Frozen in Crime

Chapter 23 Breakthrough

Amaryllis's spare room was stark, but comfortable. Christopher had slept well when he eventually got to bed, which was long after his usual time. The process had involved making cocoa and lots of toast for Amaryllis, who didn't seem to want to sleep, and then eating most of the toast himself. In the morning one of his first thoughts was to hope she hadn't now run out of bread, because he was looking forward to making toast for breakfast in her space-age kitchen.

He spent a few moments lying in bed and reproaching himself for feeling so up-beat after the experience of the previous night. Maybe he'd been spending too much time with Amaryllis lately and had become blasé about violence and death; on the other hand she herself had seemed to be unusually upset by what they had seen. Was it because she had imagined she might be in danger? He didn't think so. That kind of thing usually brought out the best in her.

'How many slices?' called Amaryllis through the half-open door.

'Two would be fine, if you can spare them,' said Christopher. He wasn't sure if she had minded him staying overnight. He usually managed to leave and go home to spend the night in his own bed, even in times of serious crisis, but on this occasion, with a mad gunman possibly wandering around outside and with both of them so exhausted that they would probably have slept through the Texas chain-saw massacre, it had seemed like the only possible option.

'Are you OK?' he asked as he eventually wandered through to the kitchen, trying to flatten his hair down with his hands so that he didn't look as if he'd had a major fright.

'Fine,' said Amaryllis, sounding surprised. She presented him with a cup of coffee from her complicated machine and took a jar of marmalade out of the cupboard. She sat down at the table opposite him. She certainly didn't look any different from usual, her startlingly blue eyes watching him with amusement as they always did, her dark red hair apparently bristling with its own energy. Even the way she sat there was energetic; she twitched and tapped her feet, ready to spring into action at any moment.

He groaned inwardly, and then realized he had actually groaned out loud too.

'Are you all right?' said Amaryllis. 'Didn't you sleep?'

'There could have been a maniac with a gun wandering around nearby and he might be after you – why shouldn't I sleep?' he said. 'Actually, I did sleep all right. I'm just wondering what you've got planned for today.'

'Are you sure I've got something planned? Don't I sometimes surprise you with my spontaneity?'

'I wouldn't say surprise is the right word,' he said.

'What is the right word, then?'

He considered this, sipping his coffee. 'Terrify?'

'Ha ha. Well, I'm planning to go round to the police station to offer a witness statement of my own free will, if you must know. You'd better come too - we're both in this together.'

'OK, that sounds reasonable,' said Christopher. 'And I suppose you're going to risk arrest by snooping around inside the police station to try and find out more?'

'It isn't a big risk,' said Amaryllis confidently. 'They've got bigger fish to fry than me. And Charlie knows I'm on their side.'

'Hmm,' said Christopher. 'So we're snooping for clues. Keeping our eyes peeled and all that.'

'We aren't the Famous Five,' said Amaryllis primly. 'Apart from the fact that there are only two of us and we don't have a dog. We're going to see if we can pick up any chatter while we're being good citizens and sharing our valuable information with the police.'