Free The Scent of Death--A Sukey Reyholds British police procedural by Betty Rowlands Page A

few moments she switched off and said, ‘He wants us both back at his office right away.’
    â€˜What about Mike and Tim?’
    â€˜He said we should update them and leave them to catch up with as many on their list as they can,’ said Sukey. ‘It will be after eight by the time we’ve seen the DI and I doubt if he’ll expect any of us to work overtime, so with luck we’ll all be able to go home at a reasonable hour.’
    They found Rathbone sitting in front of his computer. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of some info about this Romeo chap, but Google isn’t much help. Did you happen to get the number of his van?’
    â€˜Of course; it’s in our reports, Guv,’ said Vicky.
    â€˜Which you haven’t submitted yet,’ he snapped.
    â€˜Give us a chance,’ Vicky pleaded. ‘We’ve been working our socks off and so have Tim and Mike. There are a lot of names to check off, DNA samples to deal with and notes to polish up.’
    â€˜All right – so give me the number now.’ Vicky wrote it down and he entered it in the computer. ‘All it says here is that it’s a Dormobile camper van on a VW chassis, manufactured in 1979. Last registered owner was a Frederick Jones of Clapham who took it off the road eight years ago.’
    â€˜Romeo seems to live from hand to mouth, so maybe he picked it up in a scrapyard and got a mate to fix it up for him,’ Sukey suggested.
    â€˜It’s obvious he didn’t bother to register it,’ Rathbone pointed out. ‘He probably couldn’t afford to pay tax and insurance anyway. Maybe he moves around for short distances, parks off the road and takes a chance at being picked up by the traffic department.’
    â€˜He’s obviously got away with it so far,’ said Vicky. ‘So where do we go from here, Guv?’
    â€˜We don’t know in which direction he was heading, but if my surmise is correct he should be within a fairly short radius of the hotel. I’ll get him located and stopped until we can question him.’ He picked up his phone, punched in a number and gave the necessary instructions. ‘And now,’ he said after a protracted yawn, ‘there doesn’t seem much more we can do from here and it’s nearly eight o’clock so we might as well go home. I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve located him. Tell DCs Pringle and Haskins and say I’ll be in touch.’ He shut down the computer, stood up and put on his jacket. ‘Till tomorrow then. Good night. Turn off the light before you leave.’ He marched out, slamming the door behind him.
    â€˜Charming,’ muttered Vicky. ‘At least, the boys will be happy to see us home at a reasonable time. I’ll check the car in and then call Chris to tell him to rustle up something extra tasty.’
    â€˜I’ll call Harry and tell him the same,’ said Sukey. ‘With luck, Romeo will have gone somewhere too obscure for traffic to locate him, which would mean we’ll get tomorrow off.’
    â€˜In your dreams!’ said Vicky. ‘We’ll still be on duty and something else might turn up to keep us amused. So long for now.’
    When Sukey reached home she found Harry in the kitchen and the table laid for supper. ‘Something smells good.’
    â€˜Chicken
chasseur
,’ he announced, giving a stir to the steaming contents of a pan. ‘I made it for Dad and me during the week; we ate half and I froze the rest.’
    â€˜You’re a star,’ she said.
    â€˜You’re only saying that because it’s true.’ He took her in his arms and she clung to him with her face buried in his shoulder. It suddenly dawned on her how desperately tired she was.
    After a few moments he released her and said, ‘Sit down and relax. We’ll have some wine while the rice is cooking. I’ve brought this bottle of Pinot Grigio – it goes