'More than you, I shouldn't wonder.'
'Beautiful little fellow, isn't he?'
'She!'
'Pardon?'
'Immature female of the species.'
'What species?'
'Passer domesticus. Morse. Can't you recognize a bloody house-sparrow when
you see one?'
For the fourteenth time Morse found himself re-appraising the quirkily
contradictory character that was Chief Superintendent Strange.
'And you'll at least think about things? You can promise me that, surely?'
Morse nodded weakly.
And Strange smiled comfortably.
'I'm glad about that. And you'll be pleased about one thing. You'll have
Sergeant Lewis along with you. I ... did have a word with him, just before I
came here, and he's ' ' You mean you've already . . '
Strange flicked a stubby finger against his empty, expensive, cut-glass
tumbler: 'A little celebration, perhaps?'
^
chapter four He and the sombre, silent Spirit met They knew each other
both for good and ill; Such was their power, that neither could forget His
former friend and future foe; but still There was a high, immortal, proud
regret In it her eye, as if 'twere less their will Than destiny to make the
eternal years Their date of war, and their
'Champ Clos' the spheres (Byron, The Vision of Judgment, XXXII) it is
possible for persons to be friendly towards each other without being friends.
It is also possible for persons to be friends without being friendly towards
each other. The relationship between Morse and Strange had always been in
the latter category.
'Read through this as well!' Strange's tone was semi- peremptory as he
thrust a folded sheet of ruled A4 across at Morse, in the process knocking
his glass on to the parquet flooring. Where it broke into many pieces.
'Ah! Sorry about that!'
Morse rose reluctantly to fetch brush and pan from the kitchen.
'Could have been worse, though,' continued Strange. 'Could have been full,
eh?'
As Morse carefully swept up the slivers of the cut-glass tumbler originally
one of a set of six (now three) which his
mother had left him he experienced an irrational anger and hatred wholly
disproportionate to the small accident which had occurred. But he counted up
to twenty; and was gradually feeling better, even as Strange extolled the
bargain he'd seen in the Covered Market recently: glasses for only 50p apiece.
'Better not have any more Scotch, I suppose.'
'Not if you're driving, sir.'
'Which I'm bloody not. I'm being driven. And if I may say so, it's a bit
rich expecting me to take lessons in drink-driving from you! But you're
right, we've had enough.'
A further count, though this time only to ten, prolonged Morse's invariably
slow reading of the two handwritten para- graphs, and he said nothing as he
finally put the sheet aside.
It was Strange who spoke: 'Perhaps, you know, on second thoughts, we might,
er . . . anither wee dram?'
'Not for me, sir.'
'That was meant to be the ' royal we'. Morse.'
Morse decided that a U-turn was merely a rational readjustment of a
previously mistaken course, and he obliged accordingly - for both of them,
with Strange's measure poured into one of the cheap-looking wine glasses he'd
bought a few weeks earlier from the Covered Market, for only 50p apiece.
'Is this' (Morse pointed to the paper) 'what our dutiful duty sergeant
transcribed from the phone calls?'
'Well, not quite, no.' (Strange seemed curiously hesitant. ) 'That's what 7
wrote down, as far as I - we could fix the exact words. Very difficult
business when you get things second- hand, garbled--' Morse interrupted.
'No problem, surely? We do record every- thing that comes into HQ.'
'Not so easy as that. Some of these recordings are poor-quality reception;
and when, you know, when somebody's speaking quietly, muffled sort of voice .
. .'
Morse smiled thinly as he looked directly across at his 21
superior officer.
'What you're telling me is that the recording equipment packed up, and
there's no trace.'
'Anything mechanical packs up occasionally.'
'Both occasions?'
'Both occasions.'
'So all you've got to rely on is the duty-sergeant.'
'Right.'
'Atkinson, was that?'
'Er, yes.'
'Isn't he the one who's been taken off active duties?'
'Er, yes.'
'Because he's become half-deaf, I
