Inspector Morse 12 Death is Now My Neighbour

'You're not serious?'

'And you're never going to catch up with the twentieth century, are you?'

'One or two possible leads?'

'Could be.'

'Such as?'

'Well, for a start, the Personnel Manager who saw Owens on Monday. I'll get a statement from him as soon as he gets back from holiday - earlier, if you'd like.'

Morse looked dubious. *Ye-es. But if somebody intended to murder Owens, not Rachel James ... well, Owens' alibi is neither here nor there really, is it? You're right, though. Let's stick to official procedure. I've always been in favour of rules and regulations.'

As Lewis eyed his superior officer with scarce disguised incredulity, he accepted the manila file handed to him across the desk; and began to read.

Morse himself now opened the 'Life' section of The Observer and turned to the crossword set by Azed (for Morse, the Kasparov of cruciverbalists) and considered i across: 'Elephant-man has a mouth that's deformed (6)'. He immediately wrote in MAHOUT, but then put the crossword aside, trusting that the remaining clues might pose a more demanding challenge, and deciding to postpone his hebdomadal treat until later in the day. Otherwise, he might well have completed the puzzle before Lewis had finished with the file.

'How did you come by this?' asked Lewis finally.

Tours not to reason how.'

'He's a blackmailer!'

Morse nodded. 'We've found no evidential motive for Rachel's murder, but...'

'... dozens of 'em for his.'

'About nine, Lewis - if we're going to be accurate.'

Morse opened the file, and considered the contents once more. Unlike that of the obscenely fat child-fondler, neither photograph of the leggy blonde stripper was genuinely pornographic - certainly not the wholly nude one, which seemed to Morse strangely unerotic; perhaps the one of her in the white dress, though ... 'Unbuttoning' had always appealed to Morse more than 'unbuttoned'; 'undressing' than 'undressed'; 'almost naked' to completely so. It was something to do with Plato's idea of process; and as a young classical scholar Morse had spent so many hours with that philosopher.

'Quite a bit of leg-work there, sir.'

*Yes. Lovely legs, aren't they?'

'No! I meant there's a lot of work to do there -research, going around.'

'You'll need a bit of help, yes.'

'Sergeant Dixon - couple of his lads, too - that'd help.'

'Is Dixon still eating the canteen out of jam doughnuts?'

Lewis nodded. 'Andhe's still got his pet tortoise-'

'-always a step or two in front of him, I know.'

For half an hour the detectives discussed the file's explosive material. Until just after noon, in fact.

'Coffee, sir?'

'Not for me. Let's nip down to the King's Arms in Summertown.'

'Not for me,' echoed Lewis. 'I can't afford the time.'

'As you wish.' Morse got to his feet.

'Do you think you should be going out quite so much - on the booze, I mean, sir?' Lewis took a deep breath and prepared for an approaching gale, force ten. 'You're getting worse, not better.'

Morse sat down again.

'Let me just tell you something, Lewis. I care quite a bit about what you think of me as a boss, as a colleague, as a detective - as a friend, yes! But I don't give two bloody monkeys about what you think of me as a boozer, all right?'

'No, it's not all right,' said Lewis quietly. 'As a professional copper, as far as solving murders are concerned -'

'Is concerned!'

' - it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter to me at all.' (Lewis's voice grew sharper now.) 'You do your job - you spend all your time sorting things out - I'm not worried about that. And if the Chief Constable told me you weren't doing your job, I'd resign myself. But he wouldn't say that - never. What he'd say - what others would say -what others are saying - is that you're ruining yourself. Not the Force, not the department, not the murder enquiries - nothing! - except yourself.'

'Just hold on a second, will you?' Morse's eyes were blazing.

'No! No, I won't. You talked about me as a friend, didn't you, just now? Well, as a friend I'm telling you that you're buggering up your health, your retirement, your life - everything!'

'Listen!' hissed Morse. 'I've never myself tried to tell