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Everybody in the room froze for a moment. "Go on, answer it," Nether advised acerbically, "It might be important." I scurried back to my side of the desk and picked up the receiver. "Findo Gask, Private Investigations," I said formally into the mouthpiece. "Gask, it's Luncardy," came a familiar voice. "Good morning, Captain," I continued in my best polite talking-to-policemen voice, "How can I help you today?" "Don't mess me about, Gask," Luncardy snapped, "I don't know what contact you've had with your errant sister." I began to say, "None at all" but Luncardy didn't wait for a response of any kind. "But right now she's in the cells downstairs," she went on without pausing for breath. "Trinity? How did you catch her?" I asked politely. I suspected I knew what the response was going to be. I wasn't disappointed. "We didn't," she said shortly, "She turned herself in. About two hours ago. Accompanied by a high-powered lawyer who hasn't left her side since they arrived. One of those where you hope their knowledge of the law is in proportion to the size of their fee." A long speech from Luncardy. Self-evidently she wasn't particularly impressed. Although you would have been hard-pushed to recognise that from the tone of her voice. "Look," she went on, "She hasn't said more than ten words since she's got here. And I'm going to have to release her in the next hour or so." The lawyer must be as good as advertised, then. Remind me to find out his name, so that I can avoid him. "So I want you to come and talk to her," Luncardy insisted. "Why?" "Just talk to her, that's all," Luncardy exploded, "We're on the same side, remember. If you can persuade her to cooperate, maybe, just a bit, well there might be something we can use to track down Garrick." I wasn't absolutely convinced about that possibility, but then again I didn't have much else to go on just at the moment. "Okay," I demurred, "I'll be in shortly. I'll be bringing some people with me. Try not to scare them off." "Huh," Luncardy replied, "I don't care who you bring, as long as you get here pronto." "Okay, okay, I'll be there. Just be patient." I returned the receiver to its hook and turned to Nether, the ironic look on his face reflecting the wry one which I suspected had suffused my own. "Our dear sister's in the slammer," I announced, in English so that I could see Gumshoe's reaction. To his credit, Gumshoe was entirely unfazed. "We'd better go get her out then, hadn't we?"
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Part 67