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“No idea,” Patsy said. “Disappeared.”
“We spoke to his students,” Mags said, “but he had gone, and no one knows where. We got his home address and phone, but he’s not answering his phone. He lives about five miles out of town in a village called Maes y Coed, so we can’t get there without a car. Mind you, they probably wouldn’t let us in, even if we had a car. Millionaires row. My Gran says there isn’t a house in the whole village for less than six hundred grand.”
“So, not completely millionaire’s row, then. Anyway, the car’s in bits,” Patsy added, as if it was news.
“We know,” Eddy said. “We were there. And millionaire’s row is a figure of speech.”
“I was just explaining…”
”What did you find?” Charlie said. The effort of keeping his colleagues on track was damping down the panic. He was self-aware enough to recognise that he had been the joker in the past. The temptation was to join in, a temptation he resisted, though not without an internal smile.
“Not much,” Mags said. “The students we spoke to were in the painting tutor group. They said Kaylan in particular was a big Vitruvious fan. A couple of them said Vitruvious was one of the reasons they had applied to the college, but they found the reality wasn’t so exciting. Bit of a prat according to one student. Goes on and on about inequality and refugees. Says our work must have a social message. Then he turns up in a posh car. Another said she thought he was going to have favourites, and that Kaylan was a suck up, despite not being much of an artist. Wanted to be in the in-crowd. No idea if any of it was true. They’ve only been at college for a few weeks.”
“Anything else?” Charlie asked.
“We went to the hall of residence and asked around. One young woman obviously liked Rico. Said he had a cool tattoo of a “lonesome pine” on his shoulder. A few people said he was as thick as two planks, and a brilliant painter. The consensus among the few people we saw was that Kaylan and Rico were quiet, as in not noisy, and that they had takeaways most nights—which was apparently because they were Americans,” Mags said. “But they’ve turned up. So a lot of what we did was a waste of time.”
“Only one of them,” Charlie reminded her. “We need to get up there and talk to Kaylan ASAP. Rico is still missing. They’ve been gone for a week, and I don’t think they went willingly.”
He explained what he and Eddy had seen in the hall of residence. “Rico had left his credit card and his toothbrush. He had tickets for events in the next few weeks. All the evidence was that they expected to be back pretty soon.”
“Except, we can’t go to Brocklehurst without a car,” Patsy pointed out.
“I have a car,” Eddy said.
“OK. Here’s the plan,” Charlie said. He wasn’t sure it was the best plan, but they needed to keep moving, and there wasn’t time for a thorough evaluation of all the possible options. “Eddy and I will go up to Brocklehurst and talk to Kaylan, bring him back if we can. We need to know if there’s anything in this idea that Rico is dead. Either way, we need to keep looking for Rico.
“Patsy and Mags, get onto the owner of the white van and get a description of this Gwilym. If he sounds like our fire-starter, make sure you know where we can pick him up. I'm really sorry, but I need you to look at the data stick video. It’s not going to be fun, not if it’s all like the bit I saw. But you two worked here. What I saw looked pretty amateur, and if it was made by someone here, you’re the most likely to recognise something or someone. Last of all, get onto the garage and see if we can get the other car back. If they say no, find somewhere to hire one. Back here at five if we can.”
He stood up and brushed the crumbs from his trousers. The others did the same. Eddy offered them all a high five. “All for one,” he said, with a big grin. Charlie rolled his eyes.
“Let’s get going,” he said.
Eddy led Charlie to a big car park on the street behind the police station. He pointed to a terrace of houses on one side of the car park. “Mum’s house. And Aunty Dilys’s place where you’ll be staying is down there.” He pointed at a street on the other side, going off at right angles. Most of the houses were rendered and painted in a variety of colours, ranging from cream and white to bright blue. The overall effect was oddly harmonious. “We’re going to be neighbours.” He produced a set of keys from his pocket and there was a bleep as he unlocked a grey VW Golf, not much different to the one currently sitting burned-out in the police station yard, covered in foam. “Hop in. Chuck that stuff in the back.”
The stuff was a pair of trainers the size of small boats, and a black hoodie Charlie could have used as a tent. Eddy had the driver’s seat so far back that no one could sit behind him.
“I’ll get directions,” Charlie said, and got out his phone, noting approvingly that Eddy had a charging cable hanging invitingly from the dashboard. The phone told him the trip would take an hour and a half, so there was little chance of their being back for five. He said as much to Eddy.
“I think I can improve on that, Sarge,” he said.
Playlist
Monday 2.30pm
From: Breaking News
Welsh flasher threatens women with ‘huge knife’. The small north Wales town of Llanfair is reeling from a series of knife attacks on young women. The flasher reportedly chooses his victims and cuts their clothes with a knife before forcing them to watch him masturbate. Breaking News understands that to date, no women have been injured.
Eddy observed the speed limits, in that he drove as fast as they permitted. He had good reactions—he needed them at the speed he drove—and Charlie thought that the car had much better acceleration than his own version. The way Eddy pushed the car, overtook without hesitation and scraped through the occasional traffic light at the very last minute would undoubtedly shave time off the journey.
“I trained as a traffic cop,” Eddy said when Charlie commented. “I’ve done every driving course on offer. But in the end, it wasn’t for me. High speed chases are bloody dangerous.”
“This car looks the same as mine—before the fire, obviously. But it seems more powerful.”
Eddy grinned. “I may or may not have made a few changes. I may or may not be a bit of a speed queen.”
Charlie smiled back. There was nothing he could do until they arrived, so he could relax and enjoy the ride. Eddy turned the music up, loud enough to enjoy, but not so loud as to make conversation difficult. First up was George Ezra, and both of them sang along, Eddy marking time on the steering wheel, while still managing to whip the car in and out of slower traffic.
