Free Smile and be a Villain by Jeanne M. Dams Page A

no, I’m sure it wasn’t. It was bad enough just hearing about it. He was a likeable chap, and a good customer, as well.’
    â€˜Really,’ I said. ‘Now that does surprise me. Although I don’t know why it should. A retired clergyman is just as entitled as anyone else to enjoy the latest gadgets, I suppose.’
    â€˜Ah, well, not too many of the clergy, retired or otherwise, can afford the very latest in audio equipment. And a brand-new laptop as well. He had an iPad on order, and my best TV. I’ve had to cancel those orders now. Yes, he’ll be sadly missed.’
    Another customer claimed his attention, and he left Alan and me to a feast of speculation. ‘He was splashing a lot of money around,’ I said as we walked out the door.
    â€˜And on very conspicuous purchases.’ Alan frowned. ‘It’s almost too much of a good thing.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜If he came to this remote place to run away from his misdeeds in America, as we’ve been speculating, wouldn’t he have tried to keep a low profile? Concentrate on helping in the church, doing good works?’
    â€˜He did all that.’
    â€˜But he also went out and bought some very expensive electronics, toys obviously meant for himself. As you pointed out, it would have cost a great deal to ship them somewhere else. And it was rumoured that he was planning to buy a house. It seems he meant to turn it into a palace. That doesn’t reconcile very well with our idea that he had come here to hide.’
    â€˜Oh, dear. You’re right. It doesn’t. Do you suppose we’re all wrong about him? He really was a nice man, generous with his time, greatly loved in his church?’
    â€˜One thing we know: he was a complex man. There are too many different opinions about him. And I very much fear that if we’re to come to any intelligent conclusions, we’re going to have to sample a few more opinions. Come along, love. It’s nearly happy hour at the Georgian House, and I’m in need of a pint.’
    We had our pints, and then we had a leisurely dinner at the Thai restaurant one street over, and then we came back to our room and read some more about Alderney until it was time to assemble at the Wildlife Trust office for our evening walk.
    It was still quite light out. The sun only just set, but we had brought flashlights. Plainly before we were home again it would be dark, and we had no idea where we’d be walking. Quite a crowd had chosen to go on the walk, and I was amazed at the interest in bats, of all things.
    Our guide on the walk was a French girl with an accent that was charming, if a little hard to understand. She explained that she was finishing her degree work in France and was in Alderney to do some research into the island’s wildlife. She stressed that her English was not perfect (‘A whole lot better than my French,’I whispered to Alan) and begged us to ask if there was something we didn’t understand.
    â€˜We will look first for bats.’ She explained the species we expected to find, and I was extremely relieved that they did not include the huge fruit bats I had seen in a zoo back in Indiana. She handed us little black boxes and explained their use. ‘Bats use echolocation to find their way in the dark,’ she said. ‘They make very high-pitched sounds, too high for human ears to hear. These devices turn those sounds into clicks. If you hear the box clicking, it means there are bats nearby. Slow clicks tell you the bats are flying slowly, looking about for food. Very fast clicks mean the bats are flying fast, fast, catching insects.’ She showed us how to turn them on and wave them around, pointing in different directions to ‘hear’ bats.
    I was too proud to cling to Alan’s arm, but I stuck very close by him as we ventured out into the twilight. We headed first for the churchyard. Of course, I