After London by Lloyd Shepherd

Author:Lloyd Shepherd [Shepherd, Lloyd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781739552718
Published: 2023-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

They were in Skegness, he and Laura, and though it was only 9pm every restaurant in the town was closed. Laura had laughed and laughed. They found a fish-and-chip shop that was about to close and persuaded the old Chinese man who owned it to fry them up a couple of pieces of fish and some chips. They ate on a bench by the sea in the deepening gloom. Seagulls squawked and below them on the beach they could hear young people talking and giggling, as if nothing had changed at all.

‘Penny for them, Detective.’

An American voice, firm and assertive, pulled him back into himself.

‘Sorry. Miles away.’

Ellie shook her head slowly.

‘I’ve seen that face before,’ she said. ‘It’s like you’re all playing a movie in your head.’

This disturbed him, because that was exactly what it was like.

There were still Chinese signs on the walls of this little restaurant, but the owner was Welsh and the menu was… well, what was it? Seventies British? Sausages and pies and beans and oven chips. They had ordered something, and the owner had gone away to cook it. Or microwave it. Probably the latter.

‘You sure know how to treat a lady,’ said Ellie, looking around.

‘Options are somewhat limited these days,’ Ted said, remembering the House of Constantine, the stench of corruption, the deliciousness of the food.

‘For real,’ she said. ‘I’m dreaming of New York.’

And I’m dreaming of London. He didn’t say anything

‘Can I ask you something professionally?’ she said. ‘Off the record.’

He pointed to the notebook, which she had put, pointedly, on the table. She’d been scribbling shorthand notes in it since they arrived.

‘What’s the phrase?’ he said. ‘Deep background?’

‘Yep!’ she said. ‘Deep, deep, Marianas Trench background. Who are you, as a detective, accountable to anymore?’

He sipped his drink. Another Diet Coke. Ellie had ordered the same but he’d sensed that, if the company had been different, she’d have ordered something else.

‘Ultimately?’ he said. ‘The King. But that’s always been the case. Well, it was the Queen, but now….’

‘And what about Parliament?’

‘What about it?’

‘So I get that the King has executive power, now - like our President. Except he’s not elected.’

‘No. He’s a King.’

‘And he’s advised by his Privy Council.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Who he appoints.’

‘Yep.’

‘So what’s the role of Parliament?’

‘Same as it’s always been. The legislature.’

‘Like our House and Senate?’

‘That’s it. It meets in Birmingham.’

‘Yeah, I’ve seen the new building. It went up fast.’

‘Within the year. Thanks to your President and his funding programme.’

‘It’s kind of an achievement, that building,’ she said. ‘How they managed to copy something beautiful and make it so ugly.’

‘Well, context matters, I suppose.’

‘Yeah. No rivers in Birmingham.’

‘Only canals.’

‘And you kept the royals,’ she said. ‘A fact which we Americans find bizarre.’

‘Well, that’s what you don’t understand. Continuity was the thing. Change as little as you can. It’s what people wanted.’

‘But, come on - you can’t have something like a king in a democracy.’

‘Well, what is a democracy? You have two Senators in each State, right? Regardless of the population of said state.

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