The Only Game

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The Only Game Page 30

by Reginald Hill


  Terrified, she nodded and retreated to the pool.

  He turned and looked down the hill. Bridie Heighway and the boy were close to the gate now. Jane was still standing like a statue, watching and willing. He went into the villa, tried Beck’s pulse, picked up a telephone and dialled. It was answered almost immediately. He said in Italian, ‘I am a colleague of Endo Cicero. He said if I needed any advice or assistance I should contact you …’

  When he had finished talking he closed the Venetian blinds, then slipped behind them and out of the door which he locked.

  He went and stood beside Jane. Bridie Heighway was at the gate now, kneeling and talking to Noll. Then she put her arms round him, hugged him, and passed through the gate without a backward glance up to the villa.

  ‘I bet the bitch takes my taxi,’ said Dog.

  But Jane was no longer there. She was racing down the pathway towards the gate where her son was waving goodbye to the receding cab.

  He started to walk slowly down the track towards them.

  Endo’s friends would clear up this mess, he had no doubt, extracting their payment from Beck’s estate, leaving enough to keep Maria quiet. But the larger mess, the mess of lives and emotions, of pasts and futures, would need a lot more than a network of bribes, favours and fears to tidy up. He tried to look inside himself to see if he had the strength, the staying power, but he quickly gave up the search. Some things you only found out by doing.

  He reached Jane, who was kneeling as Bridie Heighway had knelt with her arms around her son. He leaned over them and lightly embraced them both. Then Noll, who clearly found all this hugging a bit of a bore, wriggled free and raced away up the hillside.

  Gently he raised Jane to her feet.

  She looked into his face and said seriously, ‘Dog, have I ever said thank you?’

  ‘Once,’ he said with a faint smile. ‘At least I think that’s what you said.’

  ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen now,’ she said flatly. ‘I’m numb. I don’t know what I feel about anything, about the future, about you. Except that I … that we owe you more than I can ever repay.’

  ‘You owe me nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s a new game. But from now on, I’ll collect everything I win.’

  ‘That may not be much,’ she said softly. ‘She was right. God keeps on dealing you a lot of losing cards.’

  ‘There ain’t no such thing as losing cards,’ he said. ‘Only losing players.’

  ‘Uncle Endo?’ she asked.

  He considered.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I think that was pure me.’

  The sun was slipping fast behind the mountains, sending their shadows racing eastwards across the dark blue reaches of the sea towards the still gleaming horizon.

  He took her hand lightly in his and, swinging their arms between them like children, they began to climb the steep and narrow path up to the villa.

  If you enjoyed The Only Game, try reading:

  Click here to order The Stranger House.

  About the Author

  Reginald Hill, who died in 2012, was a native of Cumbria and former resident of Yorkshire, the setting for his novels featuring detectives Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe. Their appearances won him numerous awards including a CWA Gold Dagger, the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement and the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. The Dalziel and Pascoe novels have also been adapted into a hugely popular BBC TV series.

  By Reginald Hill

  Dalziel and Pascoe novels

  A CLUBBABLE WOMAN

  AN ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

  RULING PASSION

  AN APRIL SHROUD

  A PINCH OF SNUFF

  A KILLING KINDNESS

  DEADHEADS

  EXIT LINES

  CHILD’S PLAY

  UNDER WORLD

  BONES AND SILENCE

  RECALLED TO LIFE

  PICTURES OF PERFECTION

  THE WOOD BEYOND

  ASKING FOR THE MOON: A DALZIEL AND PASCOE COLLECTION

  ON BEULAH HEIGHT

  ARMS AND THE WOMEN

  DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD

  DEATH’S JEST BOOK

  GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT

  THE DEATH OF DALZIEL

  A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES

  MIDNIGHT FUGUE

  Joe Sixsmith novels

  BLOOD SYMPATHY

  BORN GUILTY

  KILLING THE LAWYERS

  SINGING THE SADNESS

  THE ROAR OF THE BUTTERFLIES

  Other

  FELL OF DARK

  THE LONG KILL

  THE COLLABORATORS

  DEATH OF A DORMOUSE

  DREAM OF DARKNESS

  THE ONLY GAME

  THE STRANGER HOUSE

  THE WOODCUTTER

  About the Publisher

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  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

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