‘Yes.’
‘Let’s keep that to ourselves. We’ll get your photos when we get home.’
They checked into a double room, ordered food from room service and waited, and waited.
Agatha, suffering from jet lag, fell asleep and jerked awake an hour later when the phone rang.
Toni answered it. Agatha heard her say, ‘What? . . . Where? . . . Is she all right? . . . We’ll be there directly.’
When she put the phone down, Toni’s face was glowing with relief. ‘A helicopter found her staggering around Death Valley and picked her up. She’s in the Lutheran hospital. Let’s go.’
Chelsea turned out to be suffering from heat exhaustion and sunburn. Agatha and Toni had to wait until the police had finished interrogating her. Then it was their turn.
Chelsea turned furious eyes on Toni out of her sun-scorched face. ‘It’s all your fault,’ she howled.
‘How on earth . . . ?’ began Toni.
‘He thought I was you, see? He drove out with a gun in my side, and then he said, “You had it coming to you, Toni Gilmour.” I screamed I wasn’t you and that my passport was in me bag. He stopped the car, told me to hand over my bag, fished out me passport and began to curse something awful. Then he says, “Get out, bitch.” I got out and ran and ran away from the road as fast as I could. I wandered around and around. I could see lights from cars away on the road, but I was frightened to go back in case he got me again. Then the helicopter picked me up. Let me tell you something, Tone. I never want to see you again. You can chase the bad guys as much as you want, but keep me out of it. You could have warned me.’
‘How could she have warned you?’ said Agatha. ‘She didn’t know there was any danger here. How could she?’
‘Bet she did. Piss off, both of you.’ Chelsea turned her face away.
After that visit, Chelsea refused to see them again. Her handbag had been found and her passport was still there, lying on the ground beside it. Parry told Agatha and Toni that Chelsea was leaving in two days’ time.
‘Did she say anything useful about the man?’ asked Agatha. ‘What sort of accent?’
‘She just said he had a growly voice and she thought he was foreign. She said he smelled of booze. That’s all she knows.’ He turned to Toni. ‘Miss Gilmour, are you sure your decision to come here was made at the last minute?’
‘Sure as sure. Agatha decided to close the agency for two weeks because we were all afraid someone might be out to get us. I met Chelsea just by chance and she persuaded me to come on the trip. I think I want to go home now.’
‘Me too,’ said Agatha. ‘Let whining little Chelsea make her own way.’
‘You are pretty harsh, ma’am. She’s a very young girl who’s had a bad fright.’
‘Well, I can do bugger all for her when she won’t even see me or let me help,’ howled Agatha.
Parry looked at her with dislike. Ball-breaking old trout, he thought. Aloud, he said, ‘Let us know which flight you will be on.’
‘We should really be around to take care of her,’ protested Toni.
‘It’s you they’re after, not her,’ said Agatha. ‘Oh, well, one last try. Back to the hospital.’
‘I’ll go,’ said Toni quickly. ‘She might speak to me if you’re not there.’
‘Ask her how he got her to leave with him.’
‘He had a gun.’
‘He couldn’t have taken a gun into the casino. He must have said something else.’
Toni had noticed a medical-supply shop near the hospital. She bought a white lab coat and a stethoscope. In an adjacent tourist shop, she bought a square badge with the legend I LOVE LAS VEGAS.
In the hospital, she went to the toilets and locked herself in a cubicle, where she put on the white coat and hung the stethoscope around her neck. She then took out a pair of nail scissors from her pocket and prised open the badge. Fortunately, it was blank on the other side. She printed ‘Dr Finlay’ neatly in black ink. It would have to do. She had left her handbag at the hotel, carrying money and the scissors in her trouser pocket so that she would not have to find a place to hide a handbag.
Toni walked through the hospital corridors. She walked quickly past the policeman on guard outside Chelsea’s door, giving him an efficient nod.
Chelsea opened her mouth to scream, but Toni said hurriedly, ‘You scream and I’ll tell your mum about that fling you had with the sales rep from Birmingham.’
‘You wouldn’t!’
‘Try me.’
‘Wadda ya want?’ demanded Chelsea, who was trying very hard to obtain an American accent.
‘Something more about the man who abducted you. He couldn’t have got a gun into the casino or a knife. Why did you go off with him?’
‘He said he was a detective and wanted a word with me outside.’
‘Did he have a badge?’
‘No. One of them warrant cards.’
‘Did you get a close look at the card?’
‘No, I just followed the guy out, like. Once in the car, he took out a gun, drove with one hand and pointed the gun at me with the other.
‘He said, “I’m going to shut your mouth for once and all, Toni Gilmour. How the hell did you know I was in Las Vegas? Who told you?”
‘I began to cry and said it was a package deal. I wasn’t Toni Gilmour, and he could look at my passport in my handbag if he didn’t believe me. He stopped suddenly when we was out in the desert and he asks me to hand over my bag. He opens it, looks at me passport, swears something awful, chucks the bag out of the winder and tells me to get out. I ran for my life. Right into the desert. I’m going home tomorrow. The British consul has arranged it. So bugger off, Tone, and don’t come near me again.’
‘One more thing. Did you tell the police about the warrant card?’
‘Didn’t remember until later.’
‘American police have badges. Only British police have warrant cards. Didn’t you think of that?’
‘Piss off,’ howled Chelsea.
Agatha’s eyes gleamed with excitement when Toni told her Chelsea’s story. ‘Pack up,’ she said. ‘We’re leaving today.’
‘But what about Chelsea?’
‘Whoever it was wanted you, not her. She’ll be safe.’
Agatha and Toni had hoped to collect their cars from the airport terminal at Gatwick and get back to Mircester, but they were intercepted and taken to a room in the airport where two plain-clothes detectives grilled them. Evidently, the Las Vegas police were angry that they had just disappeared while an investigation was in progress. They were taken through their stories again.
At last, they were released but warned that the Mircester police would be calling on them later.
‘At least they didn’t take my passport away again,’ grumbled Agatha. ‘Do you want to follow me to Carsely?’
‘No, I’ll go to my flat. I’m tired.’
Chapter Eleven
Simon found that the army were only too glad to get rid of him. Sergeant Sue Crispin was popular, and they felt that Simon had behaved disgracefully. He had made several attempts to see Toni again, but she always said she was too busy.
He even asked Agatha for his old job back, but Agatha said roundly she could not afford to take on any more staff.
Simon had always disliked authority figures, something that had landed him in trouble many times in his short army career. To him, Agatha Raisin was the epitome of an authority figure. He decided to apply to Mixden, Agatha’s rival agency, for a job.
Mr Mixden laid down the same terms he had laid down to Toni.
Simon hesitated only a minute. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘But I will expect a bonus if I get something really good.’
‘Then let’s see how good you are,’ said Mixden. ‘You’re on a month’s trial. Remember, no one’s paying us to solve these murders. But I want the publicity.’