Read Online Time to Kill by Brian Freemantle - Free Book Online

completely and loved him so absolutely and she was terrified of losing everything they had.
    He said now, ‘Nothing’s come back. Nothing is going to come back. All right, maybe I was knocked off balance when I got the letter. Which obviously I had to check out. Now that I have I’m satisfied there’s nothing sinister; nothing for us to worry or panic about. We just go on as we have been doing for most of the past fifteen years, living our lives, enjoying our lives. Nothing bad is going to happen to us. I won’t let anything bad happen to us.’
    â€˜You said Peebles told you Jack will be out in four or five weeks?’
    Slater saw that his wife was wet-eyed, although not actually crying. ‘Something like that.’
    â€˜You definitely said four or five weeks!’
    â€˜I know what I said, Ann. There’s no reason for us to argue.’ He couldn’t remember the last time they had even squabbled.
    â€˜I’m not arguing. I just want to get things straight.’
    â€˜He said four or five weeks.’
    â€˜Where will he go?’
    â€˜Peebles said he didn’t know. That he wouldn’t have told me, even if he had known.’
    â€˜There has to be a reason for their warning us.’
    Slater couldn’t criticize Ann for echoing his own first thought. ‘That’s not so! It’s a statutory obligation, a legal requirement, nothing more than that.’
    â€˜That’s just what Peebles said,’ insisted the woman, disbelievingly.
    â€˜It’s what I checked out and confirmed at the Library of Congress.’
    â€˜Is Peebles going to keep in touch?’
    â€˜Ann, stop it! There’s no reason for him or anyone else to keep in touch. Forget it.’
    â€˜How the hell can I forget it?’
    â€˜You have done, for the past fifteen years!’ They were definitely arguing now.
    â€˜No I haven’t,’ she denied. ‘I’ve waited for the past fifteen years. I think I need a drink.’
    â€˜It didn’t drown anything out before.’ She’d been very good at disguising it, Slater remembered. He hadn’t even guessed when they’d started their affair, although they’d both had too much to drink the first time, and afterwards agreed it had been a bad mistake; Ann remorseful for cheating on a husband despite his so consistently and blatantly cheating on her, actually financing his womanizing with Moscow’s money, and Slater – or Sobell as he was then – personally horrified at breaking every KGB rule as the control of a major American spy source. Neither had been drunk the second time. Or the third.
    â€˜I want a drink,’ Ann demanded.
    It had once been a bottle a day, Slater recalled, pouring the measure he knew Ann had liked then, adding ice, lime and tonic to the gin. He didn’t make one for himself.
    â€˜Not joining me?’
    â€˜I don’t need it.’
    Ann remained staring at the full glass on the table between them, like a fairground fortune-teller trying to predict the future from a crystal ball, making no attempt to pick it up. Slater remained silent.
    At last Ann said, ‘I don’t need it either. Throw it away.’
    â€˜Well done,’ praised Slater, who’d only just stopped short of trying to persuade Ann to enrol in Alcoholics Anonymous all those years ago.
    â€˜There’s something I do want, though.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Better alarms and security.’
    Slater opened his mouth to say it wasn’t necessary but decided against it.
    Tension remained between them. Each was aware of the other working hard to keep any indication of it from David, although Slater was discomfited driving the boy back from basketball practice when David said, ‘I thought you were a bit hard on the guys tonight, Dad?’
    â€˜They weren’t all trying their best,’ said Slater, defensively. ‘A team only works as a unit. One or two lay