Shape of Snakes

'You've changed,' he said finally.

'Yes,' I agreed.

He smiled. 'Aren't you going to ask me how?'

'There's no point.' I leaned my head against the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling. 'I know what you're going to say.'

'What?'

'I'm more relaxed than I used to be.'

'How did you know?'

'It's what Sam always says.'

'You used to get pretty hyped-up in the old days,' he said. 'I remember going into your house one day and having to duck a flying saucepan.'

I turned my head to look at him, laughing at the memory. 'Only because you and Sam came home plastered at some god-awful hour in the morning and got me out of bed with the row you were making downstairs. The minute you saw me you started demanding food, so I tossed the saucepan in your direction and told you to cook it yourselves. You were supposed to catch it, not duck it.'

'Is that right?' he asked dryly. 'Then how come most of the crockery ended up on the floor as well?'

I thought back. 'I was hopping mad, particularly as we had a school inspection the next day. In any case, I never liked those plates. Sam's mother gave them to us.'

He grinned at me. 'We were so damn legless we probably thought you'd be thrilled to see us. And at least we never did it again. As Sam said, you'd probably start hurling knives the next time.'

We exchanged smiles. 'I never did find out where you'd been,' I murmured lazily. 'You swore it was the pub, but it can't have been because pubs closed at 11.'

There was the smallest of hesitations before he answered. 'A strip club in Soho,' he said. 'Sam didn't think you'd approve.'

I gave a noncommittal shrug. 'Was the pretty little secretary with you?' I asked. 'It was October-time, so she must have been around.'

He shook his head. 'Sam wouldn't take a woman to a strip club.'

I leaned forward to tuck the photographs of Annie into my rucksack. 'Did you ever meet her, Jock?'

'No,' he admitted.

'So you've only Sam's word that she existed?'

There was real surprise in his voice when he answered. 'Of course she existed! You can't hate someone who isn't real. He told me that night that strangling was too good for her, and trust me ... I was there ... I heard him. He meant every word. That's why I took him to the club in the first place ... to try to get his mind on to something else. He was terrified she was going to come to you with the sordid details ... either that or blackmail him. I'd just about persuaded him to come clean and tell you about it'-he gave a dispirited sigh-'then we walk through the door and you start throwing bloody saucepans at us.'

I smiled at his innocence, thinking it was no wonder Sam loved him as a guru. Pupils always preferred a teacher they could manipulate. 'Sorry,' I said without contrition, 'but if it's any consolation there's no way he was going to own up to it. I'm not questioning the affair, Jock, only the conveniently streetwise secretary. He invented her for your sake. He's always been useless at keeping secrets and you were bound to get suspicious if he started saying he was too busy to have a drink with you. I think you'll find he was performing closer to home.'

He rubbed his head ferociously. 'I don't understand.'

'Oh, come on, it's not that hard to work out.' I started gathering my bits and pieces together. 'What do you think Libby was doing the night Annie died? Darning your socks?'

He wouldn't accept it. 'She can't have been with Sam,' he said. 'Hell, I'd have known if she'd been out. She had my supper waiting, and all the laundry done, for Christ's sake.'

'There was a perfectly good bed in your house,' I murmured. 'What makes you think they didn't use that?'

He stared at me with a look of bewildered hurt on his face, and I was reminded of my own devastation as I listened to Sam's drunken ramblings that night in Hong Kong. It's your fault we're here ... If you hadn't left me in the lurch none of this would have happened ... Women are crooked ... They do one thing and say another ... Why the hell did you have to ask people what they were doing that night? Did you expect them to be honest?

'I could have walked in at any moment,' protested Jock, clutching at straws.

'It was a Tuesday,' I said, 'and you never got home before 10 on a Tuesday.'

'But...' His bewilderment increased. 'Was anything Sam told me true?'

'I think it was true that it started during the two weeks I was away. I remember him telling me over the phone that Libby had offered to do his washing for him, but when I asked him later if he'd taken her up on it he became incredibly tetchy and said he hadn't seen her. At the time I thought he was cross because she'd let him down, but now I think he was just frightened of giving too much away...'

I watched resentment steal into Jock's face like a thief, and was surprised at how hollow my little victory felt.

'I think it's also true that he wanted to end it,' I went on, 'and was terrified of making an enemy of her. Personally, I doubt Libby would ever have confessed to it herself-she didn't want to give you ammunition for a divorce-but Sam certainly believed she would.' I smiled slightly. 'The irony is, I suspect he was far more worried