‘OK, OK. Belt up.’
‘So whose fault was it really?’
‘Mrs Brown was a ruthless scheming cow. Alistair was amoral and utterly selfish. Olivier was spoilt rotten: a cruel, manipulative adolescent. And Kelly and the Major wouldn’t do their own dirty work. They were afraid to look.’
‘What at?’
‘At themselves. At what they’d made of their lives. At what might happen. So they made us do it.’
‘They made you do it,’ she said. ‘Don’t you mind?’
‘No. I enjoy it. It’s important to look.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s always a temptation not to face the truth. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Once you’ve looked, then you’ve set yourself free to look away.’
‘Oh,’ said Claudia. ‘That’s really – significant. It’s serious. It’s almost French.’
I was grinning.
‘What is it? Alex, what is it? Are you teasing me? Didn’t you mean what you said?’
‘I was just thinking. Freedom Pertwee. If I became her spiritual adviser—’
‘You wouldn’t!’
‘No, I wouldn’t. But if I did, I could charge astronomical fees.’
Anabel Donald
Anabel Donald has been writing fiction since 1982 when her first novel, Hannah at Thirty-five, was published to great critical acclaim.
In her thirty-six-year teaching career she has taught adolescent girls in private boarding schools, a comprehensive and an American university. Most recently, she has written the five Alex Tanner crime novels in the Notting Hill series.
Bello
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The Notting Hill Mysteries
An Uncommon Murder
In at the Deep End
The Glass Ceiling
The Loop
Destroy Unopened
Copyright
First published 1993 by Macmillan London Limited
This edition published 2015 by Bello
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Copyright © Anabel Donald 1993
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In At The Deep End Page 22
