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As Martin noted, to the detective conducting his interview, it was a good thing he'd been inebriated, because otherwise he would have wasted time screaming and running about- especially once he realized he was standing in a pool of blood.
Ben Aaronovitch -
I wanted to say that lots of things weren't in the libraries of the wise, including plate tectonics, molecular biology and the complete works of J. K. Rowling, but she'd probably say that I was missing the point.
Ben Aaronovitch
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As property prices started rising, developers snatched up bomb sites and derelict buildings and erected the shapeless concrete lumps that have made the ’70s the shining beacon of architectural splendor that it is.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Like young men from the dawn of time, I decided to choose the risk of death over certain humiliation.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Absence of evidence, as any good archeologist will tell you, is not the same as evidence of absence.
Ben Aaronovitch -
I happened to know for a fact that the whole of Belgravia nick were running a pool on how long I would last and how I would go—the options being death, medical discharge (physical), medical discharge (psychological), indefinite disciplinary suspension, sacked for misconduct, secondment to Interpol and, with just one vote, ascension to a higher plane of existence. I suspected the last one was a bit unlikely.
Ben Aaronovitch -
If you ask any copper why they stick at a job which exposes them to abuse from everyone from petty criminals all the way down to government ministers, they’ll say it’s the variety.
Ben Aaronovitch -
he had the startled-rabbit look that civilians get after five minutes of helping the police with their inquiries. If they stay calm for too long it’s a sign that they’re professional villains or foreign or just plain stupid. All of which can get you locked up if you’re not careful. If you find yourself talking to the police, my advice is to stay calm but look guilty; it’s your safest bet.
Ben Aaronovitch
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There’s always a secret door. That’s why you always need a thief in your party.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Zach looked at Carey in consternation, obviously wondering if we were using the rare good cop/loony cop interrogation technique.
Ben Aaronovitch -
The Folly had last been refurbished in the 1930s when the British establishment firmly believed that central heating was the work, if not of the devil per se, then definitely evil foreigners bent on weakening the hardy British spirit.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Which artfully combines a complete lack of aesthetic quality with a total disregard for the utilitarian function for which it is built.
Ben Aaronovitch -
If you just warn people, they often simply ignore you. But if you ask them a question, then they have to think about it. And once they start to think about the consequences, they almost always calm down. Unless they're drunk, of course. Or stoned. Or aged between fourteen and twenty-one. Or Glaswegian.
Ben Aaronovitch -
The general public have a warped view of the speed at which an investigation proceeds. They like to imagine tense conversations going on behind the venetian blinds and unshaven, but ruggedly handsome, detectives working themselves with single-minded devotion into the bottle and marital breakdown. The truth is that at the end of the day, unless you've generated some sort of lead, you go home and get on with the important things in life - like drinking and sleeping, and if you're lucky, a relationship with the gender and sexual orientation of your choice.
Ben Aaronovitch
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First law of gossip - there's no point knowing something if somebody else doesn't know you know it.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Archway is where the post-war dream of the urban motorway died in the teeth of local opposition and the inability of the designers to answer basic traffic management questions.
Ben Aaronovitch -
So that's when I came up with the most ridiculous plan since I'd decided to take a witness statement from a ghost. It was a plan so stupid that even Baldrick would have rejected it out of hand.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Good at his job, I guessed, but probably not at ease with things that fall outside his comfort zone. He was going to love us.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Right from the start Abigail used to moan and fidget as her hair was relaxed or braided or thermally reconditioned, but her dad was determined that his child wasn’t going to embarrass him in public. That all stopped when Abigail turned eleven and calmly announced that she had ChildLine on speed‑dial and the next person who came near her with a hair extension, chemical straightener, or, God forbid, a hot comb, was going to end up explaining their actions to Social Services.
Ben Aaronovitch -
I headed over the river to the address listed on Mr Wilkinson's driving licence to see whether there was anyone who loved him enough to kill him.
Ben Aaronovitch
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It's important for a man to know his limitations, and my limitations started at moving to Peckham and hanging around with yardies, postcode wannabes and those weird, skinny white kids who don't get the irony in Eminem.
Ben Aaronovitch -
Zach Palmer, who was half human and half—we weren’t really sure what, including the possibility that the other half might be human as well.
Ben Aaronovitch -
I heard a woman scream with rage and frustration and then grunt like a tennis player.
Ben Aaronovitch -
So into the woods we went—it was surprisingly noisy. Especially one loud bird whose chirping sounded far too cheerful for the middle of the night.
Ben Aaronovitch