John looked at Christine across the room. how big her eyes look in that white face, he thought. It must be because of the baby.
"No," he said. 'There's no danger at all.'
There was the sound of voices in the room. The lawyer smiled a small, rat-like smile. He held newspaper out toward John.
'You've been away in Scotland, Mr Duncan,'he said. 'Have you seen this?'
As John read the newspaper, his hands began to shake, and he had to hold the side of the table. There was a picture of Christine, standing up in a boat near the factory, and another picture of her lying in an ambulance, with Simon beside her. The headline said:
BIOLOGIST'S DAUGHTER NEARLY
DROWNS IN RIVER
There was a long silence. He tried to read the newspaper carefully, but there was something wrong with his eyes. And his head was full of pictures of Christine in the river, drowning. And his wife, Rachel, drowning in the storm, long ago.