Page 63 of We Chase Shadows

‘Do you ever worry you lack imagination, Stevie?’ asks Rosie.

‘What do you do?’ says Steve. ‘Say “Here’s a table with three legs and, I don’t know, a red top”, and suddenly you can afford this house?’

‘That must be it,’ says Rosie.

‘What a racket,’ says Steve. ‘What does the other Craig do?’

‘Doctor,’ says Rosie.

‘That’s more like it,’ says Steve. ‘But he gets paid less than a furniture designer?’

‘I do wish sometimes that you’d just stop talking and take your top off. Put on a bit of a show for once.’

‘Good luck with either of those,’ says Amy. ‘When are we meeting Tommy Griffin?’

‘We’re going to his country club at six,’ says Rosie.

‘What did he say when you spoke to him?’

‘He said he only took meetings if there was money in it, and then he asked if there was money in it, and I said there was no money in it, and he said, well, then there’s no meeting, and I said, did you know Jakob Eriksson has been killing Vern Blackwood’s bodyguards, and he said, you know Jakob Eriksson, huh, and I said, no, I don’t know Jakob Eriksson personally, and somebody just told us she doesn’t believe he even exists, and Mr Griffin said, well, I know for a fact he exists, and I said, then that’s what we’d like to talk to you about, and he said, so it’s not money, but it is murder, and I said, yes, that sums it up very nicely, and he said, I’ll see you at The Viceroy Club at six, and I said, we shall look forward to it, and he said, do you golf, and I said, most certainly not, and he said, thank God for that, everyone here golfs, do you drink, and I said, I certainly do, and he said, thank God for that, nobody here drinks, we shall have a fine evening of it.’

‘Okay,’ says Amy.

‘I wouldn’t mind trying golf,’ says Steve.

‘You’d look nice in the trousers,’ says Rosie.

‘When will it stop being so hot?’ Amy asks.

Rosie looks at her watch. ‘September the 25th.’

‘Do you think Craig does chairs too?’ says Steve from the terrace.

‘I should think so,’ says Rosie. ‘Why limit yourself?’

‘Same thing though,’ says Steve. ‘Four legs, a back. And you get more than a doctor for that?’

‘Stevie,’ says Rosie, ‘you’re currently being paid more than a doctor to solve two murders.’

Steve grunts. ‘That’s different.’

‘What’s the name of our company?’

‘We Solve Murders,’ says Steve.

‘We Solve Murders,’ repeats Rosie. ‘Not We Complain About Furniture Designers. So less moaning and more solving.’

‘It’s too hot to solve murders today,’ says Amy. ‘We’ll solve it this evening.’

Rosie sometimes has to remind herself that she, Amy and Steve are a crack unit of investigators. But perhaps Amy is right. Perhaps they will solve it this evening. Perhaps Tommy Griffin can finally lead them to this elusive Mr Eriksson.

Ernesto says that Jakob Eriksson is a ruthless killer.

Vern says that Jakob Eriksson is a friend.

Sara Lindstrat doesn’t believe there is anyone called Jakob Eriksson.

They can’t all be right, so perhaps Tommy Griffin will have the answers they’re looking for? No harm in relaxing in the pool and getting a tan in the meantime.