“I didn’t come to an awards ceremony to have my professional actions judged,” he grumbled.
Madeleine gave him a hug. “Never mind, sweetheart. Let’s find our table.”
“Inspector?”
Jack turned to see the last person on earth he wanted to meet face-to-face. Someone who had made his life something very close to unpleasant for a long time. Someone who, if Jack hadn’t been a policeman, would have deserved—and probably received—a punch on the nose. It was Josh Hatchett of The Toad.
“What do you want?” asked Jack, politeness not foremost in his mind.
“I heard you say you were swallowed alive,” said Josh, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. “What was it like?”
“Ask an oyster. Good evening, Mr. Hatchett.”
Jack turned to go, but Josh stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Jack stared at the hand, and Josh quickly released him. The journalist sighed, leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“I’m not here to talk about the Red Riding-Hood… problem.”
“Magnanimity personified.”
“I’ll come straight to the point.”
“It’s what you seem to do best.”
“It’s my sister. She’s vanished.”
“Who is she? A magician’s assistant?”
“I’m serious.”
“Try Missing Persons.”
“I told them yesterday. They instructed me to wait a month before filing her missing.” Josh rubbed his face. He looked tired and haggard—even for a journalist. “I need help, Inspector.”
But Jack wasn’t in the giving vein.
“So did I—and I didn’t get it. You might have given me the benefit of the doubt. I’m Jack Spratt the ‘incompetent bonehead’ of the NCD who is now, almost wholly thanks to you, sidelined in his own department. Give me one good reason I should even listen to you.”
“Her name’s Henrietta,” said Josh, “but she has long blond hair.”
“So?”
“She’s always been known as… Goldilocks.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying this might have an NCD angle?”
“It’s possible.”
“Had she been in contact with any bears recently?”
Josh thought for a moment. “She’s a journalist. She wrote a long piece about whether bears should be allowed to carry weapons for self-defense.”
“The ‘right to arm bears’ controversy?”
“Yes. I guess she must have quizzed a few bears about it.”
“A few? Or three?”
“Is it important?”
“It might be crucial.”
Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. All I do know is that she’s my sister and she’s missing. Do you have a sister, Jack?”
“I have six. I could lose one without too much of a problem.”
Jack regarded the worried journalist in front of him and thought for a moment. On the one hand, this man had caused him a great deal of trouble. Disrespectful headlines, awkward questions, press-conference grillings. But on the other hand, with Josh’s support the NCD might not get such a severe drubbing, and it might possibly even sway the Gingerbreadman case into his court. It smacked of sleeping with the enemy, but all of a sudden doing Josh Hatchett a favor seemed to make the vaguest semblance of sense.
“Tell me,” said Jack, having a sudden idea, “was she very particular about things? Not too hot, not too cold, not too hard, not too soft—that kind of thing?”
“How did you know that?” asked Josh, genuinely amazed.
He smiled. “Call it a hunch.”
Jack looked at Madeleine, who stared at him in disbelief. If she’d been in a similar situation, she would have just told Josh to go screw himself.
“I’ll see you at the table, darling,” she said, glared hard at Hatchett and then departed. Jack and Josh walked over to the ornate marble fireplace, where they could talk more easily.
“Your sister, eh?”
Josh sighed with relief, smiled and handed over a photo of an attractive woman in her late twenties with long, curly blond hair. She had a large head and big eyes, which made her look quite young and a bit cutsey-ditzy—kind of like a character from a manga comic.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Josh, “but don’t be fooled by the bimbo looks. She’s as hard as nails and just as sharp.”
“When did you last hear from her?”
“Did you hear about the events up at Obscurity?”
“Of course.”
“I spoke to her Tuesday morning, the day after the blast. She said she’d interviewed Stanley Cripps six hours before he died and was going back up there as soon as the authorities reopened the site. She told me she thought she was onto something really big and that I’d be proud of her. I next spoke to her on Thursday afternoon, when she said she was sure it was something big, and… well, I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Was Stanley Cripps a bear?” asked Jack, ever hopeful.
“No. On Monday morning I went to her apartment to look for her. Her flat was empty and nothing seemed amiss. I found this in her desk drawer in the newsroom.”
He handed Jack a manila folder with “Important” written in felt pen on the cover.
“Hmm,” murmured Jack, “this could be important.” He opened the file and idly flicked through the contents. “What’s it all about?” he asked, unwilling to study it at length right now.
“Unexplained explosions—I think Goldy included the Obscurity blast somewhere in the list.”
“The Home Office’s report has the explosion as an undiscovered wartime bomb set off by Cripps himself with a rototiller or something.”
“It’s not likely that he’d be using the rototiller at night, Inspector.”
“You never know,” mused Jack. “They’re all a bit funny in that area of Berkshire. Do you have any suspicion as to what’s become of her?”
“Jack,” Josh sighed, “I don’t know anything. It could be the Easter Bunny for all I know.”
“It’s not likely to be her,” replied Jack after a moment’s thought. “Kidnapping was never her MO. Did your sister have a car?”
“A green 1950s Austin Somerset,” replied Hatchett. “It’s not outside her flat or at The Toad’s offices. I don’t know the number. This is her address, and these are her spare keys.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Josh, but don’t expect miracles. There’s just one thing I’d like from you.”
“Anything.”
“Lay off the NCD, hey?”
“I’ll give DI Copperfield my full support.”
That wasn’t precisely what Jack had in mind, but to say so would have sounded disloyal, so he gave Josh a half smile, passed him his empty glass and went to find Madeleine. He caught her eye across the crowded room, and she beckoned him to her.