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Professor Whitlaw looked determined and nodded, Dean Gardner looked devious and reached for the Saturday transcript, and Lee Lee was looking at Kate as if she'd never seen her before. "Hey," said Kate with a shrug. "It's what I do." Lee let out a surprised cough of laughter and shook her head. Kate handed her the transcript. Kate did not bother to read along, as the session was clear enough in her memory. Instead, she went into the kitchen to make another pot of coffee and put on the kettle for Professor Whitlaw's tea, and as she stood and waited, her eyes went out of focus and she thought about what she had just told them. A great deal of any police officer's time is spent on the thin line that divides right from wrong. Representatives of Good, cops spend most of their life in the company of Bad, if not Evil, and often find more to talk about with the people they arrest than with their own neighbors. In a fair world, ends do not justify means,- to a cop, they have to. She had gone to see Erasmus on Friday before she left, as Hawkin had asked. She found him sitting on the bunk in his cell, his eyes closed and his lips moving in a murmur of prayer or recitation. His head came around at the sound of her approach and he watched her come in, his eyes neither welcoming nor antagonistic, simply waiting. She sat down on the bunk next to him. "Hello, Erasmus. David. Are you comfortable?" She laughed at the sweep of his eyes. "Yeah, I know, stupid question. What I meant was, can I bring you anything?" "O, thou fairest among women!" he said in wan humor. "I don't know about that. Something to eat tomorrow? Jail food isn't the greatest." Page 166 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "The bread of adversity and the water of affliction." "I hope it's not quite that bad." "The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep," he said in a gentle refusal of her offer. "I wasn't offering rich abundance, but I might stretch to a cheese sandwich and some fruit." His eyes lighted up at the last word, though he did not say anything. "Nothing else?" He hesitated, then said, "I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here." "Your books? From your backpack. Yes, I'll have them brought to you. Writing materials? Another blanket?" He smiled a refusal, then his right hand came up and nestled into his neck, his index finger stroking his beard. He cocked his eyebrow at her. "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me," he suggested. "Urn, your staff? I'm sorry, I don't think I could get that approved." Even if I could get the laboratory to hurry up with it, she thought. He shrugged a bit wistfully. "Naked came I into the world, and naked shall I return. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." She hesitated and then risked a joke. "I don't think even Inspector Hawkin himself thinks he's God." Page 167 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html His smile was warmly appreciative, but somehow she got the uncomfortable feeling that she'd given something away. She stood up, and he rose with her. "I'll see if I can get your books released tonight, and I'll see you in the morning. Good night." He surprised her by putting up a finger to stop her, then bent down to look into her face. "Be strong, and of good courage," he told her. "Be not afraid." And when she could find no answer to that, he merely touched her shoulder and, sitting back down on the too-short bunk, said, "I will lay me down to sleep, and take my rest." That last little episode was what she had had in mind when she said that David Sawyer was cooperating with his seduction. He knew what she was doing, and moreover he knew what it was doing to her. No, she did not like cozying up to that old man in order to pry him loose from his secure rest,- she was honest enough with herself to admit that she felt dirty using his affection against him. Feeling dirty was, of course, an occupational hazard, and so far it had never kept her from doing her job. But all in all, she would much rather play bad cop. ? The readers in the living room were coming back to life and the coffee had finished dripping, so she moved back out to be hostess for a few minutes. When the cups were full and hot, she paused, the tape of the Sunday session in her hand. "Al Hawkin was not there this morning. This was partly technique but mostly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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