sandwiches from Gregg's.
'I can feel the damp in my buttocks,' said Haynes after a while, through a mouthful of char-grilled Mexican chicken, a sandwich which had never actually been anywhere near Mexico.
Some days Jericho might have had a barbed comment to make about Haynes' underwear or about wearing a longer coat, but today he didn't have any unnecessary conversation in him.
'Tell me about the card,' he said.
'Nothing to tell,' said Haynes. 'She gave it the same going over, said it had been produced from the same template as the previous one, but slightly amended. Which is what we thought. So, nothing new.'
Jericho ate his tuna mayonnaise and stared at the ducks on the far side of the moat. As ever, when he looked at ducks, he wondered if he might have duck for dinner that night.
'What do you think?' said Jericho.
'About the cards? Or about Newton?'
Both men thought of Newton in her summer dress in the middle of January.
'The cards,' said Jericho. 'If we were at a busy office, would we have given these cards even a seconds' thought? Instead, there's nothing much going on and we're investing all sorts of time in them. Time which we'd never spend if we were in London. Or Bristol.'
'So two Tarot cards with peculiar markings become more important because of where we are, something which does not in fact inherently relate to the cards in any way.'
Jericho nodded silently, something which he had the ability to do without even moving his head.
'Doesn't mean,' said Haynes, 'that implicitly they're not important. Or, at least, that they don't herald something important.'
When was the last time you had duck , asked Jericho. But the words just formed in his head. He could talk about work, but nothing else. Despite himself, he had been completely disconcerted by his conversation with Morris. He wanted to be cool about the whole TV thing, but it was beginning to bother him. He hated the idea, he hated the thought of his every movement being on television, he hated the intrusion. He had come down here to get away from it all, and now, years later, it had followed him, and once more he would be in the newspapers. Hattie Morris would not be the last person to ask about Amanda.
'There's nothing been happening the last couple of days, is there?' he asked.
'Nope.'
Haynes casually let a small piece of bread go flying into the moat. The nearest duck gave it a glance and swam on.
'So, either these cards are telling us there's something going on somewhere else, or else it's a threat of what's to come.'
'Seems reasonable. Unless it's just some wanker having a laugh.'
Jericho rubbed his forehead, massaged his closed eyes, finally looked up although his eyes never lifted above the height of the wall around the moat. The flock of starlings settled noisily into the trees beside the nearest field. Somewhere a crow vented its gravelly rage.
'Don't let anyone know about it for now. If it turns out to be nothing, or some clown's idea of a joke, then no one finds out about it. But if it is important, then we need to know about it before whoever's sending them wants us to know. I'm going to be bogged down with this bloody TV business, so you'll need to take care of it. Just don't, for God's sake, let anything slip about it in front of them. The TV people.'
'What do you want me to do?'
'A general check of what's been going on. Anything unusual. Anything that might tie in with the timing of these two cards.'
'You mean, everywhere? Countrywide?'
Jericho breathed out. Took another bite of sandwich. Allowed himself to think about it for a while. Haynes, well used to the long gaps in his conversations with Jericho, similarly ate his sandwich and waited.
'Let's ignore the Tarot stuff for a second. The concept of a hanged man in general suggests death, someone who's been hanged. In the regular Tarot concept it means something completely different, but then these cards are also subverting that concept by implying death.'
'So we go with
'I can feel the damp in my buttocks,' said Haynes after a while, through a mouthful of char-grilled Mexican chicken, a sandwich which had never actually been anywhere near Mexico.
Some days Jericho might have had a barbed comment to make about Haynes' underwear or about wearing a longer coat, but today he didn't have any unnecessary conversation in him.
'Tell me about the card,' he said.
'Nothing to tell,' said Haynes. 'She gave it the same going over, said it had been produced from the same template as the previous one, but slightly amended. Which is what we thought. So, nothing new.'
Jericho ate his tuna mayonnaise and stared at the ducks on the far side of the moat. As ever, when he looked at ducks, he wondered if he might have duck for dinner that night.
'What do you think?' said Jericho.
'About the cards? Or about Newton?'
Both men thought of Newton in her summer dress in the middle of January.
'The cards,' said Jericho. 'If we were at a busy office, would we have given these cards even a seconds' thought? Instead, there's nothing much going on and we're investing all sorts of time in them. Time which we'd never spend if we were in London. Or Bristol.'
'So two Tarot cards with peculiar markings become more important because of where we are, something which does not in fact inherently relate to the cards in any way.'
Jericho nodded silently, something which he had the ability to do without even moving his head.
'Doesn't mean,' said Haynes, 'that implicitly they're not important. Or, at least, that they don't herald something important.'
When was the last time you had duck , asked Jericho. But the words just formed in his head. He could talk about work, but nothing else. Despite himself, he had been completely disconcerted by his conversation with Morris. He wanted to be cool about the whole TV thing, but it was beginning to bother him. He hated the idea, he hated the thought of his every movement being on television, he hated the intrusion. He had come down here to get away from it all, and now, years later, it had followed him, and once more he would be in the newspapers. Hattie Morris would not be the last person to ask about Amanda.
'There's nothing been happening the last couple of days, is there?' he asked.
'Nope.'
Haynes casually let a small piece of bread go flying into the moat. The nearest duck gave it a glance and swam on.
'So, either these cards are telling us there's something going on somewhere else, or else it's a threat of what's to come.'
'Seems reasonable. Unless it's just some wanker having a laugh.'
Jericho rubbed his forehead, massaged his closed eyes, finally looked up although his eyes never lifted above the height of the wall around the moat. The flock of starlings settled noisily into the trees beside the nearest field. Somewhere a crow vented its gravelly rage.
'Don't let anyone know about it for now. If it turns out to be nothing, or some clown's idea of a joke, then no one finds out about it. But if it is important, then we need to know about it before whoever's sending them wants us to know. I'm going to be bogged down with this bloody TV business, so you'll need to take care of it. Just don't, for God's sake, let anything slip about it in front of them. The TV people.'
'What do you want me to do?'
'A general check of what's been going on. Anything unusual. Anything that might tie in with the timing of these two cards.'
'You mean, everywhere? Countrywide?'
Jericho breathed out. Took another bite of sandwich. Allowed himself to think about it for a while. Haynes, well used to the long gaps in his conversations with Jericho, similarly ate his sandwich and waited.
'Let's ignore the Tarot stuff for a second. The concept of a hanged man in general suggests death, someone who's been hanged. In the regular Tarot concept it means something completely different, but then these cards are also subverting that concept by implying death.'
'So we go with
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