In the Galway Silence
- Автор: Бруен Кен
- Серия: Jack Taylor #14
- Год: 2018
- Язык: английский
- Год: Head of Zeus
- ISBN: 978-1-78854-585-3
- Жанр: Криминальные детективы
Электронная книга - «In the Galway Silence». Краткое содержание книги:
He picked up some papers, said,
“Good day, sir.”
I didn’t move.
He looked up, said,
“You’re dismissed.”
I turned to leave, left with,
“Funny, that’s the exact same thing the Guards said to me.”
It is said that if you are at the Claddagh Basin in the hour before dawn, after Saint Brigid’s Day, and you sit very still, you can see the famine ships glide across the bay and along the wind hear the faint whisper of the names of the coffin ships.
Emma Prescott
Joshua Carroll
Margaret Milne
C. H. Appleton
The Luculus
William Kerry
So it was that I was thus perched, at the end of that bitter cold month, looking at Nimmo’s Pier. Not so long ago, I had stood on that very spot, a revolver in my hand and suicide on my breath. To this day, I’m not sure what turned me ’round.
I saw a man there now, standing real close to the edge, almost exactly the place I had stood. Shook my head to dispel the illusion.
He jumped.
I muttered,
“Fuck.”
I tore off my Garda all-weather coat, shucked my shoes, and went in the water.
Christ, it was cold. I lost sight of him twice and he was going down for the final time when I reached him. I grabbed his collar with my hand and kicked for shore. He fought me, the bad bastard. Nearly drowned us until I got a fist to his chin and stunned him.
Pulled him up the shore and collapsed. He was muttering,
“Cold, so cold.”
I got to my feet and retrieved my coat, wrapped him in it, then got my phone and called an ambulance. My whole body shook. I reached back into my jacket, got the flask, got some of the Jay into the man’s mouth. Took a long swig my own self.
The ambulance came within minutes with a squad car right behind. I explained the situation. The attendants got the man wrapped fast and offered me a blanket, said,
“You better come too.”
I said no.
I saw the flash of an iPhone. Damn dog walker.
The Guards treated me with suspicion. One of them suddenly said,
“God almighty, it’s Taylor.”
His partner, young and eager, asked,
“Who’s that?”
The older guy said,
“Trouble is what he is.”
Leveled a hard stare at me, barked,
“What are you doing here, this time of the morning?”
The ambulance attendant said,
“Being a hero, is what.”
I took a slug from the flask to the disapproval of both Guards.
The ambulance attendant handed me my coat, said,
“You might well have saved that man from hypothermia.”
Not to mention drowning but I said nothing.
The young Guard grabbed the coat, said,
“That is an official Garda coat. I’ll write you up for that.”
The attendant said,
“Christ, don’t be a bollix.”
My thoughts exactly but they kept the coat.
Before the ambulance departed, I went over to check on the man. He managed to sit up and beckoned me. I was ready to say,
“No need to thank me.”
He leaned real close, whispered,
“Fuck you.”
The ambulance guy heard him and, as he prepared to leave, said,
“It’s the shock.”
I thought about that, answered,
“He’s probably a Guard.”
Coatless, I made my wet, frozen way home.
We need silence to be able to touch souls.