Criminal Revenge
Page 29
“Of course,” Alec stared at the sausage on his fork and decided not to bother. He dunked a piece of wholemeal toast into his free-range fried egg instead.
He was about to moan again when a piece in the paper caught his eye. It was a paragraph long and very brief. It described the murder of three western tourists in the Moroccan city of Touradant. They were robbed and burned to death in a taxi, and local bandits were being blamed. According to the reporter, their belongings were stolen, and they had no identification on them. Alec felt the hair on the back of his neck tingle. He didn’t know why, but he knew it was the Bernstein brothers and their friend. Flights to Morocco from Liverpool were scheduled every day. He took another mouthful of toast and reached for the phone.
“I thought you were having a day off?”
“It’s these sausages, I’m going to have to call it in.” Alec joked as he dialled. “I am charging them with attempting to impersonate a sausage, and for assaulting my taste buds.”
“Silly man.”
“Silly sausage.” He stuck his fork into one and held it up.
“DI Naylor,” Will answered the phone.
“I thought you were having a day off?” Alec scolded him.
“Morning, guv, I thought you were.”
“I am.” Alec looked at the article again. “Get Interpol on the blower and see what you can find out about a triple murder in Touradant last week.”
“Where?”
“Touradant,” Alec spelled it out for him.
“Any particular reason, guv, or are you being nosey?”
“Just my spider senses tingling again.”
“Leave it with me, I’ll make a few calls.”
Alec hung up and went back to his newspaper for ten minutes. He played with his breakfast, but his appetite had gone. He kissed Gail on top of the head and put his plate on the side.
“Thanks for that, it was very interesting,” he joked. “I’m going for a shower, darling.”
“You’ll thank me for looking after your cholesterol one day.”
The telephone rang.
“That’ll be for you,” she frowned, and picked up the breakfast plates. Alec grabbed the phone and connected the call.
“Hello.”
“You were right, guv.” Will smiled at the other end of the phone. Alec could tell he was smiling.
“What am I right about?”
“Three western tourists robbed and murdered in the street. Their belongings were stolen and they had no identification on them. The police don’t know what country they were from. They identified their ethnicity by DNA.”
“Is that it?” Alec was disappointed.
“The only thing not damaged beyond use was a wrist watch. The strap was destroyed but the body protected the back of it.”
“Go on, go on, don’t wind me up, and excuse the pun.”
“There was an engraving on the back of it. ‘Happy birthday, Einstein.’”