- [Dalgliesh refuses to bow to political pressure by A/C Harkness in keeping secret the circumstances of the murders that he has been investigating]
- Adam Dalgliesh: You asked me to give you a full report, and you have it. If you wanted a different report you should have asked for a different detective. I was assigned to this case on the basis of a lie. Now you want *me* to put *my* name to another lie. Well I'm sorry, I put truth before discretion, and before politics too.
- [he gets up and walks out]
- [Adam writes a letter to Emma, and then races to the station to meet her off the train; she has already told him that if he is not there to meet her, she will know there is no future for them]
- Adam Dalgliesh: [voiceover] "Emma. I have told myself that I am writing this because it will give you time to consider before you reply - but that may only be cowardice. To read a rejection will be more bearable than to see it in your eyes. I have no reason to hope. You *know* that I love you, but my love gives me no claim. Other men have said these words to you, and they will again. And I can't promise to make you happy. It would be arrogant to assume that such a gift lay in my power. If I were your father or your brother or merely a friend, I could find plenty of reasons to argue against myself. But you know them already. Only the greatest poets could speak for me, but this is not a time for other men's words. I can only write what is in *my* heart. My only hope is that you may care enough to risk this adventure together. For *me* there is no risk. I can hope for no greater happiness than to be your lover and your husband."
- [after searching frantically, Adam finds Emma - she is still waiting on the platform]
- Adam Dalgliesh: I need you to read this.
- [Adam spends an agonising few minutes while Emma reads the letter]
- Emma Lavenham: Clara says you are an emotional cripple. When I read this, I know it's not true.
- Adam Dalgliesh: All it says is...
- [station tannoy drowns out his words "... I love you"; they kiss and walk away, arm in arm]