A Great Deliverance - By Elizabeth George Page 0,40

been that spot. It was more like an alley than a street, an unpaved thoroughfare to nowhere, having the one distinction of a pub on the corner. This was the Dove and Whistle, its doors and woodwork painted a blinding shade of purple, itself looking very much as if it wished it could have had the good fortune to be settled somewhere - anywhere - else.

Richard Gibson and his brood lived in the last attached house in this lane, a pinched stone building with chipped window sashes and a front door that had once been painted royal blue but now was fading to a decided grey. This stood open to the late afternoon, mindless of the rapidly dropping temperature in the dale, and from within the confines of the tiny house came the noise of a family quarrelling passionately.

"God damn you, do something with him, then. He's your son as well. Jesus Christ! You'd think he was a miraculous little version of virgin birth from all the interest you take in his upbringing!" It was a woman speaking, a shrieking that sounded as if at any moment it would choose hysteria or cachinnation as a second line of attack.

A man's voice rumbled in answer, indistinguishable in the general uproar.

"Oh, it will be better then? That's a fine laugh, Dick. When you've the whole bleeding farm to use as an excuse? Just like last night! You couldn't wait to get there, could you? So don't tell me about the farm! We'll never see you then when you've five hundred acres to hide in!"

Lynley rapped sharply with the rust-grimed knocker on the open door, and the scene froze before them.

With a plate on his knee, obviously attempting to eat some sort of utterly unappetising afternoon meal, a man sat on a sagging couch in a cramped sitting room while in front of him a woman stood, her arm upraised, a hairbrush in her hand. Both stared at the unexpected visitors.

"You've caught us at our very best moment. It was straight to bed next," Richard Gibson said.

The Gibsons were a portrait of contrasts: the man was enormous, nearly six and a half feet, with black hair, swarthy skin, and sardonic, brown eyes. He was bullnecked, with the thick limbs of a labourer. His wife, on the other hand, was a scrap of a blonde, sharp-featured and, at the moment, white to the lips with rage. But there was an electricity in the air between them that gave credence to what the man had said. Here was a relationship where every argument and discussion was merely a skirmish before the major battle of who would be master between the sheets. And the answer to that, judging from what Lynley and Havers could see before them, was clearly a toss-up.

Shooting a final, smouldering look at her husband that spoke of desire as much as rage, Madeline Gibson left the room, slamming the kitchen door behind her. The big man chuckled when she was gone.

"Eight stone of tiger," he commented, getting to his feet. "One hell of a woman." He extended a large paw. "Richard Gibson," he said genially. "You must be Scotland Yard." When Lynley had made the introductions, Gibson went on. "Sundays are always the worst round here."

He jerked his head towards the kitchen, from which a steady wailing indicated the state of the relationship between mother and what sounded like fourteen children. "Roberta used to help out.

But we're without her now. Of course you know that. That's why you've come." He hospitably indicated two antiquated chairs that were belching stuffing onto the floor. Lynley and Havers picked their way across the room to them, avoiding broken toys, scattered newspapers, and at least three plates of half-consumed food that lay on the bare floor. Somewhere, a glass of milk had been left too long in the room, for its sour smell overcame even the other odours of poorly cooked food and plumbing gone bad.

"You've inherited the farm, Mr. Gibson," Lynley began. "Will you move there soon?"

"It can't be soon enough for me. I'm not sure my marriage can survive another month of this place." Gibson toed his plate away from the couch. A scrawny cat slid out of nowhere, sniffed at the dried bread and pungent sardines, and rejected the offering by attempting to bury it.

Gibson watched the animal, his face amused.

"You've lived here several years, haven't you?"

"Two to be exact. Two years, four months, and two days, to be even more precise.