Read The Loving Husband for Free Online Page A

people, he at least left the house every day, he visited sites, worked on estimates. Overhead came the sound of Emme’s footsteps, and she set up a tuneless singing. ‘He went to the pub for a bit of peace and quiet,’ she told them, and DS Gerard nodded.
    ‘New baby and all that,’ he said, sympathetic. ‘It’s a difficult time, isn’t it?’
    ‘We’re … we were…’ She started again. ‘This was what we wanted. Kids. Getting away from London. We were happy.’
    ‘But no friends yet?’
    ‘There’s Rob, Rob Webster. An old friend of my husband’s, he lives out here. The other side of Oakenham.’ Gerard nodded to Carswell, who wrote in a notebook, painstakingly. ‘He works at the hospital, in some lab or other. His number’s on my phone, only I don’t know…’ She looked around, wildly. ‘I think Nathan put it up there by the landline when we moved.’ She’d insisted, remembering her mother’s scrawled list when she was a child. What parents did: doctor, dentist. Gerard nodded and Carswell got to his feet and was behind her at the phone. She didn’t turn to look.
    Rob was tall and awkward, his skin almost blue-white for an outdoors type, his knuckles raw from mountain-biking. Still a boy, he seemed to her. ‘This … all this…’ She had her hand to her mouth suddenly. ‘He’s Nathan’s … he was our best man.’ And all she could remember was Nathan’s hand falling on Rob’s shoulder, introducing him. I’ve known this guy for ever . His best friend.
    ‘I’d better call him,’ she said.
    ‘We can do that,’ said Gerard. ‘Don’t worry. It might be better, coming from us. He might know something.’ He tilted his head. ‘What about any other friends? Of your husband’s?’
    She shook her head, uncertain. Rob, Nathan’s only friend. Was that unusual? For a man to have just one? At the wedding, along with a handful of girls from the magazine, she’d dredged up three or four from school, they’d turned up dutifully. She hadn’t seen any of them since, maybe she’d never see any of them again but she’d been glad to have them there. When she’d been going out with Nick, he seemed to have dozens of people he called his mates. Nathan had had Rob, and a couple of people he worked with. Julian Napier, he was one of them. Her brain wasn’t working.
    Watching her, Gerard hesitated, the mug between his hands. ‘Tell me something,’ he said, his voice level, calculating, to the sound of Emme’s footsteps coming back down the stairs. ‘I’m interested.’ He was almost a head taller than her, and stood between her and the door. ‘You’ve been married how long, four, five years?’ She nodded. ‘Why did you come here, you and your husband?’
    ‘Why?’ she said stupidly, hearing in his cool tone, Go back where you came from.
    He smiled then, as if to reassure her.
    ‘I mean,’ he said patiently, ‘why here?’ Tilted his head. ‘Why now?’ He left it a long moment before saying, ‘More space, was it?’
    She just stared. ‘For the kids?’ he said, prompting her.
    ‘My husband’s from round here. He grew up not far away.’
    They’d visited the bleak little village with its boarded-up shop only once since they moved, at Emme’s insistence, to see the house he’d grown up in. It was a small cottage with moulting thatch almost down to the ground, tiny windows and low ceilings, and Nathan had stood a moment with his hands in his pockets, frowning at it before saying, ‘That’s it. Nothing to see really.’ And marched them back to the car.
    ‘And we love it here,’ she said. ‘The house, and everything.’
    Gerard was watching her.
    ‘So that explains why your husband wanted to come here. What about you?’

Chapter Five
    They hadn’t come here for more space: they’d only had Emme when they moved. And she didn’t think they’d have another child.
    ‘Everything all right, otherwise?’ said her GP at the six week check. ‘You and your husband?’ The