Read Online The Rock by Robert Daws - Free Book Online Page A

first time in as long as she could remember.
    ‘What about you?’ Calbot continued. ‘Complicated, I heard?’
    Sullivan raised an eyebrow.
    ‘You have no idea. So...’ she said, raising her glass. ‘Here’s to changing the subject.’
    *
    Broderick parked his Mercedes in the narrow driveway of his sister’s 1930s semi-detached town house. He glanced in his rear view mirror. He looked tired, he thought, and in need of a hair cut. His head of once thick brown hair now resembled the metallic mesh of a saucepan scourer. As he pulled himself out of the car, a motorbike screeched to a halt in the driveway behind him. Before Broderick had a chance to fully register this information, the front door of the house was flung open and his eighteen-year-old daughter, Penny, rushed to greet the motorcyclist - her boyfriend, Raoul.
    ‘Laters, dad!’
    ‘Wait a sec, Penny. Where are you off to?’
    ‘Raoul’s got tickets for the Killers,’ she said excitedly as she clambered onto the back of the bike.
    ‘The what?’
    ‘The Killers, Dad. They’re a band!’
    ‘Really? Look just take care of her on that thing Raoul, will you?’
    Penny threw her dad the look she reserved for when she thought he was fussing too much. It was a look Broderick had become very well acquainted with. Before he could riposte, she was on the back of the bike. ‘Yeah, yeah Dad! Bye!’
    With a rev of the motorcycle engine, they were gone. Shaking his head, Broderick made his way through the front door and into the kitchen, where his sister was sitting preparing his evening meal. Although ten years older than her brother, Cath looked the younger of the siblings. She had lived on the Rock for nearly a quarter of a century, having married a Gibraltarian lawyer. Widowed far too young, she had welcomed the role of aunty and homemaker to her nieces and brother.
    ‘Hello, love.’ She smiled. ‘ Good day at work?’
    ‘Not great, Cath. You?’
    ‘You look tired,’ she said, ignoring the question.
    ‘Makes a change, does it?’
    ‘You work too hard, you know you do. I take it you bumped into her Royal Highness, then? Out for a night with Justin Bieber.’
    Broderick had little idea who she was talking about and even less inclination to enquire.. ‘Where’s Daisy?’
    ‘Upstairs, putting her glad-rags on.’ Cath replied, placing a basket of bread and small saucer of olives on the table.
    ‘For what?’
    ‘She says she’s going clubbing.’
    ‘Clubbing?’
    ‘She’s been waiting for you to get in.’ Cath raised an eyebrow by way of wishing her brother good luck in the matter.
    Broderick nodded and turned on his heels and headed up the stairs. As he reached his daughter’s bedroom, he tapped lightly on the door and entered.
    His fourteen-year-old daughter was sat on her bed, wearing a bright yellow and blue party dress, her hair having been specially combed.
    ‘Daddy!’ cried Daisy, as she jumped up to hug her father.
    ‘Hello, sunshine,’ Broderick replied. ‘Looking good!’
    And she was. From the moment Daisy was born she had been his little angel. The pain and worry that he and her mother had felt during pregnancy had disappeared for Broderick the moment she had been born. He knew instinctively that this little girl, with her extra chromosome, would be special. And here she was, twelve years of age already, bright, loving, demanding, intelligent and like her sister Penny, the apple of his eye. The same had sadly not true for Daisy’s mother. Black depression and self-hatred had followed the birth. Unable to accept that her Down’s Syndrome daughter was anything other than a punishment for some sin she felt she must have committed, she had struggled for nearly two years to come to terms with life. Unable to cope, she had one day simply disappeared from their lives, leaving two children without a mother and Broderick without the love of his life.
    ‘Going dancing Daddy!’ Daisy announced, a smile beaming across her face as she sat