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Lifting the Lid(17)

By:Rob Johnson


Not for the first time, Swann wondered how he’d ever made it to detective sergeant and was about to leave when the phone rang.

‘Get that, will you?’ said Logan, without looking up from his paper. ‘I’m a bit busy at the moment.’

Swann reached across the desk for the receiver. ‘Yes?’

It was a result at last. Not a major one but a result nevertheless. She grabbed a pen and wrote down the details.

‘Oh yes,’ she said, putting down the phone and pumping the air with her fist. ‘Detective Constable Maggie Swann strikes again.’

Logan cocked an eye at her over the top of his newspaper. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve done something useful for once.’

But her self-satisfaction was more than a match for his sarcasm, and she rode the punch without flinching. ‘The whole bloke and dog on a moped thing seemed a bit unlikely to me, so I thought I’d—’

‘—Find out whether there are any other vehicles registered in his name?’

This time, her smugness took the full force of the blow and threw in the towel. ‘Camper van,’ she said in a bland monotone. ‘VW Transporter.’

‘We’ll make a detective of you yet,’ said Logan with a wink and a click of the tongue.

Swann held up the middle three fingers of her right hand, the knuckles towards him.

‘Read between the lines,’ she said.





CHAPTER TWELVE



Sandra’s contentment of earlier that morning had evaporated completely, and she was in no mood to be messed about. She had interrogated the two chambermaids until she was satisfied they really didn’t know anything about the missing envelope. They’d told her about the strange man who had come into what they now knew to be her room and about how he had retrieved the mad dog from the room that was actually his.

Their story was far too bizarre to have been invented, Sandra had eventually concluded, and she doubted they would have had the wit to have concocted such a tale even if they’d wanted to. However, partly to reassure herself and partly out of spite, she had insisted that they turn out their pockets. Not surprisingly, they had objected strongly, but they had given in when she’d threatened to call the police.

There could only be one explanation for the missing envelope. The chambermaids’ strange man with the mad dog must have taken it, but how he knew it was there and why he had stolen it was a total mystery. She was almost certain it must have been the same man she had bumped into on the stairs since it was unlikely there had been more than one guy with a dog in the hotel. She also recalled how furtive he’d seemed. At least she’d be able to recognise him again, so this chance encounter had been fortunate indeed. Even so, a few more details wouldn’t go amiss.

‘Don’t muck me about,’ said Sandra, glaring at the hotel manager from the opposite side of his desk. ‘Just give me the name and address, and I’ll be on my way.’

‘The thing is, madam, we can’t go giving out the details of other guests willy-nilly,’ the manager said with his best attempt at an ingratiating manner.

‘Willy-nilly? Willy-nilly? Now you listen to me, matey. I’ve had a very valuable item stolen from my room – a room in your hotel, I might add – and I’m still not entirely convinced that one of your staff wasn’t responsible.’

‘That’s a very serious accusation, and I really must insist that—’

‘Insist all you like, pal, but unless you give me what I want I’ll have you so deep in scandal this place will be about as popular as a Chernobyl Travelodge.’

She knew she was bluffing and the manager probably did too, so after some further exchanges of Sandra’s threats and the manager’s flustered protestations, she decided to try a different approach. Softening her voice, she pointed out that this particular guest had broken the rules by bringing a dog into the hotel, so why should he show him any loyalty?

She could tell from the pause which followed and the expression on his face that this idea held some appeal for him. Perhaps he saw it as a way of exacting revenge on the wilful transgressor of his precious rules, or maybe he was beginning to believe that this she-devil in front of him really could cause serious trouble. Whatever the reason, his fingers hovered briefly over his computer keyboard and then started rattling away at the keys. Peering into the monitor, he read out a name and address while Sandra wrote them into her notepad.

‘Thank you so much for your cooperation,’ she said. ‘You’ve been most helpful.’

Just as she opened the office door, he called out after her. ‘There will of course be a charge for the broken cistern lid I’m afraid.’