Read Online Sorrow Bound by David Mark - Free Book Online

stand up, to offer to make tea, to straighten a picture or move the rug, but he appears to see the actions for the distractions they are, and stays where he is. When he speaks, his voice is soft as tears falling on wood.
    ‘Philippa was at our place. I was showing her how to use a website. Might even have been that walking challenge website. I can’t remember. Anyway, I left her in my office for a bit. Went for a pee or a cup of tea or whatever. Next thing she’s pulling on her coatand slamming the door behind her. I didn’t know what was going on until I went back into my office.’ He looks at the wall, shame creeping up into his cheeks. ‘She’d clicked the wrong thing. Gone into my private files. Seen some of the things in there.’
    Pharaoh gives a whistle. ‘Worst nightmare, eh?’
    ‘It was nowt weird,’ he says, despairingly.
    ‘Just good wholesome stuff, was it?’ asks Pharaoh.
    Robb doesn’t reply.
    ‘Mr Robb, I don’t want to be crass, but everybody in the world has the occasional glimpse at stuff like that. She’d be embarrassed, sure, but she’d hardly cut you off for that, would she? These days? Really?’
    Robb looks at her, quizzically, then his mouth opens wide as realisation dawns.
    ‘It was drawings!’ he splutters. ‘Drawings I’d done. I like to draw.’
    Pharaoh is getting frustrated. ‘What?’
    ‘I’d done some drawings. Portraits, if you like. Sketches. Some still-life. Some from memory. Other times, they’d sit for me …’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The kids. Elaine’s kids.’
    Pharaoh’s mouth drops open and she turns to McAvoy. ‘Are you hearing this? Can you get a straight answer out of this bloke for me please, Hector, because I’m starting to get angry.’
    McAvoy takes three steps to the middle of the room and looms over Darren Robb. Were he here alone, he would never consider using his size, would never threaten or intimidate, but in Pharaoh’s presence, he knows his role. He is both her enforcer and gentle poet. His job is to keep the suspect off-balance. To become his friend, and then step into his personal space withthe softest of snarls. ‘Were they naked pictures, sir? The drawings you did of your girlfriend’s children?’
    Robb stares up at the big man. ‘It’s art. Like Rubens. Cherubs and stuff. I like all that. I scanned them into the computer so I could use some art software. I wasn’t sending them to anyone. I wasn’t doing anything wrong! It’s just pictures.’
    ‘Nothing that could be considered inappropriate?’
    ‘Not unless there’s something wrong with you.’
    ‘But Philippa didn’t like what she saw?’
    ‘She wouldn’t answer her phone. Wouldn’t come to the door when I called for her. She just cut me off.’
    ‘And Elaine?’
    ‘She didn’t understand. Her mum sent her this message, telling her that her boyfriend was sick. Twisted. Disgusting.’
    ‘Did you explain?’
    ‘I deleted the pictures as soon as Philippa left.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I panicked.’
    McAvoy runs his tongue around the inside of his mouth. ‘So when Philippa told her daughter that you had naked pictures of her children on your computer, you had no evidence to the contrary.’
    Robb looks back at his feet.
    ‘Elaine left you?’
    He nods. ‘She wouldn’t listen.’
    ‘Did you try and make her?’
    Robb bites at his lip. ‘Over and over. I tried to get Don to talk to her but he wouldn’t take my calls either. I went to Elaine’s work, to the kids’ schools, I just wanted her to listen.’
    McAvoy pushes a fist into his palm. ‘You must have been frustrated. Angry.’
    ‘Everything was ruined, over a mistake. A misunderstanding. I’d never hurt those kids. I loved those kids.’
    ‘But Elaine didn’t know you were drawing them naked, did she? If it was innocent, why not tell her?’
    Robb is silent. He tries to find somewhere to direct his gaze, but finds nothing to his satisfaction. He gets up, and adjusts one of the pictures on the wall. ‘It was