Page 17 of We Chase Shadows

Okay, thinks Steve, this is Ernesto. Unless Ernesto has a driver also called Ernesto.

Rosie and Ernesto hug. And not the way you might hug a driver. Ernesto is a full three inches shorter than Rosie. ‘Beautiful Rosie. The Queen is here!’

Finally tearing himself away from Rosie, Ernesto looks at Steve, and his manic energy disappears into immediate stillness. He looks Steve up and down, very, very slowly, then spreads his arms and begins to shake his head.

‘Can it be?’ starts Ernesto. ‘Can this be Steve Wheeler? I heard about him, and now I see him?’

‘Umm,’ says Steve. ‘Yes. I’m Steve.’

Ernesto spreads his arms wider still and advances. He wraps Steve in an enormous bear hug. Or as enormous as Ernesto can manage.

‘I heard so much about this Steve,’ says Ernesto, loosening his grip, stepping back and really taking Steve in. ‘Handsome Steve. Brave Steve. Steve shot a guy in a Coldplay T-shirt. And here he is.’

‘In the flesh,’ agrees Rosie.

Steve is trying to think of something to say.

‘Did you really play for Barcelona?’

Ernesto waves this away. ‘Only a little.’

‘And you were Special Forces?’

‘I blew up some stuff,’ says Ernesto. ‘Nothing important.’

Steve stares into the man’s big blue eyes. Like oceans of joy swirled with pools of love.

‘You don’t wear sunglasses?’

‘I think it’s cheaper to just screw your eyes up.’ Ernesto then nods to Steve’s T-shirt. ‘You like Van Halen?’

‘Just a bit,’ says Steve. He sees that Rosie is leaning against the SEAT, one eyebrow raised, smug smirk on her face.

‘They played in Barcelona,’ says Ernesto. ‘I said Interpol needed to investigate something backstage. But we didn’t need to investigate anything. I just wanted to meet Van Halen.’

‘You met Van Halen?’

Ernesto nods, seriously. ‘I thought maybe I should arrest them for something and then I could spend the whole night in a cell with them, ask them everything, you know, but in the end I didn’t arrest them. I really try to be a good cop, but I was very tempted.’

‘Still, though,’ says Steve. Why does a part of Steve feel like he’s cheating on Tony Taylor?

Ernesto nods. ‘Still, though. So you guys solving a murder?’

Steve looks at Rosie. ‘Uh …’

‘What have you found out about our lovely suspects for us?’ Rosie asks.

Ernesto reaches through an open window and takes a laptop from his passenger seat. He places it on the bonnet of the car and opens it up.

‘Tommy Griffin,’ says Ernesto, showing them a photograph of a man with a cigar and a scowl. ‘Bad man. FBI have a lot on him, but never enough to make an arrest. He’s in Palm Springs, if you like to go see him.’

‘We’ll probably have to, knowing my luck,’ Steve says. ‘Why doesn’t anyone live in Iceland?’

Ernesto nods. ‘Criminals like hot places. Georgie Glazier, the ex-wife, we’ve got nothing official, she’s pretty clean. I sent you her address, right?’

‘You did, yes,’ says Rosie.

‘But Eriksson is the biggest player,’ says Ernesto. ‘He’s the one that worries me. And no one worries me. I’m Ernesto Manuelo Santiago de Sousa de Cuéllar.’