Dalziel 14 Pictures of Perfection by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill [Hill, Reginald]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-08-15T13:12:33+00:00

CHAPTER II

‘I feel happy in having a friend to save me from the ill effect of such a blunder.'

Their rescue came almost as quickly as the attack, which was perhaps just as well for the future of civilization as Pascoe knew it, or at least that part represented by Squire Guillemard.

Dalziel had fallen sideways as if in obedience to the first clause of the paralogical command, but once out of sight of the person at the window he bounced up silently and murderously with the wood axe in his hand, clearly intent on severing the gun barrel from its stock, and as much of its owner's arms from his torso as he could manage.

After that Pascoe did not doubt but that the Fat Man would have run through the wooden wall of the shed to complete the amputative process.

As it was, a sharply upraised female voice crying, 'Grunk! What are you doing?' was followed by the immediate withdrawal of the gun and the almost simultaneous opening of the door.

Pascoe, recognizing the voice, was the first to step cautiously into the sunlight. A few feet away he saw Frances Harding with one restraining arm round Selwyn Guillemard's waist and the other forcing the shotgun barrel downwards.

The weapon jerked spasmodically as Dalziel emerged, and it took all the girl's strength to maintain it at a safe angle. On the whole, Pascoe found his sympathies with Selwyn here, for the sight of Dalziel furioso, or perhaps more precisely furiosant, for there was certainly more of the mad bull than the enraged hero in his looks, was enough to set a conchie reaching for his rifle.

'You!' he snarled, striding towards the old man. 'Put that gun on the ground else I'll chop it in half!'

'Steady on,' protested the Squire, it's a Purdey.'

'I don't care if it's Prince Philip's prick, put it down in one piece else I'll put it down in two.'

Perhaps feeling that one capable of such lese-majeste was not going to show much respect for the person of a mere country squire, the old man carefully laid the weapon on the grass.

Dalziel hurled the axe between Guillemard's feet with a force that buried the head several inches into the turf, scooped up the shotgun and broke it in a single movement.

It was unloaded.

'He wasn't going to fire it,' protested Fran Harding indignantly, then rather weakened her moral position by adding, 'We don't let him have any cartridges.'

Pascoe decided it was time for introductions.

'Sir,' he said. 'This is Mr Selwyn Guillemard, who owns Old Hall. And this is Miss Harding, his great-niece. Squire, this is Detective-Superintendent Dalziel of the Mid-Yorkshire CID.' The Squire, though giving the general impression of being shorter of marbles than the Parthenon, had no difficulty in taking this in.

'Oh Lord. Bobbies,' he said. 'Met you before, haven't I?'

'Yes, sir,' said Pascoe. 'I called earlier.'

'Yes. Thought you looked a bit familiar when I saw you breaking in, but after Aunt Edwina, my mind was very much on burglars. And that

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.