Dream of Darkness by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2019-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

13

At first she thought Allan wasn’t in the park, then she saw him on a bench, half hidden by a newspaper. He didn’t seem to notice her approach but when she reached him he looked up without surprise and said, ‘Hello.’

‘Hello. Finished your lunch?’ she answered.

‘Wasn’t very hungry. The ducks did well,’ he said.

‘Let’s see if this can tempt your appetite.’

It did. She watched him eat and drink. Occasionally, their eyes met and he smiled. Finally he said, ‘You’re not eating much.’

‘No. I’m enjoying watching you.’

‘Is this the new voyeurism, then? All the kicks of eating with none of the cholesterol?’

‘Is that what a university education does to you?’

‘What?’

‘Make you a smart-ass.’

He grinned and said, ‘I’m ready for coffee now.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t bring any coffee.’

‘No coffee. Pity. It’s attention to details like that which turn a nice thought into a work of art. Fortunately …’

He reached into the briefcase which rested against the side of the bench and produced a flask. They had to share a cup. The coffee was strong, black and bitter. ‘Ugandan?’ she asked.

He gazed at her with an ironical twist of the mouth, and for the first time looked his age.

‘Instant,’ he said. Then he smiled properly and was a boy again, open, eager, exuberant – and very attractive. Sairey hadn’t considered this before. At their previous encounters he had been a mystery, a menace, a surprise; now, though those elements had not been entirely dispersed, he was also an acquaintance who might possibly become a friend who might …

He reached across her and his sleeve brushed her breast. Instantly, their relationship retreated two stages, but he was only claiming the plastic cup from her.

‘What happened to you when my father transferred to Kampala?’ she asked.

‘You remember I didn’t go with you? Ah, what an impression I made on that funny little girl!’ he laughed.

She smiled her agreement. It didn’t seem the moment to point out that the only recollection she had of him, or those times, was under the prompting of Vita’s hypnosis.

‘You won’t recall all the background, of course. Not even Nigel Ellis’s daughter could be as precocious as that. What happened was, Uncle Ocen got released from his first arrest. He wasn’t a big fish, you see. Even then, it must have cost my father a small fortune in bribes. Ocen headed south immediately, into Tanzania. Obote was there under Nyerere’s protection, training his fellow refugees for a counter-coup.

‘With Ocen out of the way, things settled down a bit for my parents. My father was a hard man to mess with. He’d been around a long time, was liked and respected by everyone. Also, he had been an officer in the KAR, which always impressed Amin. I think they even thought of bringing me home. But during ’72, Amin was getting closer and closer to Libya and further away from his early allies, Britain and Israel. He broke completely with Israel first, denouncing it in a joint communiqué with Gaddafi, then chucking all Israeli personnel out of Uganda.

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