The religious filled the streets, summoned to worship by a hundred church bells that clattered joyfully in defiance of the teeming rain. Larkin stood on a raised step outside the barrack door with a circle of police officers around him, the uniformed men huddled into their greatcoats and the plain-clothes detectives disgruntled at being called out on a wet Christmas Day. "And here"s Watters now," he said, "at last."
"I was off duty, sir," Watters excused himself.
"A good officer is never off duty, Watters." Larkin gave him a reproving look. He raised his voice. "Now we can finally start. "There has been a murder here and an attempted murder." He paused to survey his audience.
"He"s making sure we all know how important he is," Silver said softly.
"Did you say something, Silver?" Larkin
