The Black Tower (42 page)

He crouched behind it, heaving against the sagging canvas for support, watching Julius advance, hair streaming, eyes wild, the strong arms stretching forward, eager for that final clutch. Behind him the tower streamed black blood. The rain slashed like hail against the boulders, sending up a fine mist to mingle with his hoarse breath. Its painful rhythm tore at his chest and filled his ears like the death throes of some great animal. Suddenly he released the brakes and with his last strength hurled the chair forward. He saw his murderer's astonished and desperate eyes. For one second he thought that Julius would fling himself against the chair. But at the last moment he leapt aside, and the chair and its dreadful burden sailed over the cliff.

“Explain that when they fish it out!” Dalgliesh never
knew whether he spoke to himself or shouted the words aloud. And then Julius was on him.

This was the end. He wasn't fighting now, only letting himself be rolled downwards towards death. He could hope for nothing except to carry Julius over with him. Hoarse, discordant cries were hurting his ears. The crowd were shouting for Julius. All the world was shouting. The headland was full of voices, of shapes. Suddenly the weight on his chest lifted. He was free. He heard Julius whisper “Oh, no!” Dalgliesh heard the sad despairing protest as clearly as if the voice had been his own. It wasn't the last horrified cry of a desperate man. The words were quiet, rueful, almost amused. Then the air was darkened by a shape, black as a great bird, passing spread-eagled over his head in what seemed slow motion. Earth and sky turned slowly together. A solitary seagull screamed. The earth thudded. A white ring of amorphous blobs was bending over him. But the ground was soft, irresistibly soft. He let his consciousness bleed away into it.

The surgical registrar came out of Dalgliesh's room to where a group of large men were obstructing the corridor. He said:

“He'll be OK for questioning in about half an hour or so. We've extracted the bullet. I've handed it over to your chap. We've put up a drip but don't let that worry you. He's lost a fair amount of blood but there's no real damage. There's no harm now in your going in.”

Daniel asked:

“Is he conscious?”

“Barely. Your chap in there says he's been quoting King
Lear. Something about Cordelia anyway. And he's fretting because he hasn't said thank you for the flowers.”

Daniel said:

“He won't be needing flowers this time, thank God. He can thank Mrs. Reynolds's sharp eyes and common sense for that. And the storm helped. But it was a close thing. Court would have carried him over the cliff if we hadn't come up on them before he noticed us. Well, we may as well go in if you think it's OK.”

A uniformed constable appeared, helmet under his arm.

“Well?”

“The Chief Constable's on his way, Sir. And they've pulled out Philby's body half strapped to a wheelchair.”

“And Court's?”

“Not yet, Sir. They reckon he'll be washed in further down the coast.”

Dalgliesh opened his eyes. His bed was ringed with black and white figures advancing and receding in a ritual dance. Nurses' caps floated like disembodied wings above the smudged faces as if uncertain where to settle. Then the picture cleared and he saw the circle of half familiar faces. Sister was here, of course. And the consultant had got back early from his wedding. He wasn't wearing his rose any more. The faces broke simultaneously into wary smiles. He made himself smile back. So it wasn't acute leukaemia; it wasn't any kind of leukaemia. He was going to get better. And once they'd removed this heavy contraption which for some reason they'd fixed to his right arm he could get out of here and back to his job. Wrong diagnosis or not, it was nice of them, he thought sleepily, looking up into the ring of smiling eyes, to look so pleased that he wasn't going to die after all.

TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE

 

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

1. Are you shocked that Cordelia decides to conceal the facts not only of Mark Callendar's death but also of Ronald Callendar's murder? Why does she do it? Adam Dalgliesh speculates that she is lying for the sake of justice and tells her, “Justice. A very dangerous concept, Miss Gray.” Do you agree?

2. Cordelia Gray is an inexperienced young private detective, while James's other frequent hero, Adam Dalgliesh, is a highly experienced professional policeman. Are they alike in some ways? How does their relationship to each other change in the course of the novel?

 

The Skull Beneath the Skin

1. At the end of the novel, Cordelia Gray says that “it was almost impossible to believe that she had first seen Courcy Castle only three days earlier. In that short span of time she seemed to have lived through long, action-packed years, to have become a different person.” In what ways does the murder investigation change Cordelia?

2. James assigns the task of suspect interrogation to Sergeant Robert Buckley and Grogan, yet, ultimately, neither of them helps solve Clarissa's murder. Why is Cordelia so much more successful at getting possible suspects to talk to her and at deciphering clues such as the newspaper clipping and the jewelry boxes?

 

Innocent Blood

1. When Philippa first learns that her mother was a murderess about to be released from prison, did you expect that her mother would be a threat to Philippa? Were you surprised to find her a gentle, even sympathetic character? Where does the suspense in the novel come from?

2. How does Philippa change in the course of the novel? What does her final encounter with Norman Scase reveal about her growth? Do you accept as true that “it is only through learning to love that we find identity”?

 

Cover Her Face

1. Chapter Four gives a window into the thoughts of each of the Martingale suspects, including the actual murderer. How does James provide a convincing glimpse of the murderer's state of mind, without revealing the person's guilt?

2. How does the presence of a sleeping drug in Sally Jupp's cocoa function as a red herring? How, too, does the bolted door? Which is more effective in leading Dalgliesh astray?

 

A Mind to Murder

1. This novel is set in a psychiatric clinic, yet none of the patients is ever seriously considered to be a suspect. Instead, it is the staff who comes under Dalgliesh's scrutiny. Why do you think James chooses to make suspects of ordinary people rather than the mentally ill?

2. In the end, the A.C. concludes, “It was a perfectly straightforward case. The obvious suspect, the obvious motive.” Dalgliesh responds bitterly, “Too obvious for me, apparently.” Why is Dalgliesh thrown off so long from identifying the killer? Can you blame him as much as he blames himself?

 

Unnatural Causes

1. Detective Inspector Reckless and Adam Dalgliesh are working to solve the same mystery and have access to the same evidence. Yet Dalgliesh is able to guess the method of Maurice Seton's murder and Reckless is not. How does Dalgliesh do it? What are his particular gifts as a detective?

2. Once the taped confession is played, Jane Dalgliesh goes to the kitchen and fills the kettle. Adam wonders, “Now that it was all over was she even interested in that tumult of hate which had destroyed and disrupted so many lives including her own? … Never before had his aunt's uninvolvement struck him so forcibly; never before had it seemed so frightening.” Could the same word,
uninvolvement
, be used to describe Adam Dalgliesh? Could his strong negative reaction to Jane's uninvolvement be related to the letter he had just received from Deborah Riscoe?

 

Shroud for a Nightingale

1. Near the end of the novel, Nurse Taylor begs Dalgliesh to lie for her. To what higher good does she appeal? Why is Dalgliesh so quick to refuse?

2. The nurses depicted in this novel are very different in personality.
Who among them is the best nurse? Is that character also the most appealing human being?

 

The Black Tower

1. At the beginning of the novel, Dalgliesh makes a decision to quit the police force. Why? How does his disavowal of police work affect the investigation of his suspicions about the deaths at Toynton Grange?

2. During his final confrontation with the killer, Dalgliesh realizes that he has decided to return to the police force. James writes, “The decision to go on, arrived at when and why Dalgliesh didn't know, seemed to him as irrational as the decision to give up. It wasn't a victory. A kind of defeat even….” Do you agree with Dalgliesh that his decision to go on with police work is irrational or a defeat?

 

Death of an Expert Witness

1. While considering possible murder motives, Dalgliesh tells Massingham that “… the most destructive force in the world is … love. And if you want to make a detective you'd better learn to recognize it when you meet it.” How does the clunch pit murder that opens the novel illustrate this statement?

2. After recalling the loss of his son, Dalgliesh suddenly realizes “that he knew virtually nothing about children…. There was a whole territory of human experience on which, once repulsed, he had turned his back, and that this rejection somehow diminished him as a man.” How is Dalgliesh's personal loss reflected in his treatment of the teenager Brenda Pridmore and Kerrison's children, William and Nell?

About the Author

P. D. J
AMES
was born in Oxford in 1920. She married a doctor and had two daughters, the second born in the midst of a German bomb attack during World War II. After her husband returned from the war incapacitated, she went to work in the National Health Service and the British Civil Service. She worked in various departments for thirty years, including the Police and Criminal Law Divisions of the Home Office, and later served as a magistrate and on the Board of Governors of the BBC. Her first novel,
Cover Her Face
, was published in the UK in 1962, and she has gone on to write seventeen critically acclaimed crime novels. She began writing an autobiography at the age of seventy-seven, following Dr. Johnson's advice that at seventy-seven it is “time to be in earnest.”
Time to Be in Earnest
was published in 2000. In 1991, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park. Baroness James lives in London and Oxford.

We hope you enjoyed reading this Touchstone eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Touchstone and Simon & Schuster.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com