Chapter 77
Joyce
Everyone knows everything now, and that only seems fair.
So where are Johnny and Bobby? Now we’ve dealt with the bones, I know Elizabeth will be thinking about how we track them down.
That’s right up her street, isn’t it? I will get a call in the morning and it will be “Joyce, we’re going to Reading,” or “Joyce, we’re going to Inverness, or Timbuktu,” and bit by bit she’ll tell me why, and before you know it we’ll be having a cup of tea with Bobby Tanner, or a café au lait with Turkish Johnny.
You wait and see. Tomorrow morning, before ten a.m. Guaranteed.
The only time I ever use my passport is when I need to pick up a parcel, but I’ve just checked and it has three years left.
I remember when I first got it, wondering if it would be my last ever.
The odds on it being renewed are with me now, I think.
Anyway, that’s just to say that if Johnny or Bobby Tanner are abroad somewhere, then I wouldn’t put it past Elizabeth to hop on a plane. We’re only a drive from Gatwick here.
I could send Joanna a postcard. “Who, me? Oh, I’m in Cyprus for a couple of days.
Tracking down a fugitive. Possibly armed, but you mustn’t worry.
” Though no one sends postcards anymore, do they?
Joanna has shown me how to send photos on my phone, but I’m beggared if it’s ever worked when I tried. I just get that spinning circle.
Perhaps I could ask Bernard to come along with me? “A couple of days in the sun? Last-minute thing. We just fancied it.” I think it might frighten the poor man to death.
I don’t like to give up on a chase, but Bernard seems to be drifting further and further away from me. He was not a bundle of fun at lunch, and there was plenty of steak and kidney left over.
And don’t think I don’t know what the others think. What they suspect. They’ll be checking whether Bernard was here fifty years ago. They haven’t spoken to me about it, but you mark my words. Check away, don’t mind me.
Timbuktu is a real place, by the way. Did you know that? It came up in a quiz once. Ibrahim will remember where it is, but I did think that was interesting.