Cooper was eyeing the slim black briefcase that Morrissey carried. He would have loved to get hold of all the files that he had glimpsed in there, and to immerse himself in the details of the story whose surface they had barely scratched during the meeting. The LIO’s briefing had been good, but it didn’t tell him anything about the
o o ‘ y o
human dimensions of the tragedy, which he could see were what drove Alison Morrissey.
As soon as the thought crossed his mind that Morrissey might let him read the Ales if he asked her, Cooper dismissed the notion as mere escapism. There was more than enough for him to do right now. Just because something interested him, it didn’t mean it was his job to look into it.
As Cooper held open the security door for the visitors to leave, Morrissey turned to look at him. Her gaze was direct and disconcerting. He felt as though she were seeing him fullv, reading everything about him from his face and his
./ ‘ O V O
manner, in a way that people rarely did. Cooper self-consciously straightened his shoulders and felt the beginnings of a flush rising in his neck.
‘And what did ^ou think?’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t ^ou want to know what happened?’
‘It’s not my job to take a view on the subject,’ said Cooper. ‘I just do what I’m told.’
She stared at him, with a small, sceptical smile. He hadn’t been sure before, but now he could see that her eyes were pale grey. Cooper felt uncomfortable, unable to move from his position until Morrissey and Baine had passed through the door.
69
But Baine was hanging back, watching them patiently. Morrissey held her ga/e for a moment longer.
‘That’s a shame,’ she said.
Cooper felt as though he had been summed up and found wanting. He watched Morrissey walk briskly across the reception area, looking like a smart business executive with her black suit and briefcase. Frank Baine stopped in the doorway.
‘Take my business card,’ he said. ‘In case I can help.’
Cooper took the card almost absent-mindedly. “I hanks.
Then Baine leaned towards him, nodding slvly towards the disappearing (igure.
‘And remember there’s no stopping a woman when her passion is roused,’ he said.
Eden Valley Books was in Nick i’ th’ Tor, one of the cobbled passages rvmning between Edendale market square and the Evre Street area. The bookshop was a high, narrow building that looked as though it had been jammed between two much wider ones as an afterthought, or a mere space-filler something to use up all the leftover oddments of stone when the builders had finished work on the Yorkshire Bank next door. But it was three storeys high, with books on the first two floors, and from the tiny windows set into the gabled roof, it looked as though there were attic rooms, too. Ben Cooper recalled there was even a cellar that ran under the street, full of more books.
There were bookshops in Edendale that were more modern, but Cooper had browsed in Eden Vallev Books many times, and he was hopeful he would find what he wanted here, even during the half-hour he could spare during his lunch break. The owner, Lawrence Daley, seemed to speciali/.e in gathering together obscure books on esoteric subjects.
The concept of a window display hadn’t reached Eden Valley Books yet. All Cooper could see through the streaked glass were the ends of some wooden bookshelves plastered with fliers advertising local events which had taken place several months ajjo. A concert by a folk group, a psychic evening at the community centre, an autumn fair in aid of the Cats Protection Eeague.
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The snow in Nick i’ th’ Tor was rapidly turning to slush, and water ran down the cobbles into the square. The front door of the bookshop was narrow, and it stuck in the frame when he tried to open it, so that he had to lean his weight against it before it gave way. It reminded him more of a defensive bastion than of an entrance especially when a warning bell jangled above his head, causing a nervous stirring somewhere inside the shop.
Immediately, Cooper was surrounded by books. They were crammed on to shelves right in the doorway, so that he couldn’t get past without brushing against them. Further in, the tiny rooms had been stuffed with books from floor to ceiling. They were piled on the floor and on the bare wooden stairs, and no doubt they filled the upper rooms as well. On a table, Cooper saw a set of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories and a 1935 almanac with board covers mottled with mould. There was an overwhelmingly musty smell of old paper paper that had soaked up the damp from many decades spent in unhcated stone houses on wet hillsides.
‘Hello?’ called Cooper.
Lawrence Daley wore a silk waistcoat with a fancy pattern that was none too clean, and his brown cordurov trousers had become baggv at the knees from hours of crouching to reach the lower shelves. On occasions, Cooper had seen Lawrence wearing a bow tie. But today he had an open-necked check shirt, with his sleeves rolled back over pale forearms. His hair was uncombed, and he looked dusty and sweaty, as if it were the height of summer outside with the temperature in the eighties, rather than creeping up from xero towards another snowfall.
Tve been trying to sort out the Natural History section,’ said Lawrence when he saw Cooper appear round the stacks. ‘Some of these books have been here since Granny’s day. They’re still priced in shillings, look. A customer brought one to me yesterdav and insisted on paying fifteen pence for it. I couldn’t argue, because that was what the price on the label converted at in new money.’
‘Are you throwing them out?’ asked Cooper, wrinkling his nose at the musty smell and the cloud of dust that hung in the air.
71
i
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‘Throwing them out? Arc you kidding? I can’t throw them out. They just need re- pricing.’
‘But if they’ve been here since your grandmother ran the I
, fi shop … |
‘I know. I know. They’re not exactly fast sellers. But if that I
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were all I was interested in, I’d stack the place to the ceiling with !|
1 O .Sj :
Harry Potters, like everyone else does. It’s Detective Constable | Cooper, isn’t it?’ J
‘Ben Cooper, yes. 1 wondered it you had any books on aircraft J wrecks. There are so many wrecks around this
