Arms and the Women by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill [Hill, Reginald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Police Procedural
ISBN: 9780440225942
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1999-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

ii

drudgery divine

Philosophy rarely survived Andy Dalziel’s presence for long without cheerfulness breaking in or wind breaking out.

This morning, however, when on a summons which lacked much of its customary force, being audible no more than half a furlong, Pascoe and Wield attended their prince’s matutinal levee, they found him apparently as subdued in spirit as he was in voice, chins on his chest, eyes hooded, and in a curiously contemplative frame of mind.

‘Kelly Cornelius,’ he said in an incantatory tone, like a Buddhist priest, or in profile Buddha himself, proclaiming the morning’s mantra.

Pascoe, fresh from seeing Ellie and Rosie off to Axness under the, to him, reassuring tutelage of Shirley Novello, flashed a grin at Wield, and echoed with a mocking sonority, ‘Kelly Cornelius.’

‘That’s right,’ said the Fat Man, nodding slowly as if the DCI had made some profound observation. ‘It’s all in the way you look at things. Seeing what’s really there.’

‘A man that looks on glass,’ said Pascoe, ‘on it may stay his eye, or if he pleaseth, through it pass, and then the heav’n espie.’

The eyes unhooded and moved round to rest on him, balefully.

‘You going religious, or wha’?’

‘Just trying to demonstrate how, as so often, you are in accord with other fine minds of the past.’

‘Well, don’t bother. And that’s not what I meant anyway. Not see through summat, but see what it really is even though it doesn’t change.’

‘Hope till hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates?’

The eyes closed again and the Fat Man sighed deeply.

‘Can you cover its cage, Wieldy?’

‘What you mean is, know what ought to be there and look till you see it?’ said Wield.

‘No. Not that either. That’s just the same as seeing what you want to see, and that’s the road to all kinds of trouble. Like marriage, for instance. No, I mean, knowing what has to be there, and going on as if you can see it even though you can’t.’

‘Like walking across an invisible bridge?’ suggested Wield.

Dalziel considered this then his eyelids flicked up like the headlight covers on a sports car and the great face lit up.

‘That’s more like it. Aye. Though mebbe not completely invisible, mebbe what you can see is like a thread of cotton, and you’ve got to say to yourself, it’s a bridge, and step out on it.’

‘And if you’re wrong?’ said Pascoe.

‘You’re in the clag but at least that’s a soft landing,’ said Dalziel. ‘Now what I see here is, Kelly Cornelius has got summat to do with what’s been going off with your missus.’

‘Well, maybe,’ said Pascoe, surprised. ‘As you know, I always had it down as a possibility, though I seem to recollect you weren’t all that convinced…’

‘You’re missing the point, lad. You’re seeing what’s there, or at best what you’d like to be there; that someone’s trying to frighten you into letting Cornelius out onbail. But no one ever tried to suggest you should do this, did they?’

‘No, but she’s out, isn’t she?’

‘Aye, because of me, not you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.