Evans to Betsy

“I met Mr. Wunderlich. He thought a lot of himself. He acted the part of the famous psychic. He wasn’t the sort of man to die in a cave where his body might never have been found. If he was going to commit suicide, he’d make damned sure he staged a good one.”

Hughes nodded. “Interesting. I’ll bear that in mind. So if he didn’t kill himself, then someone else fed him enough drugs to knock him out.”

“And then put him in the cave?” Evan asked. “It would take a strong person to carry him the length of the beach and up the rocks, besides its being damned risky that they would be seen.”

“That’s something we’ll have to find out, won’t we?” Hughes gave his birdlike nod again. “Interesting case, Evans. Come on then. Let’s get started.” They had reached the former stately home that now housed administration and reception. Hughes went up the front steps, pushed open the swing door, and walked through as if he owned the place. Evan and Betsy followed. “I’ve taken over Lady Annabel’s office,” Hughes said, as if this were a perfectly natural thing to do. “Let her know that I’ll be ready for her in about half an hour. We’ll start with you, my dear. I’m sure you’ve got some fascinating things to tell us.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.” Betsy blushed with pleasure.

“Right. Then let’s get to it, shall we?” Hughes sat himself at Lady Annabel’s desk and indicated an upright wooden chair for Betsy. He didn’t motion for Evan to sit. “Your name is?”

“Betsy Edwards, sir. Well, Elizabeth Edwards really, but I’ve always been called Betsy.”

“And you come from the village of Llanfair?”

“That’s right, sir. Llanfair born and bred, as they say.”

“And what sort of work do you do, Betsy?”

“Until last week I was working at the Red Dragon—that’s the pub in Llanfair. Maybe you know it.” Hughes nodded. “But then I started working here at the Sacred Grove.”

“What made you change jobs? I’d imagine it’s a long complicated journey each day for someone who doesn’t have a car. You don’t have a car, do you?”

“Well, you see, sir, until now Emmy has been driving me to work each day.”

“Emmy?”

“The American lady. She’s the one who discovered my powers, sir.”

“Emmy?” The D.C.I. consulted his list. “How does she come into this? She’s not on my list as working here.”

“No, sir. She doesn’t work here. She’s a university lady, studying about people who have psychic powers. And she was living up in Llanfair until—well until this morning.”

Hughes looked across to Evan. “I don’t think we should let this woman go without having a word with her first. Do you know where she is living, Constable? Get her on the phone and tell her that she’s not to leave the area until I’ve spoken with her. Tell her I want her down here right away.”

“Very good, sir.” Evan picked up the phone and dialed Mrs. Williams’s number, noticing that the D.C.I. looked impressed that he had the number down pat. He didn’t mention it was his former landlady’s house.

“You’ve just caught her,” Mrs. Williams said. “You’re lucky she’s still here. She was planning to leave right after breakfast but her clothes were still wet on the line. She didn’t realize there wasn’t a clothes dryer in the village. ‘Nobody has a dryer around here,’ I told her. ‘We don’t go in for such things,’ I said. ‘Nothing wrong with a good old clothesline out in the wind, is there? You’d have to go down to Bangor to the laundromat if you want fancy things like clothes dryers,’ I told her. So she said …”

“Mrs. Williams,” Evan interrupted. “Would you run outside and bring her to the phone before she drives away?”

“Oh—or gore, right you are, Mr. Evans. Important, is it?” Mrs. Williams was startled by the abruptness of his interruption.

“Very,” Evan said. “The chief inspector wants to speak to her.”

“I was just heading out of the door,” Emmy said as she picked up the phone. “What’s up? I’ve got an afternoon flight to catch, so I don’t have much time.”

“The chief inspector wants a word,” Evan said and handed the phone to Hughes. Let him be the one to tell her that she wasn’t going to catch her flight. He didn’t think Emmy was the kind of woman who would have her plans disrupted without protest. Sure enough, he heard the raised voice escaping from the phone and saw Hughes’s pained expression as he held the phone well away from his ear.

“Just a minute, my dear young lady. I’m sorry if it’s disrupting your plans,” he said when he could get a word in edgewise, “but there has been a development concerning the death of Randy Wunderlich and you will be required to make a statement.”

“That set her straight,” he said as he put down the phone. “Damned American women always have to have the last word.” He turned back to Betsy. “Now tell us how you came to be involved with this woman, Betsy.”

“Well, sir, it was like this,” Betsy said. “She came into the pub and started asking questions. When she heard about my old nain having the second sight and seeing the Cannwyll Corff—ohh, I just remembered!” Betsy put her hand to her mouth. “When I went into Mr. Wunderlich’s office for the first time, what do you think I saw? There was a candle burning on his table. I should have known, shouldn’t I?”

“I’d imagine that candles are a fairly normal occurrence for a New Age center,” Chief Inspector Hughes said dryly. “Go on with what you were telling us about this—Emmy person.”

“Well, when Emmy heard that I was an only daughter of an only daughter, she said it was very possible that I had the second sight too and she’d like to take me to get tested. That’s when she brought me to the Sacred Grove, sir. And she did some tests with cards. She picked out cards with shapes on them and I had to guess what shape she was looking at and I got them nearly all right. So she said she wanted me to meet Mr. Wunderlich because he was a very famous psychic. So she took me down to see him and he tried a couple of tests, too, and then he said he wanted to work with me—to help me with my powers. Only …”