Page 42 of We Chase Shadows

‘Well, this is news,’ says Amy.

‘You know my watchwords, Amy,’ says Rosie. ‘Ethics. Sustainability. Murder-solving.’

‘The big three,’ says Amy. ‘Sure.’

‘The police in Lucca will want to interview us all, of course,’ says Rosie. ‘And they’ll want Korbin’s body to themselves, and full access to the crime scene, but sometimes you have to play by the rules.’

‘Interpol though,’ says Vern. ‘Think of their resources?’

Rosie mulls this for a moment. ‘Maybe.’

‘Definitely maybe,’ says Vern.

‘Terrible album,’ says Steve, and Vern takes time out of the conversation to fist-bump him.

‘Well, how about a compromise?’ Rosie suggests. ‘If you agree to come to England, I suppose I can agree to keep this little difficulty –’

She motions to the permafrosted ex-German.

‘– between us and a very friendly police officer.’

Vern thinks this through, then nods. ‘I suppose I can crack open one of my emergency passports. Just a few days though.’

‘Let’s call Ernesto, then,’ says Rosie. ‘A body in a freezer is exactly his sort of thing.’

Amy looks deep into the freezer, then turns to Vern. ‘You know there’s still food in the bottom of this freezer? Underneath the corpse.’

Vern looks embarrassed. ‘I know. I cleared all the food out when we put Esteban in here, and then I put it all back in when we buried him, and when we put Korbin in here, I wasn’t sure if I should clear it all out again. Can you refreeze things twice? I thought it might be bad for you?’

Lee enters the barn.

‘Goodness me,’ says Rosie. ‘A living bodyguard, I’ve seen it all now.’

Lee is carrying several large bags of ice. Nodding to the assembled crowd, he proceeds to tip the ice into the freezer.

‘Why are you tipping ice into a freezer?’ Steve asks.

It’s a good question. One of many good questions at this exact moment. Who killed Esteban? Who killed Korbin? Who sent a thug to the New Forest to duff up Tony Taylor? And, when all evidence points to one man, Jakob Eriksson, why is their client so sure he’s not responsible?

It is high time they found Eriksson and spoke to him. If he is being set up, then let him tell them why. Rosie doesn’t see a way that they can continue much further with the investigation without asking him those questions directly. She has to take care of the day job tomorrow, sales figures for the new book are due out. But straight after that.

And as to the question of why pour ice into a freezer?

‘It’s because I can’t shut the lid,’ says Vern. ‘With the knife sticking out like that.’

Well, that’s one mystery solved at least.

‘I keep trying,’ says Vern, looking at the knife again ‘But it’s like having a baguette that’s too big for your bread bin.’

24

Life can’t all be murder, murder, murder. Would that it could.

Rosie’s manager, Elspeth, has asked her to come in for a meeting. Not even for lunch. For a meeting, if you can believe that? On the meeting-room table there are two types of water and no types of booze.

Publishing has changed. When Rosie had her first million-seller it was cigars, Martinis and cocaine all round. Now you’re lucky if there are even biscuits.

It’s inconvenient, she is in the middle of a murder investigation, but Elspeth had insisted, and now Rosie understands why.