then things really would be back to normal.
Evan strode up the village street, past the row of shops and cottages. He gazed at the overgrown-chalet shape of the Everest Inn and wondered whether they’d come any closer to solving the fire there. It could easily have been a disgruntled employee, he thought. Major Anderson was a former royal marine. Evan didn’t imagine he’d be too soft on his employees.
But then Potter had said that the method used for starting that fire was identical to the one at the cottage. Evan wondered if Potter had come to any conclusions about the restaurant fire yet. He probably wouldn’t bother to pass them on to a village bobby. He didn’t know why he felt so frustrated about this particular case. Usually he was content to leave the headaches to the detectives.
“Penny for your thoughts?” a soft voice asked as a light hand was placed on his arm. Evan jumped. “Oh Bronwen, sorry, I didn’t see you.”
She was smiling at him. “No, I could tell you were miles away. I was working in my garden and you walked right past me. So I decided you must have something pretty heavy on your mind. The latest fire, I suppose.”
“I was just thinking about . . .” Evan hesitated. “Bronwen, do you think that a village constable is an acceptable job for—”
“For someone with your ability?” she finished for him.
He nodded, grateful that she understood.
“Usually it doesn’t worry me when I’m left out but this time—I don’t know why—I’m itching to be in on this investigation.”
“Maybe because you fancy Madame Yvette?” A quick, teasing smile crossed her face. “Sorry. It’s not funny, is it? I feel so terrible for that poor woman. I can understand that you’d like to get the case solved.”
“What really bothered me was that I came up with a good lead and I had to turn it over to Detective Constable bloody Perkins—useless young clod. I had to repeat the information three times before he got it. So now I’m going through it all again, asking myself if I made the right choice coming here.”
“I’m the wrong person to ask that question,” Bronwen said. “When I got a place at university I was sure I was going on to get my Ph.D. and then I’d write brilliant papers proving that King Richard didn’t really kill the princess in the Tower. Instead I wound up here.”
“What happened to change your mind?”
She paused and tossed her heavy braid of hair over her shoulder. “I fell in love during my final year and we decided to get married. He was going on to postgraduate studies. Someone had to earn the bread and butter. The plan was that I’d support us while he got his doctorate and then he’d support me when he became a high-powered scientist.”
“Only it didn’t work out that way.”
“As you say, it didn’t work out.” She looked away, wisps of hair blowing across her face as she stared up at the peaks. Then she shrugged. “I’d taken a job in a kindergarten. I found that I loved it so much that I took my teaching certificate and came straight here, back to where I’d spent happy childhood summers.”
Evan laughed. “It’s funny, we’ve never talked about this before.”
She looked up at him now. “I think that’s because we both have things in our pasts that are better forgotten.”
“We both came back to a place that made sense to us.”
She nodded. “So why leave a good thing?”
Evan put his arm around her shoulders. “You’re right. I should be content with my humble station in life and not want to—”
The last part of his sentence was drowned out by the roar of an approaching bulldozer. Barry-the-Bucket was coming through the village. Evan and Bronwen stepped up onto the grass verge as the huge vehicle rumbled past. As it drew level, however, Barry brought it to a halt.
“I was looking for you, Evans-the-Law,” he yelled down. “Someone told me that you’d got your eye out for cars that might have been left overnight. Well, there’s a maroon Toyota Camry in the car park outside the Vaynol Arms. It hasn’t been moved since yesterday afternoon. I just thought I’d mention it because usually overnight guests go somewhere during the day, don’t they? And it’s a rental car, too.”
“How do you know that?” Evan asked.
“Maybe because it’s got a Hertz decal in the window,” Barry said dryly. “It might be nothing, but I just thought I’d mention it.”
“Diolch