Trust immediately.
Evan found himself wishing he was down at the computer center, right on the spot when the news came through. He had no idea what was going on, stuck up here. For all he knew they could have identified Madame Yvette and the dead man by now. He was just locking up for the night when the phone rang. He hesitated, then unlocked the door again and picked up the phone on the fifth ring.
“I wondered where you’d got to,” Watkins said.
“You almost missed me. I was knocking off for the day. It’s five o’clock.”
“It’s all right for some who can keep civil service hours,” Watkins said.
Evan ignored the barb. “Any news from France?”
“Yes and no. Typical bloody French, about as unhelpful as they can be. Listen to this. They can’t find a prints match but they point out that most departments aren’t on line yet. If she’d committed a minor crime or been fingerprinted outside of a big city, only the local police would have a record of it, so we’d have to search district by district. They suggest we call the local police in the relevant department.”
“So much for international cooperation,” Evan said. “And what about the mental hospital?”
“They’re working on it. Which probably means it’s at the bottom of a huge pile in somebody’s in-tray.”
“At least we know that she’s not a major international criminal on the run.”
“Or she’s just too smart to have been caught yet,” Watkins pointed out.
“So what do you do next? Have P.C. Davies call every police HQ in France?”
“I can’t just sit here and twiddle my thumbs,” Watkins said. This could take weeks. We’ve told Madame Yvette not to go anywhere. If she really is innocent we shouldn’t put her life on hold like this. Of course, if she’d been a little more helpful . . . You know what I’ve decided? I’m driving down to the South Coast to check for myself. If she had a restaurant down there, someone will know something about her.”
“Good idea,” Evan said. “Watson, wait. It just struck me that her last restaurant was on the South Coast, in a very convenient position for the English Channel. And now this new restaurant is in a great location to receive drug shipments coming in from local ports. So maybe there is a drug connection after all.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Evan chuckled. “Your sense of direction isn’t too wonderful. Do you reckon you can find your way all the way down to the South Coast by yourself?”
“No. Do you want to come with me?”
“Oh, right. I’m sure the D.I. would approve of that!”
“No, seriously. He told me to do what I have to. I think I have to find out for myself what happened to her last restaurant and why she moved here . . . and everyone knows I have the world’s worst sense of direction. Which is why I need a driver.”
“I’d come along like a shot, but they wouldn’t let me leave this place unmanned for a couple of days.”
“I’ll talk to dispatch. They can cover for you if I think it’s really important. You were the one person to have seen the mystery man at the restaurant and you’ve had the most dealings with Madame Yvette. I’ll tell them I’ll wind up in Carlisle if I drive myself.”
“In that case,” Evan said, feeling a surge of excitement, “when do we leave?”
Chapter 14
After he had hung up the phone, Evan sat at his desk, trying to collect his thoughts while his mind raced ahead, planning the trip and wondering about what they might discover. Adrenaline raced through his body. He was being allowed to play detective and he found it exciting—which must indicate that he should seriously rethink his future. Maybe the village had served its purpose in getting him over a very bad time. Perhaps now he had outgrown Llanfair and it was time to move on. When this case was over he’d give serious thought to applying for training so that he could work officially with Sergeant Watkins, as a fellow detective.
He came out of the police station to find the sun setting and the valley bathed in warm, rosy light. Snowdon and its sister peaks were etched in black, and small clouds that clung around them were tinged pink, like escaped candy floss. From high on the mountainside came the bleating of sheep and the barking of dogs as they rounded up their charges. The smell of wood smoke hung in