Where Everything Seems Double by Penny Freedman (popular romance novels .txt) 📕

them about who was in Ruby’s boat either. It has to have been someone who didn’t normally play one of Oberon’s followers but knew all about the play and what happened in the interval. That applies to only three of the male staff, apparently, and they’ve been grilled and all produced alibis of a sort.’

‘Was one of them called Gheorghe?’

For the first time, he needs his notebook. He pulls it out and flips pages. ‘Yes,’ he says, ‘Gheorghe Baciu. What made you ask?’

‘Dumitru uses him as an understudy,’ I say. ‘In life, I mean. Gheorghe stands in for him in the bar when I’m giving him English lessons. That seems to be the dynamic between them.’

‘OK. So what are you thinking?’

I take a deep breath and wish that I had stuck to one glass of wine.

‘Ruby’s father thinks that Dumitru has got her – willingly or unwillingly. I assume he has told the police that? He says she had a crush on him and Dumitru sort of admits it, though he denies hotly that he would touch a thirteen-year-old – but the police will know that as well. I’m inclined to believe him, but suppose Ruby enlisted his help – or set out to seduce him. Suppose she was really unhappy about the pressure at home and wanted to let them know that it was too much – a cry of protest? And suppose that, on top of being unhappy at home, she was obsessed with Dumitru? So she concocts a plan to disappear and to get Dumitru to help her. That way she scares her parents into taking the pressure off and she gets closer to Dumitru. She gets him to help her to hide somewhere and she hopes that they will get so close that he will want to be her boyfriend. A thirteen-year-old girl is quite capable of that sort of thinking.’

‘But Dumitru didn’t help her, did he? That’s the point. He’s the person we know wasn’t there. He was at the hotel.’

‘Exactly.’ I lean forward, quite excited now by my own scenario. ‘Ruby knows that her father is suspicious of her relationship with Dumitru, so if he is going to help her he has to be put in the clear. And he calls on his loyal little friend, Gheorghe. Gheorghe makes the phone call to the theatre and then he nips down to the lake, wearing Dumitru’s costume, and gets into Ruby’s boat. He rows them along the lakeside, leaves her there to wait for Dumitru and walks back to the hotel. Nobody has missed him in the meantime because, with Dumitru working, they have enough waiters. And who would notice in the kitchen which waiters were working; they drop off the orders and grab the plates. As long as somebody is doing it, that’s all the kitchen staff care about. And if Dumitru is clever, he can drop one or two references to Gheorghe that suggest that he is out in the restaurant, waiting at tables.’

‘And then?’ David asks.

‘Then, as soon as he can, Dumitru slips away and meets Ruby by her boat. Maybe he has her clothes with him, or she had them in the boat and has already changed. She leaves her costume in the boat to suggest that something has happened to her, and Dumitru takes her off and hides her.’

‘Where, exactly? How? The local officers may not be the Met but they do know how to conduct a search. They have done a fingertip search of the entire lake area, they have searched every garage, shed and outhouse along the lakeside. Where do you suppose Dumitru could have hidden her?’

‘He lives in at the hotel, doesn’t he, in the staff quarters at the back? Has anyone looked there?’

‘Of course they have. Ruby’s father has been badgering them from the start with his claims that Dumitru has got her. They’ve searched every room in the staff quarters, twice. No sign of her.’

‘Well, how about…’ I say, not knowing how I’m going to go on but not willing to give up on my theory. ‘How about – a tent? What was Dumitru carrying the other night when Freda saw him? She thought of a body because she’s thirteen and a girl’s gone missing, but he could easily have been carrying bedding, couldn’t he? Have the police searched camp sites?’

‘I don’t know. But I wouldn’t think it would be a priority. Ruby’s picture has been everywhere. Don’t you think someone would have noticed if she was living in the tent next to theirs?’

‘She could have changed her appearance.’

I am clutching at straws; he raises a sceptical eyebrow.

‘A car,’ I say. ‘Do we know if Dumitru has a car? He seems to have been headed for the hotel car park when Freda saw him. She could have hidden there until she was able to get away somewhere.’

‘I don’t think this is a theory I can take to the local SIO,’ he says, putting away his notebook. ‘It has a certain plausibility but not an atom of evidence.’

‘The evidence is the absence of evidence.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘No forensics. No evidence of struggle or violence.’

‘The dog who didn’t bark again?’ He leans back in his chair. ‘You know, don’t you, that we’re avoiding the obvious? After nearly a week the overwhelming likelihood is that we shall find a body. Probably in the lake. Do you want to talk about that scenario, or shall we leave that till tomorrow?’

I experience this like a punch in the stomach. ‘Don’t,’ I say. ‘Just don’t. Her parents don’t think she’s dead, and don’t parents always know?’

‘Parents always hope,’ he says. ‘It’s not the same thing.’

I stand up. ‘Well, thank you, David, for encouraging me to look on the bright side. I hope you sleep as well as I expect to.’ Quite pleased with this sign-off, I stomp out of the room.

Chapter Ten THE STORM

Sunday

When she looked back, Freda would wonder why she hadn’t realised how things would be. The signs were all there,