you how to find Calamity.'
'What would have happened if I didn't renounce you? Told you I still loved you?'
'He said you would never do it, you would never let Calamity die; but if you did he would let us go. We could be together.'
'Really?'
'He said if you did that, if you sacrificed an innocent child for me, he would be quite impressed and would have to admit that maybe your love was even greater than his.'
I nodded. It sort of made sense.
'Do you think he really would have let us go?' asked Myfanwy.
'I'm not sure. What do you think?'
'I think he was planning to kill us all, including himself.'
We drove on in silence for a while, in a dark world of old leather, polished wood and chrome bezels.
'Anyway, I told him there was no way you would be stupid enough to fall for such a dumb trick. And he said you would.'
'He was right.'
'No he wasn't, you outsmarted him. You thought of something he didn't expect. That was really cool. Although I'm not sure about the bit where you called me a bitch.'
'And don't forget I switched you off.' I squeezed her hand in the dark.
Myfanwy loosened her seat-belt and sidled across, nestling her soft head on my shoulder.
'But to tell the truth,' I added, 'he had me hook, line and sinker. I fell for the whole thing — especially your bit. When you started going on about Ynyslas and then broke down and wept... where on earth did you learn to act like that?'
'I wasn't acting.'
Calamity was sitting on a chair wrapped in a blanket and arguing with an exasperated-looking policewoman.
'For the umpteenth time,' she said, 'I didn't get kidnapped. I used myself as bait to smoke him out ...'
'Look, missie, I've had enough of your tales.'
'And I've had enough of yours!'
'Really? And how would you like a tanned bottom?'
'And how would you like to spend the rest of your career writing speeding tickets?'
She looked up at my approach. 'It's OK Louie, I've got it under control, just briefing the uniformed guys.'
'She thinks she's a detective,' said the policewoman.
'She is a detective,' I said.
There was a loud groan. 'Don't you start as well.'
'Can we get to talk to someone with a bit of seniority around here, we're losing valuable time,' said Calamity.
I took her by the arm and drew her to one side. She started to expostulate about the incompetence surrounding her and I made the gesture known as 'shhhh!' She stopped and looked up at me, slightly sheepishly, and said, 'So, are you OK?' I smiled. 'Seeing you again is the best tonic in the whole world. What about you?' 'Of course!' A slight tremor flashed across her face when she said that and she swallowed something. And swallowed again. 'I'm fine, why not?' Her eyes glittered. 'It's been a bit of a tough one this, but I think I've worked out how to find the sacred ...'
Again I motioned her to be quiet. 'That's not important right now ...'
'Of course it is, if we don't hurry ...'
'No it's not. Right now it doesn't matter whether they escape or whatever, the most important thing is that you are all right.'
'Yes, yes, I'm fine ... I told you, didn't I? This is still a case and ...'
'There will always be more cases and some we'll win and some we'll lose. That's the way it will always be, we'll never change it. But I'll only ever have one Calamity.'
She looked into my face and blinked back tears. 'Boy! I really made a dog's dinner of the Custard Pie job.'
'No,' I said gently. 'You did fine. You found out about Herod. That was an incredible piece of detective work.'
'But I helped Custard Pie escape. How stupid can you get?'
'Trust me, Calamity. I would have done exactly the same.'
'Really?'
'Really. And if it's any help to you, it wasn't you who let him escape it was the idiot on watch that night who didn't check the ambulance.'
Calamity considered that and her face became childishly stern. 'Yeah, we'll have to throw the book at him when this is over.' Another worrying thought intruded, and she peeped reluctantly at me. 'I've been thinking about my letter of resignation ...'
I tried to look unconcerned. 'Oh that! You didn't think I would be fooled by that old trick, did you?'
She looked uncertain. 'You weren't?'
'Course not! I knew straightaway it was the work of an impostor.'
'It was?'
'Sure! Crummiest impersonation I've ever seen. Whoever did it didn't know the first thing about you.'
'Really?'
'For a start, they couldn't spell for toffee.'
She looked at me and then slightly narrowed her eyes as she considered; and then she grinned and punched me. 'Oh you! Does this mean you're not angry with me then?'
I ruffled her hair. 'I'm not angry about the escape. But there is one thing I am very angry about. Taking the gun like that.'
Her eyes flicked wide. 'What gun? I didn't take your gun.'
Llunos walked over clutching a Styrofoam cup, looking tired; his tie skew-whiff, shirt buttons undone over his belly. 'She says she knows where to find Herod's sacred place but won't tell us because it's her collar.'
'It is my collar,' protested Calamity. 'I have to be there.'
'Talk some sense into her,' said Llunos, 'or I'll make her a material witness. I do that and she'll never get a job as a dick in Cardigan for as long as she lives. I don't like it but that's the rules.'
'But it's my collar,' said Calamity.
I crouched down and spoke to her face to face. 'No one is saying it isn't, kid. But you can't come along. You have to stay here and give these people some statements and things. Boring, I know, but that's life as a real detective. But if you tell us where they are, it's your collar. Everyone knows that.' I looked up at Llunos.
'Course it's her collar,' he said. 'Anyone says it isn't will have to explain to me why not.'
Calamity looked to Llunos and then back to me, making up her mind. ' O K. Well I don't know where it is, but I do know how to find out. Just ask Smokey Jones.'
'Who?' Llunos and I asked in unison.
'Smokey G. Jones — the pro Mrs Beynon champ from the sixties. She's bound to know all about Mrs Bligh- Jones getting up the duff out of wedlock ...'
Llunos didn't stay to hear the rest, he was off across the room, barking his orders. 'Put out an APB on Mrs Smokey G. Jones. I want everything she's got on Mrs Bligh-Jones's bastard — times, dates, places. If she won't talk, slap a charge on her; if she still won't talk run her in and make her. You've got half an hour and I want her singing like a canary. Use your truncheons if you have to, and I don't care where you stick them ...'
'If she clams up,' shouted Calamity across the room, 'tell her I've got that large-print edition of
'We sure will. Now tell me how you escaped.'
She broke my gaze and looked down. 'Argh, you know,' she said trying to sound casual. 'Custard Pie arranged for me to rendezvous with one of his confederates, he was going to tell me who the Raven was. Like an idiot I thought I'd nail them on my own. Then when Pie escaped I was so scared at what you would say, so I sort of hung
