Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Reginald Hill
like the kind of job you’re good at,’ she said. ‘Except that what you’re not good at is not getting caught. So if you come to live with me, you come to work for me too, OK? No branching out on your own. I call the shots, OK?’
‘Is that a yes or no question, sis?’
‘It’s a yes or yes question, Vince. If you want to live with me, that is.’
‘Then yes.’
It had been a good decision. There’d been a couple of rebellious moments — like he’d said, a man’s got to have a bit of independence — but they’d all got sorted, and Fleur had one great argument to support that her way was the best way: for more than a dozen years now he’d stayed out of jail!
He put the photo back in his wallet and for want of anything better to do let his gaze focus on the open hymn book once more. Some of this stuff was dead easy, but a lot of it was like reading the instruction book for a computer.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine.
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws
Makes that and the action fine.
What the hell was that all about?
He sighed and shifted in the chair whose wickerwork seat felt as if it was stamping its imprint on his behind. The thought took him back to his first time inside. They’d made him strip and take a shower. One of the screws had said mockingly, ‘Nice arse, Delay. You’re going to enjoy yourself here.’
It had taken half a dozen of the bastards to drag him off the man and then they’d given him a good kicking. But he’d been limping round the yard a couple of days later, an object of respect, and the screw had still been in hospital.
Happy days.
But not the kind of happy days he ever wanted to enjoy again. He was going to stay out whatever it took. And if ever Fleur’s way looked like failing, then he’d just have to do things his own way.
09.15–09.30
Normally Andy Dalziel was to diplomacy what Alexander the Great was to knots, but this time he hesitated the cutting edge and essayed a bit of gentle plucking.
‘So you and Mick, this a long-standing engagement…?’
She laughed, a pleasant sound which the old cathedral absorbed with indifference though a few human heads turned in surprise.
‘What you mean is, how long have we been at it? Or even more bluntly, were we at it while Alex was still around? Very much not. Mick stayed in touch, we became good friends, we were close, I could tell he was interested romantically, so to speak, but it wasn’t till the end of last year that I finally acknowledged that Alex was gone for good. Mick’s told me since he was starting to think I’d never get Alex out of my system. It came as a real shock to him when I finally made the break.’
Hearing himself proposing marriage must have come as a bit of a shock to Mick, too, thought Dalziel. He recalled Purdy declaring one boozy night that the only woman worth marrying was a billionairess with huge tits, no family, and an hour to live.
Still, men often change their views on marriage. He certainly had.
He went on, ‘So you left Mick a message telling him to ring you. And then…?’
‘I called my solicitor. He wasn’t all that pleased, it being Saturday. That didn’t bother me. I’m paying the louse and no doubt he’ll charge me double time.’
‘Good lass,’ said Dalziel, who loved anybody who hated lawyers. ‘What did he say?’
‘He said he wished I hadn’t told him about the photo. Because now I had, he was bound to include knowledge of it in his plea for assumption of death.’
‘Covering himself in case it later came out that Alex was alive, right?’
‘Right. I asked him what I should do. He said that all I could do was make every reasonable effort to check out the possibility that my husband was alive and living in Mid-Yorkshire. He said that on receipt of my written assurance that such an effort had been made, he would go ahead with the application.’
‘Lawyers,’ said Dalziel, ‘I’ve shit ’em. So what did you do
‘Is that a yes or no question, sis?’
‘It’s a yes or yes question, Vince. If you want to live with me, that is.’
‘Then yes.’
It had been a good decision. There’d been a couple of rebellious moments — like he’d said, a man’s got to have a bit of independence — but they’d all got sorted, and Fleur had one great argument to support that her way was the best way: for more than a dozen years now he’d stayed out of jail!
He put the photo back in his wallet and for want of anything better to do let his gaze focus on the open hymn book once more. Some of this stuff was dead easy, but a lot of it was like reading the instruction book for a computer.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine.
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws
Makes that and the action fine.
What the hell was that all about?
He sighed and shifted in the chair whose wickerwork seat felt as if it was stamping its imprint on his behind. The thought took him back to his first time inside. They’d made him strip and take a shower. One of the screws had said mockingly, ‘Nice arse, Delay. You’re going to enjoy yourself here.’
It had taken half a dozen of the bastards to drag him off the man and then they’d given him a good kicking. But he’d been limping round the yard a couple of days later, an object of respect, and the screw had still been in hospital.
Happy days.
But not the kind of happy days he ever wanted to enjoy again. He was going to stay out whatever it took. And if ever Fleur’s way looked like failing, then he’d just have to do things his own way.
09.15–09.30
Normally Andy Dalziel was to diplomacy what Alexander the Great was to knots, but this time he hesitated the cutting edge and essayed a bit of gentle plucking.
‘So you and Mick, this a long-standing engagement…?’
She laughed, a pleasant sound which the old cathedral absorbed with indifference though a few human heads turned in surprise.
‘What you mean is, how long have we been at it? Or even more bluntly, were we at it while Alex was still around? Very much not. Mick stayed in touch, we became good friends, we were close, I could tell he was interested romantically, so to speak, but it wasn’t till the end of last year that I finally acknowledged that Alex was gone for good. Mick’s told me since he was starting to think I’d never get Alex out of my system. It came as a real shock to him when I finally made the break.’
Hearing himself proposing marriage must have come as a bit of a shock to Mick, too, thought Dalziel. He recalled Purdy declaring one boozy night that the only woman worth marrying was a billionairess with huge tits, no family, and an hour to live.
Still, men often change their views on marriage. He certainly had.
He went on, ‘So you left Mick a message telling him to ring you. And then…?’
‘I called my solicitor. He wasn’t all that pleased, it being Saturday. That didn’t bother me. I’m paying the louse and no doubt he’ll charge me double time.’
‘Good lass,’ said Dalziel, who loved anybody who hated lawyers. ‘What did he say?’
‘He said he wished I hadn’t told him about the photo. Because now I had, he was bound to include knowledge of it in his plea for assumption of death.’
‘Covering himself in case it later came out that Alex was alive, right?’
‘Right. I asked him what I should do. He said that all I could do was make every reasonable effort to check out the possibility that my husband was alive and living in Mid-Yorkshire. He said that on receipt of my written assurance that such an effort had been made, he would go ahead with the application.’
‘Lawyers,’ said Dalziel, ‘I’ve shit ’em. So what did you do