The Grey Man Read Free Page B

for her and started to tickle. She shrieked and tried to wriggle away. It turned into a hug.
    'Hey, Kev, you get Friday off?'
    'Not yet.'
    Linda sat up and looked disappointed.
    'I just didn't get the chance to ask him. I'll do it on Monday, first thing. Promise.'
    Linda sighed. She'd been through this one before. 'Kev, please talk to him. It would be
great to have a long weekend. It is our anniversary, darling. You've got to stand up for yourself a bit. You're practically running that bank. The least Symington can do is give you a day off. Besides, you're entitled to it. You haven't had any holiday yet.'
    'I'll do it on Monday. I'm just not good at this sort of thing. He always reacts badly when people take single days off.'
    'I know. But that's his problem, not yours. Please, Kevin.'
    A silence followed and Kevin picked up the TV remote control. 'Come on,' he said. 'Give us a cuddle.'
    Linda curled up beside him and rested her head on his shoulder as Look East, the BBC local news sparked up on the screen. A perky TV presenter announced that the actress Jessica Drake had arrived in Ipswich today. She was in town for a week to play a cameo role in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan.
    Kevin and Linda watched Jessica step out of her car as two men held umbrellas over her. The theatre was just down the road from the bank. He must have missed all the fuss this afternoon, he thought. She was very tall, very blonde, and
very beautiful. She towered above the theatre director as they posed for photographers. Her necklace glittered in the camera's flash.
    Kevin had never heard of Jessica Drake, but Linda had. 'Look! Isn't she stunning? And her necklace is amazing. You know all about the Augusta necklace, right?'
    Clearly, he had missed a few pages of gossip. He shook his head, and waited to be filled in.
    As Linda spoke her eyes never left the screen. 'The Augusta necklace is that string of pearls, with a sapphire and diamond clasp. See?' She pointed at the TV. 'You wear the clasp at the front. It's worth two million. I'd love to look like her.'
    'You wanted to look like Halle Berry a minute ago. Make your mind up.' But Kevin could see that Jessica was indeed stunning. Shoulder-length hair, blue eyes, bee-stung lips.
    'She's always so elegant. Imagine being able to wear a necklace like that. It was a present from her husband, Greg Drake, the film director.'
    Kevin had never heard of Greg Drake either, but Linda was now in full flow. 'They only found out the necklace was worth a fortune when they were getting divorced.' She paused
for breath, and the TV report took over the story.
    Greg Drake had paid a thousand dollars for the necklace when he bought it from a jeweller in India. But during the messy divorce, it was valued at over two million pounds. Greg had wanted it back. He said it was an old family piece. But Jessica proved that he had given it to her when she turned thirty, and won.
    Linda couldn't take her eyes off the TV. 'You'd feel like a princess in it.'
    Kevin could see that the blue of the sapphire matched Jessica's eyes. Now, that's the kind of woman I should star with in my action movies, he thought. Pulp Fiction starring Jessica Drake and Kevin Dodds. He repeated it a couple of times in his head, but it didn't seem right. His name only worked with Linda's. Pulp Fiction starring Linda and Kevin Dodds. That was better.
    Anyway, he'd rather be with Linda than Jessica. You could have a laugh with Linda, and Jessica didn't look like she'd let her hair down in a hurry. Besides, he wasn't cut out to be a movie star. He was the kind of man nobody noticed much. He didn't know why Linda wanted him. He was a grey man.
    Kevin held Linda tighter as they lay on the settee and watched Jessica tell Look East how thrilled she was to be in Ipswich. 'Thought I'd finally put up those shelves for you tomorrow,' he said. 'Then I'll go into town and pick up a DVD.'
    Linda's eyes were still on Jessica. 'I've got Legs, Bums and Turns at eleven.