28
That evening, Wendy decided to go to Culverhouse’s place to see how he was getting on. She had to convince herself that she wasn’t checking up on him, nor was she making sure he was still alive. Despite the way he’d acted recently, it wasn’t particularly out of character for him and she felt a certain loyalty towards him — especially since Malcolm Pope had been on the scene.
It was the smell that hit her as Culverhouse opened his front door: the sweet, cloying smell of alcohol and the stuffiness of a house that hadn’t seen an open window or door for days. She could see he hadn’t shaved, either. There was a good few days’ growth starting to show and she thought it actually looked quite good on him, aside from the fact that it had only come about through laziness and neglect.
She tried
