Read Casanova for Free Online Page A

you’re right, of course. I’ll make sure we do it right. Thanks, thanks for your advice, I appreciate it.’
    ‘Did you find out anything more about the victim?’
    ‘No. I called in a favour at the Met but they’ve come back with nothing. It seems she’s a real mystery. Nevertheless, we’re going to keep on it. Something will turn up.’ She paused and then said, ‘Oh, I just thought, you didn’t leave me your number. If you let me have it I can call you with future developments.’
    I didn’t really want her to have my number but it would seem odd if I didn’t give it to her. She jotted it down as I read it out.
    ‘Okay, thanks again, I’ll call you when I know more.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    I drank my coffee and decided to call Meriwether. I would tell him what I’d just learnt about the police investigation and see what I got in return.
    ‘I’ve just spoken to young Miss Marple.’
    I decided to tell him straight, well this bit of it anyway.
    ‘It’s bad news. She’s onto Casanova already, his DNA was on the database and she knows he’s disappeared.’
    ‘Bugger,’ Meriwether said. ‘That’s bad luck for us. If she goes public then the hounds will scent blood. We mustn’t have that. You’ll have to call her back.’
    ‘...and say what?’
    Meriwether thought for a moment and then said, ‘Tell her you can find him for her. Suggest he’s left the country and that you’ll use the Interpol resources, Interpol’s own internet database, to track him down. Ask her to give you forty-eight hours before she goes public. Explain to her by doing it your way means there’s more chance of finding him because once he knows the police are onto him he’s likely to hide even deeper. If she goes for it, it’ll give us forty-eight hours to find him and sort things out.’
    As I listened to Meriwether, I realised something.
    ‘You already know where he is, don’t you?’
    Meriwether guffawed loudly and then replied, ‘Alice Chester and her two daughters left today to spend Christmas at a ski resort in Switzerland.’
    ‘You think he’s in Switzerland?’
    ‘What else is Switzerland famous for other than cuckoo clocks and overpriced wristwatches?’
    ‘Banks,’ I said.
     
    I called young Miss Marple straight back. I rehearsed it in my mind before I dialled. It was important to get it right. If we didn’t get the time we needed then, in Meriwether’s words, we were buggered. I hoped he was only speaking figuratively.
    Detective Superintendent Hannah Foley answered with the same formality as before. Again, I told her who was calling and again her voice lifted. It was a good start.
    ‘Did you forget something?’
    ‘I’ve been thinking.’
    ‘Oh, yes, what about?’
    ‘Maybe I can help you.’
    ‘Help me, how?’
    ‘If your suspect has done a runner, then there’s every chance he’s gone abroad, especially as money isn’t a problem for him.’
    She came straight back with, ‘We’ve checked with the airlines but there’s no record of him leaving the country.’
    I left a pause for a second or two before I said, ‘He probably chartered a private jet; that way he wouldn’t show up on any airlines’ passenger list; he’d only have to register with the jet company.’
    There was another pause but this time from the other end.
    ‘Maybe, yes, it’s possible I suppose. I could check with the private jet companies.’
    ‘Yes, you could try that. He could be anywhere in the world by now.’
    ‘So how can you help?’
    ‘I could ask the research department at our headquarters in Lyon to interrogate our internet database for worldwide movement.’ I’d remembered the Interpol headquarters were in Lyon, in France from my VX briefing. ‘Your suspect would have had to have his passport registered in whichever country he landed. The authorities will have it recorded on an entry list somewhere. If that country recognises Interpol, and there are a hundred and eighty-eight members, then we can find it,