I got in the shower and scrubbed myself vigorously to remove all traces of my mistake. By the time I’d finished I’d pretty much destroyed the soap and I was raving mad. He wasn’t getting away with it this time. I wasn’t going to let him humiliate me again.
I threw on some clothes and snatched up my bag. But when I reached the door I found it was just resting up against the doorjamb. Great. He’d been in such a hurry to get away from me that he hadn’t even closed the door properly.
I left the room, stomped up the hallway and pounded hard on Nick’s door with my fist. It was only seven o’clock. No doubt he was still enjoying the untroubled slumber of a remorseless prick.
‘Nick!’ I bellowed. ‘Get up!’
There was no sound from within. Well, I had patience. I could wait. My fist was starting to hurt so I switched hands and continued pounding. I was about to shout again when a door on the other side of the hallway opened and a man poked his head out.
‘Could you please be quiet?’ he hissed. ‘I’ve got a two-year-old asleep in here!’
‘Sorry.’ I dropped my arms and let them hang by my sides. The man closed the door again without responding.
Deflated, I continued up the hallway, rubbing my bruised fists. I was starting to feel really hungry, and I remembered that I hadn’t had any dinner the previous night. Too busy feasting on what wasn’t good for me.
The breakfast room was surprisingly full considering the early hour, but once again Nick was nowhere to be seen. Probably out hunting for his next quarry, I thought savagely.
Despite my growling belly, I couldn’t manage anything more than a bowl of muesli and a black coffee. Through my anger, I forced myself to remember what I was actually here for. I had to make sure Ford was OK, and I couldn’t—wouldn’t—depend on Nick to help me out anymore.
There was another missed call from Adelita on my phone from half an hour ago. Guess she wasn’t in police custody then. Just as I was considering my next move, she rang again, and this time I picked up.
‘Have you completely lost your mind?’ she said coldly. ‘I spent two hours being questioned by police last night before they came to the obvious conclusion that there was no way I could be involved in an international drug cartel.’
Now that I was actually speaking to her, my conviction of her guilt waned. ‘Well—’
She gave an exasperated sigh. ‘Was this just revenge for having you mugged in Rome, or are you really that foolish?’
‘Well, I’m sorry, but you’re the only person I told about the warehouse, so you can’t blame me for jumping to conclusions.’
‘Well, there is your photographer friend, but I’m guessing he hasn’t come under suspicion?’
I hesitated. Probably better not to let on right now that Nick had taken off right after the whole drama had gone down. ‘OK, so I’m stupid. You don’t need to keep reminding me. Can we meet up now and talk?’
We met at a coffee shop up the street and, surrounded by mellow tourists sucking back on joints, I told her everything that’d happened the day before. Well, I left out the bit about the rapacious sex, but I figured that wasn’t really relevant to the case.
When I’d finished, Adelita blew her trademark mouthful of cigarette smoke in my direction. I waved it away impatiently.
‘Not that I am feeling particularly inclined after last night, but we should go back to the police station,’ she said. ‘We need to make sure they investigated the warehouse, and if not, we may need to do so ourselves.’
‘Um, Adelita, can I remind you that they tried to shoot us yesterday?’
‘One thing at a time. First, we will visit our friend, the chief superintendent.’
When we arrived at the police station, Hoogeveen was in a meeting and we were forced to wait half an hour on the cold, hard bench in the foyer before he would see us.
‘Ah, so you are no longer accusing one another of criminal activity?’ He did not look amused as he ushered us into his office. ‘Is this your idea of a joke, to waste valuable police resources on a fool’s mission?’
‘I’m sorry, I made a mistake about Adelita,’ I said. ‘But did you go to the warehouse?’
‘Yes.’ He settled his bulk in the chair behind his desk. ‘We did go there.’
‘And?’
He looked down at the papers on his desk for a long moment, and it was all I could do to stop myself from reaching over the desk and shaking him. Finally, he looked up at me again, his face unreadable. ‘As I said, you’ve wasted my time and resources. The warehouse was vacant and boarded up. It obviously hadn’t been used in years.’
‘No!’ I protested. ‘I was there yesterday! I told you, it was full of drugs! Did you go inside?’
He looked offended. ‘Of course we went inside. The whole place was empty. It was covered with dust. There was nobody there, and there were certainly no drugs.’
‘Footprints!’ I said desperately. ‘There were footprints in the dust yesterday! And there were security cameras on the wall in the back lane.’
‘I assure you, there were no footprints and no cameras. We searched the whole building and there was nothing there.’
My shoulders slumped. ‘Then you were too late. They must have moved it all as soon as we got away.’
‘I think you have an overactive imagination, Miss Burrowes,’ Hoogeveen said.
‘I know what I saw!’
‘And did you see this mythical warehouse full of drugs?’ he asked Adelita.
‘No,’ Adelita said. ‘This happened when she still thought I was the ringleader.’
I glared at her. ‘You’re not helping.’
Hoogeveen looked back to
