Dead Men Read Online Free PDF Page A

that’s home to the Special Air Service, do you?’
    Shepherd grinned and raised his paper cup to her. ‘It’s always worth a try,’ he said.
    ‘On the subject of SOCA, we’ve a little housekeeping to do,’ she said. ‘To date you’ve effectively been on secondment. Over the next week or so we have to make the switch irrevocable.’
    ‘Are you telling me I’ve been on probation?’
    Button waved a hand dismissively. ‘Virtually everyone who was involved in setting up SOCA was initially brought in on a temporary basis. We weren’t sure whose faces would fit and who would want to stay. Now we’re in the process of solidifying things.’
    ‘Which means what?’
    ‘Basically there’s one more set of papers to sign and you become a fully fledged civil servant.’
    ‘Lovely,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘The job remains the same but you will no longer be a police officer.’
    ‘So what am I?’
    ‘As I said, a civil servant.’
    ‘So as I run after the bad guys waving my SIG-Sauer, I shout, ‘Stop in the name of the civil service!, do I?’
    ‘When was the last time you actually arrested someone, Spider?’ she asked. ‘That’s not what you do. You work under cover, you gather evidence.’
    ‘But I lose my rank, is that what you’re saying? I’ll no longer be a detective sergeant?’
    ‘That’s right. But your pay scale remains the same. You’ll get more holiday entitlement, as it happens, and your pension will improve. It’s no big deal. And you’ve got to have another psychological assessment but you were due one anyway.’
    ‘Who’ll be running through the canyons of my mind this time?’
    ‘It’s still Caroline Stockmann.’
    Shepherd liked Stockmann and knew the interview wouldn’t be a problem.
    ‘How’s your son?’ asked Button.
    ‘He’s fine. Hereford’s working out really well for him. We’re just down the road from his grandparents and he’s settled in at school. The only downside is me being away from home such a lot, but I wasn’t there much when we lived in Ealing. At least now if I’m away his grandparents can keep an eye on him.’
    ‘And the au pair’s still there?’
    ‘Katra? Yeah, three years now. She’s practically family.’
    Button looked amused and Shepherd pointed a warning finger at her. ‘Don’t go there.’
    ‘Still nothing on the romance front, then?’
    ‘Certainly not with Katra.’ Shepherd laughed. ‘Don’t worry about me on that score.’
    ‘I just like to make sure my people are happy.’
    ‘I’m happy,’ said Shepherd.
    Button smiled. ‘Then if you’re happy, I’m happy.’
    ‘Would you like more champagne, sir?’ asked the stewardess, with a gleaming smile that was as cold as the bottle she was holding. She was a dyed blonde with too much makeup. British Airways selected its staff for the long-haul first-class cabin on seniority rather than sex appeal.
    ‘Please,’ said Noel Kinsella, holding up his glass.
    Elizabeth put a hand on her husband’s arm. ‘Honey, do you think it’s a good idea to arrive smelling of drink?’
    ‘It’s champagne,’said Kinsella,‘and it’s only my third glass.’ He gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘One for the road,’ he added.
    Elizabeth sighed with annoyance. She was a teetotaller in a family where alcohol was either embraced at every opportunity as a long-lost friend or hated as much as a political opponent. There were no half measures with the Kennedys, and Elizabeth was firmly in the camp that believed alcohol was a vice with no redeeming qualities. She had hoped she’d be able to convince her husband to cut down his alcohol intake after they had married but she had been as successful at that as he had been at stopping her smoking.
    She looked out of the window. There was nothing but thick cloud below them. Elizabeth wanted a cigarette, badly. She had brought nicotine chewing-gum with her but it had done little to stifle her craving for a little white tube between her fingers and a lungful of