Recalled To Life by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill [Hill, Reginald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 1992-08-15T07:00:00+00:00

In the event Dalziel probably spent almost as much time in the room as he would have done in the queue, but at least he was sitting comfortably drinking from the glass one of Thatcher’s men brought him. Finally the black man himself appeared, carrying another glass and a big bag of something called pretzels.

‘Any luck?’ said Dalziel.

Thatcher shrugged and said, ‘These things take time. You said something about some Scotch?’

They sat and talked in an apparently desultory fashion, but Dalziel soon realized he was being interrogated by an expert. He didn’t mind. It made a change being on the receiving end. His first instinct was to throw up a smoke-screen but after a while he found himself telling quite a lot of the truth.

‘So Kohler’s back home, but you think she really was guilty and they’re going to do a shit job on your old boss, right?’

‘That’s how it looks to me.’

‘So what’s your game plan, Andy?’

‘To catch up with Kohler and have a little chat. Also to talk with the rest of the American connection, see what I can squeeze out of them. Oh aye, there’s plenty for me to do.’

He spoke confidently. Thatcher grinned, sipped his Scotch and said, ‘That’s what Stephanie Keane sounded like, I guess.’

‘You what?’

‘Talking laid back to reassure herself. Andy, to coin a phrase, this is a big country. How the hell are you going to find Kohler for a start? And what’s the rest of this American connection you mentioned?’

‘Well, there’s Marilou Stamper, she’s a Yank. Got a divorce, so likely she’s living here somewhere. And there’s Rampling, he was at the US Embassy back then, and now he’s something important, at least I’ve seen his name in our papers so I shouldn’t have any problem tracing him …’

He was whistling in the dark, but it didn’t bother him. He’d been in the dark before and if you whistled loud enough, something usually came snuffling along to see what all the noise was.

Thatcher said, ‘Rampling? You don’t mean Scott Rampling?’

‘Aye, yon’s the bugger. Stocky blond lad, could have been another young Kennedy, leastways that’s how he looked twenty-seven years ago.’

‘That’s not how he looks now. You’re right, you’ll have no problem tracing him, but I doubt you’ll find it easy to see him. In fact I’m not sure it would even be wise to try.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘The reason you’ve read about him is he’s in line to be Deputy Director of the CIA, which is an appointment that needs clearance from the Senate. He knows where all the bodies are buried, which means he’s got a lot of friends, or, put it another way, he’s got a lot of smiling enemies who wouldn’t be sorry to see something nice and dirty dug up in his background. It wouldn’t take much – politically we’re a neurotic society – so even if Scott Rampling’s pure as the driven snow, he might not take kindly to an unofficial English cop linking him with an ancient murder case.

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.