The woman was finally brought to shore and logged by a pale Constable Collins at 6.32 a.m. precisely. After an undignified struggle to get her out of the boat, the policeman finally lifted her dead-weighted body ashore in his arms. He thought of the warm body of his wife still asleep in their bed in their little modern house and his sky-blue eyes clouded over. What had she meant last night when she’d rolled over in bed and stared at him unpleasantly and said she was dying of boredom? One thing was certain: it couldn’t be worse than death by drowning.
Flashing blue lights guided Inspector Gannet down to the harbour where a crowd of holiday-makers were craning their necks to try and get a view of the excitement. So, yes, Jack Gannet thought, this is how it begins.
‘Perhaps,’ J agreed cautiously with the man who would forever be an enemy to him, ‘but on the other hand, perhaps not.’
Kenny There’s nothing. Nothing. Do you hear me?
Dod I know.
Jed Perhaps Rick was right after all.
‘Yes, of course I will,’ Flick murmured happily as Jake pulled her into his arms and began to kiss her with fierce abandonment.
‘Well, well,’ Madame Astarti said. ‘Whoever would have thought that you were the murderer all along.’
Duke Thar-Vint mounted his steed Demaal and saluted farewell to his trusty steward Lart. He turned to the Lady Agaruitha riding beside him and said, ‘One chapter may have closed, but the fight for justice will go on for ever.’
And the winner of the Booker Prize for the year 2001 is . . . Andrea Garnett for her novel Anthea’s Anguish.
Whatever we fondly call our own
Belongs to heaven’s great Lord
The blessings lent us for a day
Are soon to be restored
(Carved on a tombstone in the Howff, Dundee, and used by Terri as an inscription on the tasteful stone arches which form the entrance to all of the pet cemeteries in the hugely successful chain which she started in San Francisco in 1976.)