" You have a bullet aimed at your skull? What bullet, why?" Jim demandedshocked as Singh's casual elaboration of this detail regarding his owneliminat...on."Every special detective, every agent of the Concord from the momentthey take up their cross to the day they lay it aside lives every momentof every day of their life with their own death as their closestcompanion. They live under the shadow of Cincinnatus. It is the onlycertain way that was accepted as reasonable by those who drafted. However, I apologised for being a knob.She apologised for pissing in my mouth.I admitted that I had got right off on it and in turn she admitted that she had been in no doubt about that from the beginning.Lots of admissions, all in all.I made a mental note to remind myself frequently that girls have strange, mysterious ways, motivating factors that cannot and should not be understood. A lot of drink and drugs only serve to make things even more strange and beguiling. Desire can become pretty. Which was silly, because we don't fancy each other enough to be lovers. I refused to speak to him for a couple of months - but life without him is just a lot more boring.As usual Howard was not available when I actually needed to speak to him about something important and his phone went straight through to voicemail. Howard expects you to be available – like the Samaritans – 24 hours a day, but he can at times be curiously elusive. Obviously one his women was on the line giving him grief –. I wanted more but she put her shoes back on and got out of her chair. Then the next day she was going to a shoe shop down the road from the office. She asked me if I wanted to come along, so I agreed. In the shop she sat down, picked up an open pair of heels and tried it on. For the first time, I saw her toes and every other part of her foot. They were the hottest pair of feet I had ever seen. She saw me looking and noticed the look on my face. Being a flirtatious girl, she asked me to do up.