Page 41 of We Chase Shadows

‘No other option,’ says Steve. ‘Sorry, Vern. I’ll head down into Lucca, explain it all and bring them up here. Maybe have a couple of coffees before I go in.’

‘Can you give me six to seven hours to clear a few things away before they get here?’ Vern asks, with a sigh.

The second the police arrive, this job will be out of their hands. Rosie knows this, but, fortunately, she has a plan.

‘Or –’ says Rosie.

‘We’re going to the police,’ says Steve.

‘Yes, or –’ says Rosie.

‘None of us likes the police, Rosie –’ says Amy.

‘None taken,’ says Steve.

‘– but Steve’s right. We don’t report this and we could be in serious trouble.’

‘Two things,’ says Rosie. ‘Firstly, serious trouble is my favourite kind of trouble. But, secondly, and that aside, I absolutely agree we should report it. It’s just a question of who we report it to.’

‘The police,’ says Amy. ‘You know, blue lights, uniforms, increasingly tainted brand?’

‘It’s a question of which police though,’ says Rosie. ‘It feels to me that if a German bodyguard has been murdered in the Italian villa of an English criminal –’

‘Semi-criminal,’ clarifies Vern.

‘Possibly at the behest of a Swedish mastermind … then that might be too big a job for the local bobbies?’

‘What are you thinking?’ Amy asks.

Rosie holds up her palms to show she is about to make a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

‘I just wonder if it might be a job for Interpol?’

‘We could tell Ernesto, you mean?’ says Steve.

Bingo, Steve. Our friendly police officer, keeping us nicely in the loop.

‘Who’s Ernesto?’ asks Vern.

‘Interpol detective, poet, mighty Spanish stallion,’ says Rosie. ‘Would you like that, Stevie? Get Ernesto involved? See his lovely big grinning face?’

‘I mean, it makes sense,’ says Steve. ‘I don’t mind.’

‘What a lot of friends you’re making,’ says Rosie. There’s something very wholesome about Steve’s relationships with his male friends. Boring, for sure, but wholesome.

‘I don’t know about Interpol,’ says Vern. ‘I don’t know they’d approve of me.’

‘Ernesto will leave you alone,’ says Rosie. ‘He’d only be interested in the murders. I’ll let him know the score.’

‘You promise?’ says Vern. ‘He doesn’t poke his nose into my affairs?’

Rosie senses an opportunity. She doesn’t want Vern in Switzerland, or on a yacht, she wants him where she can keep an eye on him. And, more to the point, she wants to keep investigating.

‘When I say it out loud, I don’t like it,’ says Rosie. ‘Perhaps Steve is right. The murder was in Lucca. That’s where we should report it.’

‘I do think, though, that Interpol –’ starts Vern.

Rosie waves this away. ‘It wouldn’t be ethical, and I founded We Solve Murders on ethical grounds.’