convictions for soliciting. But the big news is from Tregellis. He rang just before five to say that Melissa is on her way, with her boyfriend. They arrive in Manchester at nine a.m. tomorrow, and can you arrange for someone to meet them?'
'Brilliant,' I said. 'It's all coming together.' I looked at my watch. 'I ought to ring Tregellis,' I said, 'tell him about today.'
'He said to tell you not to bother,' Dave replied. 'He's out tonight; it'll do in the morning.'
'Good.'
Dave took a long sip, held the glass to the light and turned it in his fingers. A blackbird landed on the fence, looked affronted by our presence in his garden and took off again. High above us a jumbo jet filled with holiday makers did a course-correction, leaving a bent trail across the sky. The sun glinted under its wing as it levelled out.
'There is one other thing,' Dave said.
'What's that?' I asked.
He shuffled and crossed his ankles. 'You remember Peter Mark Handley?'
'The games master who touched up little girls?'
'He did more than touch them up, but not any more. He's dead. Monday night he jumped off Scammonden bridge.'
'Oh God,' I said.
'He didn't leave a note or anything. He should have appeared before the magistrates that morning, but he didn't. They issued a warrant. He wasn't identified until this afternoon.'
'We drove him to that,' I said. 'Or I did. And I caused Fox's death, too. I put pressure on him and Kingston. Kingston probably killed him to silence him, thanks to me. Judge, jury and executioner, all in one.
Sometimes I hate this job, Dave. When we're old, do you think we'll be able to sleep at nights?'
'You're talking soft,' he replied. 'Handley was a pervert and Fox a monster. We'll never know how evil he was. They were both all right when they were picking the fruits, but when it came to paying the bill they didn't like it. We're the law, Charlie. We just catch them. If they can't hack it, it's their fault. What is it they say? 'If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.' ''If you deserve it, serve it.' Handley's wife didn't deserve it. She seemed a pleasant enough person, and loyal to him. Now she's a widow.'
'And how many little girls will never trust a man again? How many of them has he left damaged? Don't waste your regrets on either of them, Charlie, save them for more deserving causes. God knows, there's plenty.'
I fetched two more beers and left another LA with Daniel. He was playing Battle Chess against the computer. The sun had fallen behind next door's roof but it was still a warm evening. A flock of swallows were diving and swirling like tea leaves used to, before they invented tea bags I topped up both our glasses from one can. The first vapour trail had been dispersed by the Jetstream, but another plane was following the same course, pumping millions of cubic feet of burnt hydrocarbons into the ozone layer. Seven miles above us two or three hundred rat- tempered passengers were wrestling with seat backs and folding tables, or standing in embarrassed queues for the toilets.
Bring back airships, that's my opinion.
Dave took a sip, sighed, and balanced his glass on the uneven top of the wall round my little rockery. He sat on his hands and kicked his feet up and down. 'You remember when we were going to Bridlington?' he said, when he was good and ready.
'Mmm.'
'Remember what we were talking about.'
'Percy Shaw?'
'After that.'
'Rhubarb crumble?'
'You don't make it easy for me, do you?'
'I'm sorry, Dave,' I said, 'but I haven't a clue what you're on about.'
'Nigel asked why I hadn't made sergeant.'
'Oh, that.'
'Yes, that. Have you ever wondered why?'
'Once or twice, but not lately. You could have walked it if you' dwanted. With a bit of effort you could have made inspector, and you'd have been a good one. I just assumed that you were happy as a DC and didn't want to spoil things. You had a family to consider. There's plenty of others feel the same way.'
'I am happy, but there's more to it than that.'
'Is there?' I wasn't going to ask. He'd tell me, if that was what he was leading to.
'I had a revelation.'
'A revelation? You found God?'
'No, I found my limitations. That day, at the fire.'
'Leopold Avenue?'
'That's right. When I saw her at the window, little Jasmine Turnbull, I knew I had no chance of saving her. But the alternative was worse.
Just standing there, watching, until the fire or the smoke got her. I could never have lived with myself if I hadn't tried. Halfway up that first staircase I was in trouble. I was going to grab one more breath and press on, but you tackled me and dragged me out. I'd never have made it; I knew that. For a while, I wondered if you did what you did because you hadn't the bottle to go after her. But not for long. I soon realised that if it had been the other way round, if I'd been the sergeant and you the PC, there'd have been ten deaths in that fire, not eight. And we'd have missed all this.' He waved a hand at the garden.
'So,' he concluded, 'I suppose you could say I'm not cut out for authority.'
'Now you're talking soft,' I said. 'How many times has a situation like that risen since then? None.'
'But it might, tomorrow.'
'And you'd do what was necessary.'
'Well, it's too late now.'
I shared the fourth can between us. 'There's more in the fridge…' I hinted.
'Better not. What's the limit for riding a bike while in charge of a minor?'
'No idea. Cheers.'
'Cheers.'
It was good beer. The froth clung to the side of the glass, all the way down. That's how you tell a good pint. It's nothing to do with the taste. The widget was the greatest scientific breakthrough since Archimedes invented the overflow.
'I saw the pictures,' I said.
Dave licked the froth off his top lip and said: 'What pictures?'
'The ones in Kingston's loo, that you didn't want me to see.'
'Oh, those pictures.'
'That's right. By Mrs. Holmes. She knew him better than she pretended, don't you think?'
'You can't say that. They might have been a Christmas present or anything. Maybe Melissa bought them off her and gave them to him.
There's a thousand possible explanations.'
'I suppose so,' I admitted, but I knew different. It had all started at that party to watch the Apollo 13 mission on television. Kingston had been awful to Melissa, Janet had told us, and chased another girl.
She'd been that other girl, as sure as Satan made female Morris dancers. Why should Melissa have all the fun? she'd thought, and Melissa had reacted by taking a tilt at Mo, which was what Kingston had intended all along. I'd been to a few parties like that myself. Then it was back to the bed sit and the Leonard Cohen records.
'It was a long time ago,' Dave said. 'She was young. We all make mistakes.'
Daniel came out of the open doorway, saying: 'I've logged off, Uncle Charlie. Thanks for letting me play on it. We ought to be off, Dad, before it gets dark.'
'Kids,' Dave muttered to me, standing up. 'Who'd have 'em?'
I watched them pedal away in an impromptu race, and thought: I would.
