A Taste for Death Read Online Free

from the Vicarage.'
    But still he hesitated. On an impulse she asked:
    'Do you know them, Father?'
    'Oh yes, yes. The tramp. That's Harry Mack. Poor Harry. He sleeps in the porch sometimes.'
    He didn't need to tell her that. She knew that Harry
    14
    liked to doss down in the porch. She had taken her turn at cleating up after him, the crumbs, the paper bags, the discarded bottles, sometimes even worse things. Sh.e ought to tave recognized Harry, that woollen hat, the jacket. She tried not to dwell on why it was that she hadn't. She asked, with the same gentleness:
    'And the other, Father. Did you recognize him?'
    He looked down at her. She saw his fear, his be-wilderment, and above all, a kind of astonishment at the enormity of the complications that lay ahead. He said slowly, not looking at her:
    'The other is Paul Berowne, Sir Paul Berowne. He is -he was - a Minister of the Crown.'
    2
    As soon as he had left the Commissioner's office and was back in his own room Commander Adam Da/gliesh rang Chief Inspector John Massingham. The receiver was snatched at the first ring and Massingham's disciplined impatience came across as strongly as his voice. Dalgliesh said:
    'The Commissioner has had a word with the Home Office. We're to take this one, John. The new squad will officially be in existence on Monday anyway, so we're only jumping the gun by six days. And Paul Berowne may still technically be the Member for Hertfordshire North East. He wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds on Saturday, apparent/y, and no one seems quite sure whether the resignation dates from the day the letter was received or the date the warrant is signed by the Chancellor. Anyway all that is academic. We take the case.'
    But Massingham was uninterested in the procedural details for the resignation of a parliamentary seat. He said:
    15
    'Division are sure, sir, that the body is Sir Paul Ber Owne?'
    te'One of ,t, he bodies. Don't forget the tramp. Yes, it's.
    rown.e] Th.%e,s evidence of identity at the scene, ancl
    parish pr%t knew him, apparently. It wasn't the first
    time Berowne had spent the night in St Matthew's church
    vestry.'
    'An odd Pltce to choose to sleep.'
    00r to .die. Iave you spoken to Inspector Miskin?'
    nce they h v; toether they would both
    De Callln her v . ank
    Mas in g Kate, but now Dalghesh gave her her r .
    s gnam
    �� h,es off to, clay' sir, but I managed to get her, at her nat. lve aseq Robins to collect her gear and she 11 meet
    us at the scen I've alerted the rest of the team.'
    'Right, Joht' Get the Rover, will you. I'll meet you
    outside. Four rrdnutes.'
    It crossed 1....... Massin-ham mieht not have
    � . IS mlno, tilia, t /b
    oeen too aspleased had Kate Miskin already left her t
    and be. n i. ..ssible to contact, the new squad had
    set up m tl t% investigate serious, crimes that, for pohucal or other reasohs' needed particularly sensitive handling. It
    had been so seqf. evident to Dalgliesh that the squad would need a senior
    energy to cho woman detective that he had devoted his
    .... %ain the right one, rather than to speculating
    w well e od fit into the team. He had selected the
    z -year-olate Miskin on her record and her perfor mance at interview, satisfied that she had the quifies for
    which he wad looking. They were also the on he :ost
    admired in a detective: intelligence, courage, discretion
    and common ense What
    remained to e sen He else she might have to contriutc
    . knew that she and Mingtam
    had worked E,.. -fore when he had been a n
    promoted avaiona1 detective inspector and she a serg tt.
    I was mred that the relationship had at times
    trmy.. nt assingham had learned to dcipline so:
    ms prqualcea since en, as he had the notorious singham teer' And a fresh, even an iconoclastic
    fluence, even a little healthy dval, could be
    16
    effective operationally than the collusive and macho freemasonry which frequently bound together a team of all male officers.
    Dalgliesh began