Inhuman Remains by Quintin Jardine

Author:Quintin Jardine [Jardine, Quintin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Crime, Mystery & Detective, General, Scotland
ISBN: 9781847828781
Google: 0mS5bTP7bFcC
Amazon: 075534023X
Goodreads: 6040726
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘Not quite. One of my officers spoke to a French couple who were in St Martí yesterday morning. He was a retired policeman, bossy type, the sort who sees everything, knows everything. He said that he saw a woman and a man walk down through the village. She was quite tall for a woman, he told us, with dark but shiny hair, whatever that’s supposed to mean; not young, but not ancient either, in her sixties maybe. That sounds like your aunt, yes?’

‘That’s Adrienne . . . or at least it’s a good description of her. What about him?’

‘Much younger: he was about one metre eighty, slim, with bleached-blond hair and a little moustache. The Frenchman said he was a homosexual, and probably American, but I have no idea how he came to either of those conclusions.’

Maybe not, I thought, but if he was describing the guy I knew as Willie Venable, and I was damn certain that he was, he was spot on with the first, and close to the mark, at the very least, with the second. ‘Did he say anything else about them?’ I asked Alex. ‘St Martí’s usually thronged. How did he come to remember that couple?’

‘He said they were walking very close together, as if he was helping her, holding her by the elbow. And they didn’t speak. When the Frenchman said, “Bonjour”, they both ignored him. What do you think, Primavera? Could it have been her?’

‘I’m damn certain of it. I think I know the guy. If you can, you might organise a search of non-EU-citizen airport landing cards, looking for the name Venable, Willie Venable, possibly American, but just as likely Canadian. It’s a long shot, though.’

‘I’ll make a call to the immigration office, in Madrid, to see if they have that name logged in their computer. When will you be back here?’

‘As soon as I can, but my first priority will be to get to Tom. My second,’ I told him, ‘will be to catch up with my goddaughter. How is she?’

‘She’s lovely, and growing by the day. You get back as soon as you can. I’ll keep an eye on your house till you do.’

I felt better after those calls, more in touch with reality, somehow. And for some strange reason, I felt better about Adrienne. If she was being held captive by ‘Willie Venable’, at least she was in the hands of someone I’d met, someone I’d spoken to, and someone who had a streak of kindness in him, unless my judgement of my fellow humans had gone completely out of the window. I wasn’t nearly as confident about ‘Sebastian Loman’. There had been a certain air of toughness about him. But the other one, even if he was an abductor, was capable, I hoped, of treating my aunt properly, and with respect.

I was still thinking positively when the receptionist called across to me: ‘Excuse me, madam, you may join your friend. Take the lift to Reception on the thirty-third floor, where you’ll be met.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.