Dialogues of the Dead

2JJ 'Pozzo said something about this guy and religion, didn't he? Not a religious maniac in the obvious sense, in fact probably totally a-religious on the surface. That's always the way with these trick-cyclists, isn't it? They give with one hand while they're taking away with the other, and in the end you're left with fuck all.' 'Better a handful of fuck all than a handful of crap, which is all I'm looking at so far,' growled Dalziel holding up a great paw as if in illustration. The too,' said Urquhart, staring hard at him. 'Like I said, lots of religious language, both in tone and direct reference, but you've probably noticed that yourself, Mr Pascoe.' Nice stress there, implying that I'm the police force's token literate, thought Pascoe. 'Yes, I did notice a few,' he said. 'But one thing keeps on coming up. First Dialogue: "the force behind the light, the force which burns away all fear ..." Third: "be the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid ..." Fourth: "in the light of that aura, I had no one to fear ..." Fifth: "my light and salvation which is why I don't have to fear any sod." I checked these out. And what I got was Psalm 27.' He produced a Bible and read, 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; inborn shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?' then looked around triumphantly, as if the silence which followed were tumultuous applause. 'Interesting,' said Pascoe hurriedly. 'May I see?' He took the book from Urquhart and read the beginning of the psalm. Dalziel said, 'And?' 'And me no ands, Andy,' said Urquhart. 'Except maybe I did wonder, looking at yon illustration in the First Dialogue, could that object in the bowl of the P be a book, maybe the Bible itself, or a missal in which you'd find the psalms?' Pascoe put the Bible down and looked at the illuminated letter. 'You could be right,' he said. 'It could be the spine of book. But what about the design on it? Any thoughts on that?' 'Maybe it's meant to be the specific codex that contains the illuminated In Principio this is based on?' suggested Urquhart. 'But you'd need a specialist to help you there.' Dalziel, who'd picked up the Bible to thumb through it, recited sonorously, '"Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Please, no more specialists.' 'Aye, I can see how they'd be a bother to you,' said Urquhart. But he soon after brought his textual analysis to a conclusion. 'So it would seem to me that our wee Wordman could regard certain printed texts as a sort of coded gospel. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding, sort of thing.' 'That's Revelation, not a gospel,' said Dalziel. 'Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man.' 'Now why am I not surprised you know that, Superintendent?' said Urquhart. 'One last thing. In the Fifth Dialogue "life became too great a bore ..." that looks like a quote from the last letter that guy Beddoes poor Sam Johnson was researching wrote before he topped himself. "Life was too great a bore on one leg and that a bad one." Seems the poor sod had tried killing himself before and only succeeded in having a leg amputated. Him a doctor, too. Would have made a great NHS consultant from the sound of it!' 'That it?' said Dalziel. 'All right, young Lochinvar, you can ride back into the west.' This time Urquhart let the Fat Man have the last word and as if in acknowledgement, Dalziel waited till the door had closed behind him before he said, 'Another waste of fucking time!' 'I don't think so, sir,' said Pascoe firmly. 'We're building up a profile. And that last thing about the Beddoes quote, that tells us something.' 'Oh aye? From what you said about your mate being a bit of a piss-artist, mebbe it means he died legless too,' said Dalziel. 'Very good, sir. But it means the Wordman must be quite well acquainted with Beddoes' writings. And I know someone who's deeply interested.' 'Oh God, not Roote again!' groaned the Fat Man. 'Give it a rest, will you?' 'Arrest?' said Pascoe. 'That's exactly what I want to give him.' Dalziel regarded him sadly and said, 'Pete, tha's beginning to sound like this Wordman. You ought to get out more. What is it the kids say nowadays? Get a life, lad. Get a rucking life!'

z^3 Chapter Twenty-eight