A Shock to the System by Simon Brett Page B

had Merrily got some amazing radar that could pick up the fact that he’d invited the girl out for a drink?
    He came down the ladder. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
    â€˜Well, there’s something funny going on, Graham. You’ve been so twitchy the last week. You leap up every time the ’phone goes – or the front doorbell. You’re acting exactly as if you’d done something you shouldn’t.’
    He almost laughed. ‘And you think the thing I shouldn’t have done is to sleep with another woman?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Well, it isn’t. No, the thing I shouldn’t have done . . .’ he continued nonchalantly.
    â€˜Is what?’
    The words were out before he had time to think. ‘Oh, just murdering someone.’
    But the confession only got a ‘Ha, bloody ha’ from Merrily. The humour of the situation hit Graham and he giggled uncontrollably.
    â€˜What is it, Graham? Is it another woman?’
    â€˜No, it’s not.’ As he got control of himself he started to regret the mention of the murder. Better feed her a bit of truth before she started to think about it. ‘No, it’s George’s job.’
    â€˜Oh, of course. Have you heard yet?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Oh, good.’
    â€˜Not good. I haven’t got it.’
    â€˜What!’
    He shone the torch again in Merrily’s face and saw there some of the disappointment and betrayal which he had felt when he heard the news.
    Her disappointment, however, was purely materialistic.
    â€˜But we need the money, Graham. There are lots of things that need doing to the house, and I haven’t got a stitch to wear.’
    Merrily was very put out for the rest of the evening. She made no secret of the fact that she felt her husband had let her down.
    Simply to get her off that subject, Graham again raised the question of his having an affair. He denied it, with perhaps a little too much vehemence. And in bed he made love to her to convince her of his fidelity.
    Again, perhaps with a little too much vehemence.
    The events of the evening had suspended his fears about the murder, but they came back when he woke sweating at three in the morning. He soon gave up the hope of further sleep, and walked round the house to control the trembling of his body.
    To give himself something to do, he looked at other electrical fittings and found what he had feared, the same old wiring with its perished insulation.
    That added a new panic. He tried to recapture the nonchalance that being a murderer had sometimes given and ask himself how potentially lethal wiring could matter to a man who had taken the life of another, but it didn’t work. He switched off the mains.
    At eight-thirty, having shouted down the rest of the family’s moans about the lack of light, radios, hot water and hot food, he rang an electrician, asking him to come round and say how serious the danger was.
    The post then arrived, bearing a letter from his bank manager, complaining about the abuse of the Marshalls’ overdraft ‘facility’ and demanding a ‘remittance’.
    While he was recovering from this blow, Lilian Hinchcliffe rang to say her little Fiat had a flat tyre. Would Graham be an angel and come round and fiddle with whatever needed fiddling with?
    No, he bloody wouldn’t. He curbed this response before he voiced it, but said unfortunately he couldn’t because he was waiting in for the electrician, Lilian would have to get in touch with a tyre place and get the thing mended herself (like ordinary bloody people did). But they charged so much, Lilian whined, surely it wasn’t a lot to ask for Graham to just come and have a little look at it. Very well, he’d see if he could get over later.
    Merrily, who had gone up after their cold breakfast to dress, came down in the ragged T-shirt and patched jeans she wore for painting. Since they weren’t ever going to