The meanest Flood

the man would react according to his character, that he would walk into the jaws of the lion because that was what he always did and because that was the only way to save the woman’s life.
    But if he’d miscalculated and Turner wasn’t here at all, not even in the country, then the woman was reprieved, at least for the time being.
     
    Back at the Scandinavian Hotel, Danny sat on his bed and calmed himself with a cognac from the mini-bar. Sam Turner would be here, or he would be on his way. Just because he hadn’t shown today didn’t mean he wasn’t around. Danny hated Sam Turner more than any other man in the world, and you can’t hate someone that much and not know what their next move will be. Tomorrow was another day.
     

19
     
    When Marie Dickens saw that she had an e-mail from someone calling themselves Alcopop her impulse was to delete it. But the first sentence of the message caught her attention.
     
Marie, Geordie arrived today. No problems. Will you check marriage records, Katherine and Nicole, Nottingham and Leeds, enquire if anyone else has done the same? Also ask their relatives, friends, if anyone making enquiries. The guy must have done some research. Need to know who he is. Alcopop.
     
    Sam in cloak-and-dagger mode. Marie scanned the rest of her Inbox and grabbed a coat. No point wasting time. She’d become a good investigator and she knew it. She had the knack, which was the best starting point. But over and above that she’d learned quickly from Sam, and from Gus, her long-dead husband. She’d been taught to read clues when she was a nurse. No one in the medical business knew how to speak plainly, you had to guess what was expected of you at every twist and turn. Doctors spoke in riddles and consultants often didn’t speak at all. The hospital hierarchy and administration didn’t know what they wanted themselves and were incapable of giving simple guidelines.
    In her work at the women’s refuge in town she likewise required an ability to read between the lines. Abused women often had difficulty expressing their emotions and their needs. They lived in fear of their men, but often the fear of loneliness and abandonment was greater. A woman might say that it was over, she never wanted to see him again, but if you looked deep into her eyes you could see she’d be on her way back to him within a few days.
    Not always, though. There were women who came to the refuge who were capable of putting their own interests and the interests of their children first. Women who had found a grain of strength and who were keen to build on it.
    So why are you working for a serial philanderer? she asked herself as she headed across town towards the library. Checking the marriage records of a couple of his conquests, both freshly departed?
    Marie had known Sam Turner for as long as she could remember. She reckoned that she and Celia were the only women Sam had ever known he hadn’t considered sleeping with. Maybe Janet as well, Geordie’s wife. Yeah, Janet was in the clear. And his mother.
    But everything else in a skirt he’d either had a go at it or thought about it. And the women were nearly all of a type. Usually younger than him and vulnerable in some way. Dependent. They’d been pushed around too much and couldn’t see straight. They thought Sam was someone to lean on even during those long alcoholic years when he couldn’t stand on his own feet.
    There were exceptions, of course. You go through so many women and the law of averages is going to ensure that one or two of them are different. So there were independent women on the list, as there were freeloaders and opportunists. There was a smattering of intelligent women, the odd one or two who were older, but these were outnumbered by the majority who were plain unsuitable.
    The other thing about Sam’s partners was that they didn’t stay. Angeles, his current flame, had already lasted longer than most. She was blind, of course, which must be part of the answer as to why she was still around. She was another one who was far too young for him and yet they seemed happy together. She was vulnerable because of her lack of sight but she was also strong. And she was emotionally and financially independent. So all in all there were more pluses than minuses.
    Marie liked Angeles. You could talk to her and it didn’t have to be about drinking or TV soaps or about how men were from Mars.
    She asked for St Catherine’s Index in the Central Library