‘Of course not,’ I snorted. ‘Did Shirley introduce you?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted, ‘she did, and I must say he seemed just as pleasant as you described him.’
‘Fine. Let me tell you, now: from your casual presence here, Patterson will have assumed everything you’ve just told me. So if this comes back and bites your arse, don’t assume that I’ve said anything to anyone. Not that it will,’ I added. ‘If by some miracle your outside possibility is on the mark, your big flat feet have just squashed any chance of any contact being made.’ I looked him in the eye. ‘I trust the guy, and I don’t believe he has any involvement in that man’s death. .’ I interrupted myself. ‘You haven’t identified him, I take it?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘No, I didn’t think so. But listen, Alex, I’m serious, you have to assume that Patterson, if he chose, could run rings round you and Hector, so your surveillance is a waste of time, unless you bring in plain clothes people that he couldn’t possibly know. So, how about laying off, and letting me keep an eye on him, as far as I’m able? If I’m wrong and he isn’t as benevolent as he seems, then Shirley needs to be protected, but I’m probably better placed to do it than you in these circumstances.’
He frowned. ‘I can’t involve you in police work, Primavera.’
‘Bollocks you can’t!’ I laughed derisively. ‘You have done in the past when it suited your book. You did on Wednesday, as a matter of fact, when you hoiked me off the golf course. You let me look down this blind alley for you, and you can get on with the priority job of finding out whose body it is that you’ve got in your cooler.’
‘I shouldn’t.’
‘But you will.’
‘I’ll ask Hector.’
‘No, you’ll tell Hector. If I do this, you’ll be square with your director general, for no way will he ever find out.’
He gave in. ‘Okay,’ he conceded, ‘but keep in touch. And if something unexpected does happen, don’t expose yourself.’
‘I’m not given to exposing myself, sir. . not in public at any rate.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Sure.’ I rose up on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. ‘See you later, officer.’ I left him and headed for the car park. I’d just reached my jeep when I spotted something buxom in tartan standing beside hers, a few rows away. I bore down on her.
‘You!’ I boomed as I approached. ‘What the hell did you think you were doing, setting that twat on me?’
She held her hands up, as if she was warding me off. Beside her, Patterson exploded with laughter; I’d never seen him more animated. ‘It was the tartan!’ she protested. ‘She spotted it and started to ask me about Jonathan. I told her you were the one she should talk to, that’s all.’
‘You should have stopped her,’ I scolded Patterson.
‘I’d made myself scarce,’ he admitted. ‘I run a mile from TV cameras, and you don’t need to ask why.’ I nodded. ‘Go on, Shirley,’ he chortled, ‘tell her all of it.’
His ‘Significant Other’ turned a fetching shade of pink. ‘I said he was your toy boy,’ she confessed. ‘But I was kidding, honest!’
‘Jesus! And how exactly was she to know you were?’
‘You sorted her out, though. So no damage done.’
I told her how I’d sorted her, digging the cassette from my bag and waving it in her face. ‘Seven hundred euro that cost me!’
‘Okay,’ she sighed. ‘I’ll buy it off you.’
‘Sure. And then you’d probably ask Tom how to put it on YouTube. No, I’ll keep it. If she’s daft enough to give me any more trouble it’s evidence, of a sort.’
I can never stay mad at Shirley for long. In fact, she’s usually a calming influence when I do get steamed up about something. Friends like her are to be cherished, not scolded. That’s why I’d offered to keep an eye on Patterson for Alex; to keep the cops out of her hair, more than his. That, and also. . I don’t know for sure this far after the event, but I reckon I still had a small nagging doubt about him myself. That’s probably why, on the spur of the moment, I invited Shirl and him to eat with the boys and me at Casa Blackstone that evening. He wasn’t an enemy, but still, I felt that it would be no bad thing to follow the advice of General Sun Tzu (or Don Corleone, depending on which version of the phrase’s origin that you believe) and keep him as close as I could.
Having done that I decided that I’d better tell Jonny of the arrangements, so I went back to the press area, and waylaid him as he left after finishing his round of interviews. By that time he was no longer the tournament leader. The Irish kid was six under par for his round in progress, two in front of Jonny, and the former US Open champion had moved up the board into second place. He wasn’t worried, he assured me. ‘I didn’t expect to lead at minus eleven, not with a field of this quality.’ He said that Uche was waiting for him on the range, but promised to be back home in time for dinner. ‘I might even make room for a swim,’ he added. ‘Maybe Tom can show me the best place.’
I looked at him, at his serious Oz-like face, its expression older than his years, and found myself understanding why the Mann/McGuigan person had swallowed Shirley’s line so eagerly. If I had been in the market for a toy boy, I could have done a lot worse. I focused on being maternal.
‘How are you feeling?’ I asked him.
‘Solid,’ he replied, firmly. ‘I played a good round today, but that’s it. Tomorrow’s another challenge, and the course will be set up to be even harder. If I can shoot another sixty-eight, I’ll be well placed.’
I left him to join his caddie on the practice ground, and headed back to the car park. When I got there my day took another downward turn. I hadn’t noticed before, but the trusty old jeep seemed to be slightly off balance. I took a closer look and saw that my rear left-side tyre was flat. My reaction was multilingual and probably best not repeated.
I’m a member of the RACC, and my insurance covers me for roadside assistance, but there was no knowing how long help would take to arrive, so I decided to sort the mess out myself. Changing a wheel on a big heavy off-roader isn’t particularly easy even on a flat, made-up road. When you have to do it in a field, it’s all the more challenging. It took me a while to fit the jack and raise the vehicle up, and then even longer to undo the security bolts, but I was up to the job. My spare was unused, but fortunately I’d checked the pressures of all five wheels only a week before. I took the load off the jack, replaced it in its slot and was packing away the flat, when something caught my eye. The puncture wasn’t hidden away inside the tread, as they usually are. It was in the side wall, a rip about an inch and a half long.
‘Jesus,’ I whispered, looking around, quickly, to see if anyone was watching me, but if there was, they were well out of sight. The guide books don’t tell you this, but there are many car scams in our part of the world. Okay, most of them are targeted at rental vehicles or those with foreign plates, but not exclusively, and many involve putting a blade through a tyre. I was pretty certain that’s what had been done to mine.
I checked the other wheels to make sure they were undamaged, then called Alex on my mobile, so that he could report it to tournament security. I was just about to climb in behind the wheel, when I noticed something else. The jeep has an aerial on its roof, a short stubby black thing that’s removable, should it be put through a car wash. It was missing; a little added annoyance.
I was pretty sour all the way up the road, and when I dropped the wheel off at the Universal garage, for them to replace the tyre, but I’d managed to put it behind me by the time Tom came home from school. I was ready to bring him up to speed on Jonny’s progress, but I didn’t need to. He’d made his cousin promise to send him a text once he’d finished his round. By the same medium they’d also arranged to meet up at six, on the beach below our house, for a swim and possibly some windsurfing, although Jonny was doubtful about the latter, given that even a minor injury wasn’t something he could risk. All that was fine by me, since I’d invited Shirley and Patterson for seven thirty, and I didn’t need anyone under my feet when I was getting ready.