"Barry B. Longyear - Murder in Parliment Street" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

MURDER IN PARLIAMENT STREET
by BARRY B. LONGYEAR



Illustration by John Allemand

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Wherein Jaggers and Shad rise to new heights....

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“Cold and windy, dreary and damp,” muttered Detective
Superintendent Marvin Matheson. “No wonder Guy Fawkes chose
November in which to kill King James and blow up bloody Parliament.”

It was a day after that particular celebration, but superintendent was
still celebrating apparently. No knock-knock jokes, which meant he was
really down the pipe this time. Matheson was standing behind his desk, his
hands clasped behind his back, head hung forward, eyes looking up
through a frown and his office window at the gloom of the latest weather
front. Superintendent’s early-model police replacement meat suit strongly
resembled a historical American gangster named John Dillinger. I for one
never wished to see John Dillinger depressed. Media ridicule of that model
meat suit, in combination with his wife’s insistence he keep it, lost Matheson
his position as Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. He was
eventually deposited in Artificial Beings Crimes Division of Interpol as a
lowly detective superintendent running ABCD’s Devon office in Exeter.
Never quite let go of that.

“You wanted to see me, superintendent?” I said brightly.

He slowly turned his face toward me. “Jaggers.”

“Yes sir.”

He turned and looked down at his desk. Twice he tapped on a few
papers with the tip of a stylus. “It has been pointed out to me, Inspector
Jaggers, you and Shad deserve a day off, principally in recognition of your
work on the Hound Tor and Hangingstone Rat inquiries. That
recommendation, incidentally, came directly from Middlemoor.” He smiled
sadly. “I heartily concur.”
 That took me back a step. It was uncommon at best to have any
mention at all of ABCD issue from the rarified climes of the chief
constable’s office. Well known to us all, ever since a particular award
ceremony, Raymond Crowe, chief constable of the Devon & Cornwall
Constabulary, had been rather frosty on the subject of artificial beings,
particularly on amdroids in law enforcement. Perhaps we were coming up in
the world. “Good news, sir.”