into April and now May, and she pulled up the hood of her rain jacket and marched across to them, moving briskly.
She knocked on Daidre's window and, when it was lowered, said, -I'd like a word. Both of you, please." And then directly to Lynley, -You're looking more human today. It's an improvement."
She turned and headed back into the inn.
Lynley and Daidre followed. They found Hannaford in the public bar where she'd been - as Lynley suspected - occupying a window seat. She shed her rain jacket onto a bench and nodded for them to do the same. She led them to one of the larger tables on which a magazine-size A to Z
was opened.
She spoke expansively to Lynley, which made him immediately suspicious about her motives.
When cops were friendly, as he well knew, they were friendly for a reason and it wasn't necessarily a good one. Where, she asked him, had he begun his coastal walk on the previous day? Would he show her on the map? See, the path's well marked with a green dotted line, and if he'd be so kind as to point out the spot...It was all a matter of tying up the loose ends of his story, she said. He would know the dance, of course.
Lynley brought out his reading spectacles and leaned over the road atlas. The truth of the matter was that he hadn't the slightest idea where he'd begun his walk on the South-West Coast Path on the previous day. If there had been a landmark, he hadn't taken note of it. He remembered the names of several villages and hamlets he'd come upon along the coast, but as to when on his walk he'd passed through them, he couldn't say. He also didn't see that it mattered, although DI Hannaford cleared the air on that concern in a moment. He took a stab at placing himself some twelve miles southwest of Polcare Cove. He had no idea if this was accurate.
Hannaford said, -Right," although she made no note about the location. She went on pleasantly with, -And what about you, Dr. Trahair?"
The vet stirred next to Lynley. -I did tell you I came down from Bristol."
-You did indeed. Mind showing me the route? C'n I assume you follow the same route each time, by the way? Straightforward matter and all that?"
-Not necessarily."
Lynley noted how Daidre drew out the final word, and he knew that Hannaford would not miss it either. Drawing a reply out like that generally meant certain mental hoops were being jumped through. What those hoops were and why they existed at all...Hannaford would be fishing for the reason.
Lynley took a moment to evaluate the two women. From head to toe, they couldn't have been more dissimilar: Hannaford's flaming mop done up in wild spikes, Daidre's sandy hair drawn back from her face and held at the crown of her head with a tortoiseshell slide; Hannaford dressed to mean business in a suit and court shoes, Daidre wearing jeans, pullover, and boots.
Daidre was lithe, like a woman who took regular exercise and watched what she ate. Hannaford looked like someone whose busy life precluded both regular meals and regular workouts. There were also several decades between them. The detective could have been Daidre's mother.
She wasn't acting motherly now. She was waiting for an answer to her question as Daidre looked at the atlas to explain the route she'd followed from Bristol to Polcare Cove. Lynley knew why the cop was asking. He wondered if Daidre was working that out as well before she replied.
The M5 down to Exeter, she said. Over to Okehampton and northwest from there. There was no completely easy way to get to Polcare Cove, she pointed out. Sometimes she did the Exeter route, but other times she worked her way over from Tiverton.
Hannaford made much of studying the map before she said, -And from Okehampton?"
-What d'you mean?" Daidre asked.
-One can't leap from Okehampton to Polcare Cove, Dr. Trahair. You didn't come by helicopter from there, did you? What was the route you took? The exact route, please."
Lynley saw a flush rise up the vet's neck. She was lucky that her skin was lightly freckled. Had it not been, she would have coloured to puce.
She said, -Are you asking me this because you think I had something to do with that boy's death?"
-Did you?"
-I did not."
-Then you won't mind showing me your route, will you."
Daidre pressed her lips together. She pushed an errant lock of