Evans Above by Rhys Bowen Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    â€œHe was stationed in my home town in Germany when he was in the army,” Greta said. “I met him at a dance. He was a wonderful dancer—good looking too.” She rummaged in her purse and pulled out a snapshot of a tall, dark-haired man with his arm around her shoulder. “I should have listened to my mother and stayed home.”
    â€œWill you go back there now, do you think?” Evan asked.
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve got the kids to think of, haven’t I? And we’ve got a nice little house in Liverpool. I don’t know.”
    â€œOf course you don’t,” Evan said. “Take your time to let this all sink in before you make any decisions.”
    â€œWhat are you, a bloody therapist?” she snapped.
    He glanced down at the photo again. “Mind if I keep this for a while?”
    â€œWhat for?” she asked suspiciously.
    Evan didn’t want to voice his suspicions to her. “We’re still trying to work out where he fell from and how,” he said. “Someone might have passed him up on the mountain.”
    â€œWhat was he doing up on a bloody mountain, that’s what I want to know,” Greta demanded.
    â€œSo you say he wasn’t usually the outdoor type?”
    â€œStew? Outdoors? Don’t make me laugh,” she said, not smiling. “The only time he went outdoors was to watch Liverpool play football on Saturday afternoons. He was a great Liverpool supporter. He lived for his football. I used to say to
him, if you loved these kids half as much as you love those bloody football players …”
    â€œAnd you never heard him mention a friend called Thomas Hatcher? A friend from London?”
    She frowned, then shook her head. “No, I never heard that name before. I didn’t know he had any friends in London. Was that who he went to meet?”
    â€œHe didn’t tell you he was going to meet a friend then?”
    â€œI told you,” she said impatiently, “he didn’t tell me anything. I thought he’d probably left on the Sunday because he had to make a presentation early Monday morning. He did that sometimes. Anyway, he’d never have told me he was going to meet a friend—he knew I’d never have believed it was a bloke.” She sighed. “Anyhow he’s gone now and I shouldn’t be speaking ill of the dead, should I? Poor old Stew. He was in Northern Ireland for a time in the army and he came through that all right, and now this. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?”
    For the first time Evan noticed the crack in her armor and thought that maybe the cold aggressiveness might be a defence mechanism to show that she wasn’t about to mourn a womanizing husband. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on, love. I’ll buy you a cup of tea,” he said softly.

Chapter 5
    Dark clouds were racing in from the ocean as Evan drove back to the village around four o’clock. Just as he was getting out of his car the bus pulled up and disgorged a load of school children from the comprehensive school down in Portmadog.
    â€œâ€˜Ello, Constable Evans, Sut ywt ti? ’Ow are you?” they called out in their clear lilting voices in the mixture of Welsh and English that they most often used.
    Evan waved back as he headed for his door.
    â€œMr. Evans?”
    Evan turned back to see Dilys Thomas, a gangly thirteen-year-old.
    â€œWhat is it, Dilys?” Evan asked and watched her blush crimson.
    â€œDid you hear that we’re having a teen dance on Saturday?” she asked, playing with a long strand of hair to hide her embarrassment.
    â€œI did hear something about it, yes,” Evan said. “Going to
be one of those rave things, isn’t it? All wild music and flashing lights?”
    â€œOh no, nothing like that,” Dilys exclaimed in horror, not realizing he was pulling her leg. “It’s in the chapel hall. I was