the butterfly
–’
‘The butterfly that flaps its wings and brings the
world to an end?’
‘Yes, sort of. The fact that even if you think of
what you’re doing to help people here as small and insignificant, it could
affect the whole course of human history.’
‘Yes, whatever. So what do you think? Will it be a
viable business?’
‘I don’t know.’ Christopher was slightly baffled,
not unusually. ‘What sort of business is it?’
‘My PI business, of course. So much crime has
happened around here, I think the police need some competition to spur them
into solving it.’
‘I thought you usually provided that already. Does
this have something to do with the bullet-proof vest Tricia Laidlaw gave you?’
‘Yes – I found it at the back of the wardrobe.
When the electricity went off,’ she said, as if it explained everything. ‘I’m
going to start with the robbery.’
‘But don’t you need a client to be able to call it
a business?’ he said. ‘Otherwise it’s just you nosing around as you always do.’
She gave him a look.
‘That’s why you’re on the Weaknesses list,
Christopher.’ She turned over the Opportunities sheet which, he noticed, didn’t
have his name on it anywhere, and started to write on the back. ‘Now that you’re
here, I might as well ask you about what the robbery looked like from where you
were standing.’
‘At my office window,’ he said. ‘Are you just
going to ask people all the things the police have already asked them?’
‘Probably, but I’ll listen to the answers a bit
more thoroughly. So, tell me, Mr Wilson, what exactly did you see?’
He sighed, sat down at the glass-topped table
since there wasn’t a more comfortable space available anywhere, and said, ‘Will
I get a cup of coffee if I tell you?’
She agreed to his terms, and he ran through his
recollection of what he had seen from his office window on Christmas Eve.
Faithful to her methodology, she listened closely. At the end she sat back and
said, ‘What about Jock McLean? I wonder if he saw the same as you.’
‘He didn’t see as much,’ said Christopher. ‘He was
hiding on the floor.’
‘Hmm. I’d better give him a call at the cattery if
I can get through. By the time he gets back he’ll have forgotten all about it.’
‘Can I have a coffee now?’
‘Just one more thing – you were looking out the
window before you heard anything, weren’t you? Can you remember what you saw
then?’
‘Some idiots falling over on the ice. An ambulance
coming to pick somebody up. That’s about all. Why?’
‘I was just thinking if the two robbers ran
towards the Cultural Centre as part of their getaway, they might have arrived
from that direction in the first place. Do you know if there’s cctv anywhere
around there?’
He shook his head. ‘We looked into it but there
were some human rights and privacy issues so we decided against it.’
‘What about strange cars parked in that road behind
the Cultural Centre? Did you notice anything?’
He shrugged, feeling guilty now: he realised he
didn’t really pay much attention to cars in general, but obviously that wasn’t
a very helpful attitude. In fact he didn’t consider himself all that observant
at all. Amaryllis could do with having an assistant who was good at all the
detail. Not that he thought of himself as her assistant, of course. In the
light of his appearance on the ‘Weaknesses’ list he was perhaps more of an
anti-assistant, only nobody had bothered to invent a word for that.
‘A bit like anti-matter,’ he muttered.
‘I think it’s time for coffee,’ she said. He
watched her as she put the kettle on and searched through the cupboards for
food. Her dark red hair was standing on end today, which was a good sign. Now
that he thought about it, her hair had been decidedly limp for the past little
while, although he had imagined it was because she had been wearing a woolly
hat in the extremely cold conditions. Or maybe
–’
‘The butterfly that flaps its wings and brings the
world to an end?’
‘Yes, sort of. The fact that even if you think of
what you’re doing to help people here as small and insignificant, it could
affect the whole course of human history.’
‘Yes, whatever. So what do you think? Will it be a
viable business?’
‘I don’t know.’ Christopher was slightly baffled,
not unusually. ‘What sort of business is it?’
‘My PI business, of course. So much crime has
happened around here, I think the police need some competition to spur them
into solving it.’
‘I thought you usually provided that already. Does
this have something to do with the bullet-proof vest Tricia Laidlaw gave you?’
‘Yes – I found it at the back of the wardrobe.
When the electricity went off,’ she said, as if it explained everything. ‘I’m
going to start with the robbery.’
‘But don’t you need a client to be able to call it
a business?’ he said. ‘Otherwise it’s just you nosing around as you always do.’
She gave him a look.
‘That’s why you’re on the Weaknesses list,
Christopher.’ She turned over the Opportunities sheet which, he noticed, didn’t
have his name on it anywhere, and started to write on the back. ‘Now that you’re
here, I might as well ask you about what the robbery looked like from where you
were standing.’
‘At my office window,’ he said. ‘Are you just
going to ask people all the things the police have already asked them?’
‘Probably, but I’ll listen to the answers a bit
more thoroughly. So, tell me, Mr Wilson, what exactly did you see?’
He sighed, sat down at the glass-topped table
since there wasn’t a more comfortable space available anywhere, and said, ‘Will
I get a cup of coffee if I tell you?’
She agreed to his terms, and he ran through his
recollection of what he had seen from his office window on Christmas Eve.
Faithful to her methodology, she listened closely. At the end she sat back and
said, ‘What about Jock McLean? I wonder if he saw the same as you.’
‘He didn’t see as much,’ said Christopher. ‘He was
hiding on the floor.’
‘Hmm. I’d better give him a call at the cattery if
I can get through. By the time he gets back he’ll have forgotten all about it.’
‘Can I have a coffee now?’
‘Just one more thing – you were looking out the
window before you heard anything, weren’t you? Can you remember what you saw
then?’
‘Some idiots falling over on the ice. An ambulance
coming to pick somebody up. That’s about all. Why?’
‘I was just thinking if the two robbers ran
towards the Cultural Centre as part of their getaway, they might have arrived
from that direction in the first place. Do you know if there’s cctv anywhere
around there?’
He shook his head. ‘We looked into it but there
were some human rights and privacy issues so we decided against it.’
‘What about strange cars parked in that road behind
the Cultural Centre? Did you notice anything?’
He shrugged, feeling guilty now: he realised he
didn’t really pay much attention to cars in general, but obviously that wasn’t
a very helpful attitude. In fact he didn’t consider himself all that observant
at all. Amaryllis could do with having an assistant who was good at all the
detail. Not that he thought of himself as her assistant, of course. In the
light of his appearance on the ‘Weaknesses’ list he was perhaps more of an
anti-assistant, only nobody had bothered to invent a word for that.
‘A bit like anti-matter,’ he muttered.
‘I think it’s time for coffee,’ she said. He
watched her as she put the kettle on and searched through the cupboards for
food. Her dark red hair was standing on end today, which was a good sign. Now
that he thought about it, her hair had been decidedly limp for the past little
while, although he had imagined it was because she had been wearing a woolly
hat in the extremely cold conditions. Or maybe
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