Dialogues of the Dead

The Dialogue had been found in its usual buff envelope, once more addressed Reference Library, tucked away behind a pile of books reserved for collection on the reception counter close by where the morning mail basket was placed. Whether it had fallen there by accident or been placed there by design was impossible to say as no one on the staff could assert with absolute certainty that it hadn't lain there unnoticed since Monday. Even worse, from Dalziel's point of view, was the fact that the young female librarian who'd found the envelope had excitedly shared her suspicion of its contents with her nearest colleagues and a couple of eavesdropping members of the public before calling the police. Keeping the Fourth Dialogue out of the public domain had been easy with only the Centre security firm who'd handed over the unopened envelope to threaten into silence. But with rumours of the Fifth already starting to circulate, sitting on the Fourth could rapidly turn into a public relations disaster, and Dalziel found himself ordered from above to get his revelation in first. So a statement was put out and a press conference promised for a later date. Pascoe, after digesting the new Dialogue, saw no reason to change his tack. 'This alters nothing,' he said. 'Except maybe now we know why Roote's been sitting there crying murder. Why pretend it's anything else when you know the Dialogue admitting all is on its way? Or maybe he thought we'd seen the Dialogue already and were trying to do a bluff on him by ignoring it, and that really got up his nose.' 'But, sir,' said Bowler, 'the Wordman describes seeing Roote go in with Drjohnson, then he had to wait till Roote came out.' 'Jesus,' said Pascoe in exasperation. 'If Roote wrote the