he can possibly die until all the jobs are finished.’
‘It didn’t work with Uncle Gerald he died before he could even get round to knocking any walls down.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Aunt Dorothy wasn’t. She was over the moon to be rid of him. She had the house next door split into two flats. She had a proper job done of it. I think, she wanted the workmen to pound the memories of Uncle Gerald into dust with their sledgehammers and cover him over with a nice layer of plaster and some magnolia wallpaper.’
‘And one of the Hats is empty, is it?’
‘It was, when she asked me to put the card up,’ said Lawrence. ‘It might have gone by now, she hasn’t said. I’ve told her to make sure she lets it to the right sort of person. Reliable and trustworthy professional people only, you know. I do worry sometimes about who she might take in, if she’s left entirely to her own devices.’
‘I think I’d be interested, if it’s still vacant,’ said Cooper.
‘It might not be up to your standards, you know. Aunt Dorothy is getting a hit vague in her old age. Not quite barmv or
j O O O O i J
anything, you understand. But vague about life’s little details.’
J O J O
Cooper looked at the card again. ‘Reliable and trustworthy? Do you think I would qualify, Lawrence?’
‘No, but you could lie.’ The bookseller laughed. He reached out a hand anil patted the corduroy collar of Cooper’s waxed coat. ‘I love the cold weather gear, by the way,’ he said. ‘Policemen usually dress so boringly, don’t they? But the cap really suits you. It shows off your eyes.’
Cooper edged away a few inches. “I might give the flat a try,’ he said. ‘Mrs Shelley, 6 Welbeck Street? I’ll mention that you recommended me, shall I?’
74
Lawrence chuckled. ‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘vou’d he hotter off lying.’
On the way out, Cooper noticed a morocco-hound volume of .1 Talc of Tiro Cities, which lav in the dust on the top of a set of shelves. It looked almost as if Mr Dickens himself had wandered into the shop one dav and put the hook down on the shell, where it had staved ever since.
Outside, in High Street, Cooper watched a Hulley’s hus splash slo Iv hv like a dark hlue ship. It threw a how wave of slush to either side, which threatened to sweep awav the pedestrians walking on the pavement.
As he walked back past the Clappergate shopping precinct towards West Street, Cooper patted his pockets thoughtfully. In the huge poacher’s pocket inside his coat were the hooks on Peak District aircraft wrecks, including the crash of Lancaster SU-V, which had brought Alison Morrissey to Hdendale. In another pocket he had the estate agent’s leaflets for unsuitable
I O
properties. Cooper knew he didn’t really want to live on his own. He was moving out of Bridge End Farm because he felt so strongly it was time for a change in his life — and that was all. Lie wondered whether Alison Morrissev lived on her own. Frobablv not. And she was nothing to do with him, anvwav. She was in Ldendale only as a passing visitor. Soon, she would be fixing back to Canada, to an entirely different world, and he would never see her again after today. But perhaps he could hope that there was a person a bit like Alison Morrissey. waiting for him somewhere.
75
JJiane Fry was waiting for Ben Cooper when he arrived back at divisional headquarters in West Street. She glared at him as he came into the CID room.
‘You didn’t answer your phone,’ she said.
‘I was in the middle of something,’ protested Cooper. ‘I was going to call you back. How’s the double assault case shaping up?’
‘Oh, you can forget about that for now.’
‘Forget it? There were a couple of serious assaults, wounding with intent, possession of offensive weapons. Not to mention being potentially racially motivated.’
‘Yeah, yeah, and somebody probably dropped some litter on the pavement as well when you weren’t looking. Forget it.’
‘But, Diane —’
‘Add it to your pending file, Ben. We’ve got more important things to do.’
‘What’s so important? Have we got another body or something?’
‘What’s so important,’ said Fry, ‘is that we’ve got a meeting on the Snowman case. It just became a murder enquiry.’
Without really thinking about it, Ben Cooper had expected E Division’s new Detective Chief Inspector to be female. If not, then a member of an ethnic minority. Or at least gay. It was almost inconceivable that a senior appointment had been made without an attempt to address the balance of gender, ethnicity or sexual persuasion.
But. no matter how carefully Cooper studied DC I Oliver Kessen, he still seemed to be a middle-aged white man with receding hair and bad teeth, an ill-fitting suit and a paunch. Seated next to their old DCI, Stewart Tailby, Kessen was the centre of attention for the entire room. It was the first time
76
anybody there had set eyes on him, though he had only come from D Division, which wasn’t exactly Australia.
‘Good afternoon, everybody,’ said Kessen. ‘Glad to meet you all. Is everything under control?’ Several people opened their mouths to reply, hut didn’t manage to get a word out when they saw the expression on DCI Tailbv’s lace. He looked like a headmaster who had warned his pupils not to talk to strangers.
‘Yes, I’m sure it is,’ said Tailby.
‘Well, I’ve just arrived and I’ve got to settle in here, so I rely on you people to bring me up to date. But 1 dare say everything is going smoothly. I can see Mr Tailbv has been
/ o c* o ^ ^
