Lightman stared at the cursor blinking on the screen in front of him.
CHAPTER ONE
Another book. He and Gillian had agreed. Well, she'd agreed for him and had seemingly suffered a brief bout of deafness when he argued. Daft cow. His mouth twitched in what just might have been a hint of a smile as he lifted the mug sitting in front of him and gulped down some of the contents. Then he pulled a rather spectacular face. The coffee was stone cold and therefore completely disgusting. Hadn't he just poured it? He looked at the clock in the corner of his laptop screen. Three in the morning. Again. How often lately had he been perched on this stool, in this kitchen, at this hour, staring at this blank screen?
He sighed. Shook his head. Drummed his fingers. Still the cursor blinked. Still the whiteness of the page screamed at his retinas, a heavy sound that blocked all the workings of his brain and drained him to this zombie, staring at a screen. He shook his head a final time and walked to the sofa, flopping down on it to lie on his back. Away from the noise of the whiteness, he could start to admit to himself why this book was so difficult to write.
He had given them the science. His best work had been poured into the last book. Case after case had flooded through his doors since then but describing them wouldn't tell the public or the publishers anything new. C7. C9. Look around the eyes. Masking smile. Dilated pupils. Lip lick. Liar. Liar. Liar.
Readers of the previous book had become as zealous as amateur detectives after devouring novels, thinking themselves Sherlock Holmes or even Professor Moriarty, but those passions burned out quickly. It could be fun, he assumed, since they weren't actually staring into the horrified eyes of a mutilated corpse but simply trying to deduce what the boss ate for lunch. Faces, though. Faces were all around you. Once your eyes opened it was impossible to close them again. Once you started to pick up seeing a little here, a little there, it didn't stop. The friends who lied to you. The spouses who cheated on you. The children who couldn't hide their contempt from you. The boss who was mentally undressing you. You would see it all, but even that wasn't the worst of it.
The friends who were being lied to. The loved ones who were being cheated on. His gut twisted with anger and pain as he thought of Gillian. Of Alex. Almost as bad, though, was seeing those same friends trust you. Knowing the burden of their faith and the pressure not to let them down.
He stood up and walked back to the stool. Sat down and curled his hand around an ice cold cup of coffee. He stared at the screen.
Chapter One