Chapter 32
It is hot in Palm Springs.
It is so hot that Steve has just taken his denim jacket off.
He hasn’t gone so far as to join Rosie and Amy in the pool, despite Rosie’s pleas. Get a man in a pool and you’re ninety per cent of the way to getting him naked. Sure, you’re still missing some important information, but you get a good idea.
Rosie lies on a lounger submerged in the pool, under an umbrella fixed into the pool.
Amy lies next to her looking disgustingly fit.
Her face is hidden under a splayed copy of And the Devil Blinked First. Amy had been reading it on the plane, and Rosie had pretended not to be touched.
Steve is drinking a Diet Sprite under an awning.
If Amy is enjoying the book, surely other young people might enjoy it? There will be more sales figures through next week. If they’re bad, then Rosie is in trouble. Maybe they’ll be good? Hard to imagine bad news in this house, under this sun.
The house belongs to Rosie’s friends, Craig and Craig. They are not here ‘because it’s August, darling, and August is Toronto’.
The sky above is brilliant blue, the mountains in the distance a dusty pink, the parasols and loungers are vibrant yellows and greens, and Steve’s T-shirt is a dark grey, with even darker grey patches under the arms.
‘What does he do?’ asks Steve. ‘Craig?’
‘Which Craig?’ Rosie asks. ‘It really is cool in the pool, you know?’
‘The main Craig,’ says Steve. ‘The richer Craig?’
‘He designs furniture,’ says Rosie.
‘How do you mean?’ asks Steve.
‘What do you mean, “How do I mean”?’ says Rosie.
‘How does someone design furniture?’ says Steve. ‘A table’s a table, isn’t it?’
‘You can have different types of table,’ says Amy, from under her book.
‘I know that,’ says Steve. ‘But once you’ve had a big table and a small table and a medium table, and a table made out of wood and a table made out of metal, what else is there to do?’
‘Do you ever worry you lack imagination, Stevie?’ asks Rosie.
‘What do you do?’ says Steve. ‘Say “Here’s a table with three legs and, I don’t know, a red top”, and suddenly you can afford this house?’
‘That must be it,’ says Rosie.
‘What a racket,’ says Steve. ‘What does the other Craig do?’
‘Doctor,’ says Rosie.
‘That’s more like it,’ says Steve. ‘But he gets paid less than a furniture designer?’
‘I do wish sometimes that you’d just stop talking and take your top off. Put on a bit of a show for once.’
‘Good luck with either of those,’ says Amy. ‘When are we meeting Tommy Griffin?’
‘We’re going to his country club at six,’ says Rosie.
‘What did he say when you spoke to him?’
‘He said he only took meetings if there was money in it, and then he asked if there was money in it, and I said there was no money in it, and he said, well, then there’s no meeting, and I said, did you know Jakob Eriksson has been killing Vern Blackwood’s bodyguards, and he said, you know Jakob Eriksson, huh, and I said, no, I don’t know Jakob Eriksson personally, and somebody just told us she doesn’t believe he even exists, and Mr Griffin said, well, I know for a fact he exists, and I said, then that’s what we’d like to talk to you about, and he said, so it’s not money, but it is murder, and I said, yes, that sums it up very nicely, and he said, I’ll see you at The Viceroy Club at six, and I said, we shall look forward to it, and he said, do you golf, and I said, most certainly not, and he said, thank God for that, everyone here golfs, do you drink, and I said, I certainly do, and he said, thank God for that, nobody here drinks, we shall have a fine evening of it. ’
‘Okay,’ says Amy.
‘I wouldn’t mind trying golf,’ says Steve.
‘You’d look nice in the trousers,’ says Rosie.
‘When will it stop being so hot?’ Amy asks.
Rosie looks at her watch. ‘September the 25th.’
‘Do you think Craig does chairs too?’ says Steve from the terrace.
‘I should think so,’ says Rosie. ‘Why limit yourself?’
‘Same thing though,’ says Steve. ‘Four legs, a back. And you get more than a doctor for that?’
‘Stevie,’ says Rosie, ‘you’re currently being paid more than a doctor to solve two murders.’
Steve grunts. ‘That’s different.’
‘What’s the name of our company?’
‘We Solve Murders,’ says Steve.
‘We Solve Murders,’ repeats Rosie. ‘Not We Complain About Furniture Designers. So less moaning and more solving.’
‘It’s too hot to solve murders today,’ says Amy. ‘We’ll solve it this evening.’
Rosie sometimes has to remind herself that she, Amy and Steve are a crack unit of investigators. But perhaps Amy is right. Perhaps they will solve it this evening. Perhaps Tommy Griffin can finally lead them to this elusive Mr Eriksson.
Ernesto says that Jakob Eriksson is a ruthless killer.
Vern says that Jakob Eriksson is a friend.
Sara Lindstrat doesn’t believe there is anyone called Jakob Eriksson.
They can’t all be right, so perhaps Tommy Griffin will have the answers they’re looking for? No harm in relaxing in the pool and getting a tan in the meantime.
The last thing Rosie hears before she falls asleep is Steve saying, ‘Do you think he does wardrobes?’
The investigation is in safe hands.