Read Online The Watcher by Charlotte Link - Free Book Online Page B

mysterious past. People said he had been in the police force and had risen rapidly through the ranks before leaving at the young age of thirty-seven in mysterious circumstances. Then he had founded a private security firm that now employed a good two dozen employees. Its services included guarding both people and buildings. He lived and worked in London, but twice a week he came out to Southend to train two young people’s teams. He had made an effort to recruit some of the players from disadvantaged parts of town. He considered sport, particularly team sports, to be the most effective preventative measure against young people’s slipping into criminal activity, as Gillian had once heard by chance when he was explaining this to a couple of mothers who hung on his every word. Particularly for the well-to-do women he was a hero, a fighter. Gillian could imagine how much they romanticised him.
    Probably he was not at all what they saw in him.
    But she had to admit that he was attractive. ‘Yes,’ she answered finally. ‘He’s pretty good-looking.’
    ‘Pretty good-looking? I have to stop myself having indecent thoughts whenever I see him. Strange that someone like him doesn’t have a wife.’
    ‘Maybe he has a lot of girlfriends.’
    ‘But then we’d have seen one of them coming to watch or collect him or something. It’s odd. I’ve never seen him with a woman.’
    ‘He wants to keep his private life separate,’ said Gillian. She could understand that. The women here were like vultures, she thought.
    ‘I still find it odd,’ insisted the woman. ‘Like much about him.’
    Gillian did not want to know what she meant by that and did not reply. Her silence did not of course stop her neighbour from sharing her opinions.
    ‘I’d really like to know why he had to leave the police. He was in Scotland Yard. That’s not a career you just throw away! And then he comes out here for these sessions. He lives in London. So why come all the way to Southend? Maybe no sports club in London wanted to have him. Why not?’
    Gillian had the distinct impression that she would not be able to bear listening to the woman’s detailed thoughts on the trainer’s private life on top of the story of her son’s maladies. She looked into the smug face with its crude features and stood up abruptly.
    ‘I’m sorry. I just have to have a smoke.’ She tried to make her exit a little less impolite. ‘This damn addiction . . .’
    Dear God, don’t let her be a smoker too.
    The woman smiled sourly. It was clear that she was offended.
    Gillian thought about what Tom would say now. You see, that’s why you’re always alone! When someone tries to get close, you immediately brush them off.
    She pushed her way through the crowded room and breathed a sigh of relief when she was at the cloakroom. The voices in the other room sounded muffled now. Gillian put a hand to her forehead. It felt hot.
    It took five minutes for her to find her coat and put it on. Then she stepped out into the dark evening. It was cold, but it was not as windy as it had been in the last few days. Fog was rolling in from the river. It wrapped itself around her head like a damp, cold cloth. She fished out a cigarette, lit it and sucked on it greedily. As always, the nicotine relaxed her immediately, although she also felt guilty at once. Tom hated it when she smoked. All his arguments against it were right. Like every year, her New Year’s resolution would be to stop.
    Like every year, she would not manage to.
    She massaged her temple gently with her left index finger. There had been no air in the room, she realised that now. There was no way she could go in again.
    I’ll stick around out here for half an hour and then tell Becky that we have to go, she decided. Another reason for her to hate me. Perhaps she should not be so surprised that her daughter did not get on with her. Perhaps her strange ways got on Becky’s nerves far more than she realised.
    Just as she was