, a few days at most, and with DC Millie Khatoon in close attendance. But, as the days had stretched to weeks, Millie had succumbed to family demands, and the station gossips had also been proven wrong. One day Kat might feel strong enough to make contact again with her natural parents back home in Albania but, until then, it seemed to Mariner that morally the only role open to him was to protect her.
     
    Waking a little later, her eyes sticky and head muzzy, after the couple of hours of fitful dozing that