Sycamore Gap: A DCI Ryan Mystery(57)
Ryan couldn’t remember feeling more awkward in his life. Where the hell was the manager? He looked around the shop expansively, trying to find someone who looked remotely like they were in charge.
Phillips stood up straight and fixed him with a fatherly look.
“Son, when it’s right, you just know.”
Ryan sent up a prayer of thanks to whichever god was listening, as their conversation was interrupted by a glamorous-looking woman in her early sixties. She modelled a heavy pair of ruby and diamond earrings that matched the bright red dress she wore with panache. Her smile was wide and genuine.
“Hello! Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“No –”
“Yes –”
She looked between both men and gave them an understanding smile.
“I think I have something which may suit you,” she said delicately. “Some couples prefer a less traditional, more masculine engagement ring. Over here, we have a lovely selection of white and rose gold, which can be engraved …”
Ryan and Phillips exchanged a look and then grinned.
“You’d be lucky,” Ryan mouthed across to Phillips, then got back down to business.
“Thank you,” he stilled the woman’s progress across the room. “Actually, we’re not here to make a purchase. We’d like to ask you some questions regarding a particular item of jewellery you stocked in 2005 and, I believe, still have in stock.”
He took out his warrant card and made the introductions. To her credit, the woman, who turned out to be Penny Sutherland and the co-owner of the shop, didn’t bat an eyelid.
“Of course,” she nodded. “Please, follow me.”
They were seated in the back office, which boasted more shiny things, including a brand new coffee machine.
Catching the direction of Ryan’s gaze, Penny set the machine whirring.
“How can I help you both?”
Phillips drew out a picture of Amy Llewellyn’s bracelet, since cleaned up so that the design could be more clearly identified. It was a silver bangle, fashioned into the shape of a coiled snake.
Penny recognised it straight away.
“Yes, we sell quite a few of these. They’re quite popular at the moment, it’s all festival chic these days.”
Ryan didn’t stop to worry about what counted as ‘festival chic’.
“You stocked these in 2005? Could you tell us when you started to stock this particular bangle?”
“Oh yes,” she said without hesitation. “We’ve stocked that design ever since we opened the shop in 1992.”
“How can you be so sure? Don’t you need to check your records?”
Penny simply smiled.
“I’m positive, because my son makes that particular model. It’s part of his range. He’s a silversmith.”
“Would you – or he – have a record of how many units have been sold, and to whom?”
“Now, that’s a bit trickier,” she said, with regret. “Like I say, that range of jewellery has always sold very well, which means there are quite a few sales to go through. It would help to know a date range, to narrow it down a bit?”
“We were hoping that you could tell us the ‘when’ part,” Phillips put in. “But how about we start with 2004-05, and go from there?”
Ryan nodded. They would work from the assumption that the bracelet had been a gift from Amy’s unknown lover and hope for the best.
“You’re lucky,” Penny said, tapping at the keyboard in front of her until she found the correct spreadsheet. “If you’d asked me for records from the nineties, they would be long gone. It wasn’t until 2000 that we really moved everything across onto the computer.”
She made a clacking noise with her teeth, while she searched the digital files.
“Another thing in your favour is that we offer a guarantee on that range, so we take down a customer’s details in case they need to use it.”
The computer pinged a bit more.
“Here we are! From 2004-5, we sold sixty-eight of those bracelets.”
“Names?”
“Ah, well.” She linked her hands together and adopted a resigned expression, ready to impart bad news. “It isn’t that I don’t want to help you, but the thing is, I can’t just hand out names and addresses of customers willy-nilly. Data protection, I think they call it.”
Ryan knew it well. They stumbled into that particular piece of legislation at least once during every active investigation.
“We’re investigating the murders of two young women.”
Penny heaved her ample chest theatrically.
“Boys, believe me, I want to tell you everything you need to know, but I’ve got enough years behind me to know better. If you could only narrow it down a bit?”