A Tapping at My Door by David Jackson

Author:David Jackson [Jackson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2016-04-06T23:00:00+00:00

28

The traditional frontage of the Beehive somehow looks uncomfortable amidst the big shiny glass and concrete buildings on Paradise Street. It is as though it is refusing to bow to the pressure from the surrounding younger upstarts to accept the inevitable march of progress and to yield the prime position to which it has clung for so long.

Inside, the rows of dusty books lining its walls lend further emphasis to its links with the past – to a time when people actually bothered to read rather than watch television or surf the Web. Cody likes the atmosphere of the place. It’s simple and it’s unpretentious.

He pushes past a knot of men at the bar. Smiles when he hears one of them say to his mates that Liverpool’s latest signing isn’t worth twenty pence, let alone twenty million quid.

Seated alone at a small table, Dobson looks up from his paper and returns Cody’s smile.

‘Good timing. I’m stuck on this last clue. Four down: “One takes flight in a vehicle”.’

Cody thinks for a second. ‘Avian. But something tells me you knew that already.’

Dobson writes it in, but admits nothing. ‘Fancy a pint?’

Cody pulls out a chair and plonks himself down. ‘No, thanks. I’m on duty.’

‘Sure, sure. But then you wouldn’t have one anyway, would you? I’ve heard you don’t drink anymore.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘A little bird.’

Cody frowns. ‘How many more of those are you going to work into the conversation? Next you’ll be saying that you were spitting feathers before that pint, and then you’ll ask me why the police are in a bit of a flap. Or that maybe we’re running around like headless chickens.’

Dobson laughs, but it’s a slimy laugh that threatens to curdle the froth on his beer. ‘Very good, Cody. You’re better at the puns than I am. You’d make a great headline writer for one of the tabloids.’

‘If you’re going to insult me . . .’

‘It was a compliment. Some of those headlines are bloody hard to come up with, you know. Take these murders, for example.’

Cody feels his defences springing up in readiness. It hadn’t taken Dobson long to get to this.

‘What about them?’

‘Well, I’m struggling to come up with a good way of grabbing attention, for when I write my next piece. Obviously the focus will be on the three poor police officers, but now we’ve got this sinister new twist, haven’t we? I’m thinking of including something along the lines of “Birds of Prey”. What do you think? I think it puts across the idea quite nicely. Or maybe something about an air strike . . . Yeah, that would be good. And of course I need to work in some references to the film.’

‘What film?’

‘The Hitchcock movie. The Birds. I mean, this could be something straight out of a film like that, don’t you think? Birds attacking and killing policemen and women. It’s so weird it’s almost unbelievable. But then the best stories always are. My editor’s going to pee his pants when he hears this.’

Cody picks up a beer mat.

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