Evanly Bodies - By Rhys Bowen Page 0,6

an old married schoolteacher, even your brother couldn't object, could he?"

Jamila gave them both a happy smile.

Chapter 3

The room was full by the time Evan entered. Sun streaming in through the south-facing plate-glass windows had made it too warm and stuffy. He looked around and saw his fellow detective constable, Glynis Davies, sitting next to DI Watkins in the back row. Evan went over to join them, pulling up a stackable chair beside them.

"We wondered where you'd got to, boyo," Watkins said. "We thought you were going to incur the wrath of God by coming in after He'd started talking."

"It rained all last night, didn't it?" Evan muttered. "It took me ages to get down the hill."

"You drove your car up that track?" Glynis asked. "Wasn't that asking for trouble?"

"Not the car-me. The car was parked down below, but it took me awhile to get down to it. It was so slippery, and I didn't want to risk sitting down on my rear end and arriving here covered in mud."

"So what do you think you're going to do all winter?" Watkins asked. "In case you hadn't noticed, it does rain a lot up here, and snow, too. Is this going to be a recurrent excuse for showing up late?"

Evan grinned. "We're going to have to do something, I know. Bronwen's father promised us his old Land Rover when he gets a new one, but he doesn't show any signs of doing so. And we can hardly keep nagging him, so it's a case of taking the track carefully at the moment."

"Well, luckily you haven't missed anything," Glynis whispered. "The great man is running late too."

"What is this for now?" Evan asking, looking at the other officers assembled in the room. "It looks like the whole Plain Clothes Division is here this time. Who exactly would be holding the fort if there's a major crime?"

"Don't ask me," Inspector Watkins muttered. "I'm as much in the dark as you are. I'm too lowly to have been invited to the brainstorming sessions among the top brass."

"What can't we have covered already?" Evan asked.

"Maybe it's to tell us that the Plain Clothes Division will now be wearing uniforms. Plainer plain clothes, so to speak." The detective constable sitting in front of Evan turned round to him with a grin.

"Let's hope they're not as ugly as the uniforms he's planning to make the poor blokes on the beat wear," someone else chimed in.

"No, I bet it's nothing to do with uniforms. My bet is that it's more sensitivity training." Glynis said.

"Oh God, please no," the first DC rolled his eyes. "Where did they find him, anyway?"

"He's just done a stint in America."

"As if they know anything about sensitivity training there. They just shoot first and then show great sensitivity to the corpse."

A general chuckle ran around the room. Evan noticed that DI Watkins tried not to smile but couldn't quite manage to keep a straight face.

"Now, come on, lads," Watkins said. "That's not the spirit. We may not find his methods easy at first, but he is our new boss and it's up to us to learn to love and appreciate him."

"Providing he's sensitive enough," someone quipped.

This time there was loud laughter.

At that moment the door opened and the new Chief Constable Mathry came in. He was followed by the division commanders of the three regions, Chief Superintendents Morris, Talley, and Jones; and behind them the various chiefs of operations, including Evan's own boss, DCI Hughes.

The Chief Constable looked around the room, beaming. "That's what I like to see, lads, positive team spirit. That's the ticket. I know we're all going to get along splendidly. What we need is more meetings like this, more chances for the entire division to interact. There has been too much compartmentalization and not enough cooperation between the regions." He perched on the edge of the desk at the front of the room. "I've been taking a look at the logs on that recent mugging on Mount Snowdon. It was originally reported to Colwyn Bay HQ, who referred it to Caernarfon as the national park was within their jurisdiction. However, it was then handed back to Colwyn Bay because they had more manpower. Precious time lost with haggling back and forth."

"With all due respect, sir," DCI Hughes rose from his chair. "As senior detective of the Caernarfon Station, I have to point out that we had only five men on the roster."

"Five people," Glynis muttered, loud enough for Evan to