Dialogues of the Dead

295 Yeah, that just seemed to confirm it. Even their real life was an act and the only way they could deal with their children was by making them bit players.' 'So you chose another role entirely.' 'Sorry?' 'Librarian. Traditional image is about as anti-luwie as you can get, isn't it? Quiet, demure, rather prim, glaring at noisy readers over horned-rim specs, staidly dressed, a bit repressed . ..' 'This is how you see me, is it?' He laughed and said, 'No. All I mean is, if that was what you were aiming at, someone ought to tell you you've missed by a Scots mile.' She said, 'Hmm. I'll take that as a compliment, shall I? So now we've got me sorted, let's turn the spotlight on your interesting bits.' 'I'll look forward to that,' he said. 'But tell you what, we're nearly there. So rather than risk frightening the birds, let's leave my interesting bits till after lunch, shall we? Then I'll be happy to let you pick over them to your heart's content.' 'OK, but just tell me one thing first,' she said as the car turned down a track marked by an ancient finger post which read Stang Tarn. 'Do you cops learn innuendo during your probationary year or is it a prerequisite of joining?' Chapter Thirty-three

'Andy, you look like you've just come back from a trip to the underworld in every sense. Hard night on stake-out, was it?' 'You could put it like that,' said Andy Dalziel. It was a hard thing to admit, but the days were past when he could drink and dance till dawn, take a taxi home, live up to his vainglorious sexual promises, snatch an hour or so's sleep and be in The Dog and Duck at opening time without some evidence of his energy-sapping activities being inscribed upon his face. 'But it's nowt that another pint won't put right. How about you, Charley?' 'Nay, but I've just come in. Give us a chance to wash my teeth with this one,' said Charley Penn. Dalziel went up to the bar, noting with approval that the barman, observing his approach, stopped serving another customer to pull the anticipated pint. Marvellous what a few kind words would do to set a man on the straight and narrow, thought Dalziel complacently. He returned to the table and sank a gill. 'That's better already,' he said. 'So what's going off?' enquired Penn. 'Eh?' 'Come on, this isn't your usual watering hole,' sneered the writer. 'You're here for some special reason.' 'I hope there's not a pub in this town where I'm not known and welcome,' said Dalziel in an injured tone. 'You've got that half-right,' said Penn. 'Last time I saw you in here, it was definitely business. Me and that lad, Roote, and Sam Johnson .. .' His face clouded as he spoke of Johnson and he said, 'Last Sunday. Christ, it's hard to credit it were only last Sunday. And