Page 44 of We Chase Shadows

‘I wish I knew,’ says Elspeth. ‘It’s usually doing a make-up tutorial, or lip-synching to something, or I saw one where a woman from America was wearing two different hats, and when she had one hat on she could only tell the truth, and when she had the other hat on she could only tell a lie. It was very popular.’

‘So I should do that?’ asks Rosie. Hats and lying are both things she can carry off with aplomb.

‘Well, not that, because somebody already did it,’ says Elspeth. ‘But something like that. Maybe you do it with gloves instead of hats, but that’s just me thinking out loud.’

Rosie is very comfortable with the world changing. Welcomes it, in fact. If the world keeps changing, it means you can always be a moving target. And if, to sell books, one has to lie through one’s teeth, or stay awake for days on end, well that’s nothing she hasn’t done voluntarily for many years. But she can’t help thinking a grand gesture might be simpler, and quicker.

‘I’m currently solving a murder,’ she says. ‘Would that work on TikTok?’

‘Only if you solved it fifteen seconds at a time,’ says Elspeth.

‘I’ll look into that,’ says Rosie.

Elspeth places her palms flat on the table. ‘I’m certain we’ll get through. Well, not certain, I just thought that was a good thing to say.’

‘Don’t worry,’ says Rosie. ‘I’ve been through dips before.’

Yes, Rosie always gets up. But one day she won’t.

‘I know,’ says Elspeth. ‘But this is such a terrific book. I’m sorry I’m asking you to eat chicken and wear gloves to try and sell it. But if we don’t get the numbers up, I don’t know what happens next for you. Or me. Unless you want to write a book about having sex with dragons? I don’t suppose …?’

‘Elspeth,’ says Rosie. ‘I’ve seen it all, I’ve done it all, and I guarantee you this: I will think of something to make this book a bestseller.’

‘But it’s all changed, Rosie,’ says Elspeth. ‘I’m getting too old for it.’

‘How old are you?’ Rosie asks.

‘Oh God, almost twenty-seven,’ says Elspeth.

Twenty-seven. That’s about the age Rosie has felt most of her life. But now? The falls catch up with you, and the bruises catch up with you. How much fight has Rosie got left in her?

‘Nothing ever really changes,’ says Rosie. ‘People don’t change. I guarantee this book will be number one by the end of the month.’

She has some fight it seems.

‘That would really help me out,’ says Elspeth. ‘I’ve been thinking of opening a dog-grooming parlour instead.’

‘You have my word,’ says Rosie.

It makes Rosie happy to see the look on Elspeth’s face. People really like being told that everything is going to be okay.

Quite how she’s going to make it okay, Rosie doesn’t know, but she’ll do something.

‘I’ll make something happen,’ says Rosie.

Elspeth nods her thanks.

‘And if I don’t,’ says Rosie, ‘I promise I’ll die trying.’

25

Ernesto Manuelo Santiago de Sousa de Cuéllar is up an Italian mountain trying to find a Mexican dog.

It wouldn’t be his first choice of job, but often one doesn’t get one’s first choice. Certainly Ernesto has got used to this in his time at Interpol.

An enforcer for a Mexican cartel arrived in Madrid on Sunday evening with his dog. His dog is not, as you might suspect, a pitbull, or a Japanese fighting dog, it is a small poodle, and the Mexican enforcer refuses to travel anywhere without it.

Which is useful, as eighteen months ago, on a previous trip to Spain, the enforcer had taken the dog to a vet in Córdoba, and Interpol had persuaded the vet to implant a tracker in the dog’s diamanté collar. So, while he is in Europe, Ernesto is following his every move, and noting down everywhere he goes and everyone he meets.