All the Colors of Darkness

Milan for the weekend.”

“Why should you cancel? Go ahead. Enjoy yourselves. I’m sure I’ll get another chance to meet them. Offer my apologies.”

A L L T H E C O L O R S O F D A R K N E S S

3 9

“A fat lot of good they’ll do. Oh, shit, Alan! I was really looking forward to this.”

“Me, too,” said Banks. “I’m sorry.”

There was a short pause, then Sophia’s voice came back on again.

“What is it, anyway? What’s so important?”

“Nobody’s sure yet,” said Banks, “but there are two people dead.”

“Serious, then?”

“Could be.”

“Damn and blast your job!”

“I know how you feel. There’s nothing I can do about it, though.

These things happen sometimes. I’m sure I warned you.”

“Couldn’t you have said no?”

“I tried.”

“Not very hard, obviously. Who called you?”

“Annie.”

There was another pause. “Surely there are other people who can deal with it? What about her? I mean, as brilliant as you are, you’re not Yorkshire’s only competent detective, are you? Isn’t she any good?”

“Of course she is, but it doesn’t work like that. We’re supposed to be a team. And we’re short-staffed. Annie’s doing the best she can.”

“You don’t need to defend her to me.”

“I’m just explaining the situation.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“No idea. You can still come up next weekend as planned, though, right?”

“And risk spending it by myself? I don’t know about that.”

“You know plenty of people up here. There’s Harriet, for a start.

Won’t your parents be up, too? Aren’t we supposed to be having Sunday lunch with them? Besides, we’ve got a date for the theater.”

“A weekend with my parents and Aunt Harriet isn’t quite what I had in mind. Nor is a visit to the theater by myself.”

“I’m sure I’ll be around. Sophia, this isn’t my fault. Do you think I wouldn’t rather be with you right now than on my way to work?”

She paused again, then replied rather sulkily, “I suppose so.”

“You’ll go ahead with the dinner?”

4 0 P E T E R

R O B I N S O N

“I don’t have a lot of choice, do I? But I’ll miss you. It won’t be the same.”

“I’ll miss you, too. Call me later?”

“If I’ve got time. I’d better get moving. I’ve got a lot to do, especially now I have to do it all by myself.”

“Soph—”

But she had already ended the call. Banks cursed. No matter what she had said, she did blame him. A terrible sense of familiarity swept over him, all the rows with his ex-wife Sandra before she gave up on him. He knew he had warned Sophia that things like this might happen, that his job might disrupt other plans, but how seriously do people take warnings like that when everything is going blissfully well? Perhaps it was for the best that Sophia had found out about the demands of his job sooner rather than later.

He turned Bowie up again. He was singing “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” Banks hoped it wasn’t prophetic.

3

THERE WERE TEA AND CUSTARD CREAMS IN THE BOARDroom of Western Area Headquarters just after five o’clock that Saturday afternoon, and the biscuits only served to remind Banks that he had missed lunch, a meal he should by all rights have enjoyed with Sophia at the Yorkshire Grey in London. Well, he supposed, tea and biscuits were better than nothing.

Four of them sat around the end of the long oval table nearest the whiteboard, pens and pads in front of them: Banks, Annie, Stefan Nowak and Superintendent Gervaise. The others had already brought Banks up to speed on the major events that had occurred in Hindswell Woods and on Castleview Heights. Annie and her team had been busy all day while Banks had been on the road, and the whiteboard was scrawled with names, circles and connecting lines.

“It seems to me,” said Banks, “that the first thing we need to do now is get the forensic results on the blood.”