“No,” said Amanda. “We daren’t be seen going over to Hesperides, because if they find the donkeys there, then they’ll know that we took them.”
“Yes,” said Yani. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“They’ve got plenty of food to last them,” said Amanda, “and we can swim out there this evening and feed them again.”
“What do you think the Inspector will say to the Mayor?” inquired David.
“He’ll probably come up himself,” said Amanda airily.
“What!” asked Yani, aghast. “The Inspector himself?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” said Amanda. “He’s always dying to play the big detective and I should think this would be the perfect opportunity for him.”
“Well, we’d better keep a very close watch on what’s happening,” said David, “and we’ll all have to give each other alibis if they suspect us.”
“Fancy the Inspector himself coming,” murmured Yani, uneasily. “It makes the whole thing seem so much more criminal somehow.”
Coocos suddenly burst into a flood of tears. Amanda immediately ran to him and threw her arms round him, “Don’t worry, Coocos,” she said. “The Inspector won’t hurt you. Even if they find out we did it, we won’t tell them that you were involved.”
Coocos, however, with a tremendous effort to overcome his speech impediment, explained that it was not the thought of arrest that had upset him, but the fact that he had just discovered his goldfinch egg had broken in his pocket.
“Let’s go up the hill where we can see the road and watch for them coming back,” said David, “because I should think they’ll come back by taxi.”
So they trooped up to the top of the hill and Yani climbed up into the branches of the olive tree (where he had watched for the arrival of the children) and the children lay in the shade below. After what seemed an interminable time, Yani suddenly said: “They’re coming! I can see the dust! They’re coming!”
He scrambled down out of the olive and the children made their way hurriedly to the main square of the village.
“The Mayor’s coming back. The Mayor’s coming back,” shouted Amanda and immediately the villagers flocked into the square.
The police car drew to a shuddering halt in the centre of the square with an impressive screaming of brakes and discharged its motley cargo.
“Now,” said the Inspector, patting the brief-case that he had brought with him, “I must have a suitable place where I can interview witnesses.”
Two café tables were immediately joined together and a white cloth procured which was spread over them. The Inspector took his place at these and carefully unpacked from his brief-case a magnificent array of criminal-catching devices, which greatly impressed the villagers. There was his magnifying glass, a small ink pad and some paper for taking finger-prints, a camera for photographing clues and — perhaps the best of all — six pairs of handcuffs, The three policemen had, meanwhile, been busy tying up the two hunting dogs. They then relaxed in the shade and were plied with drinks by the villagers, while they listened reverently to Inspector Prometheous Steropes conducting the case.
“Now,” said the Inspector, “to question the witnesses.”
“But there aren’t any witnesses,” the Mayor pointed out, “nobody saw it happen.”
“But there was this fellow Kouzos,” said the Inspector, narrowing his eyes. “Didn’t you say he saw something?”
“But he saw Vyraclos,” protested Papa Yorgo. “That was quite different.”
The Inspector leant forward and fixed Papa Yorgo with a piercing gaze.
“And how do you know,” he inquired, “that this Vyraclos he saw wasn’t a Communist disguised as Vyraclos?”
A ripple of delight spread through the crowd. What astuteness of mind! What brilliance of detection! Why hadn’t they thought of that? The Inspector smiled a small, grim smile, the smile of a detective from whom nothing was hidden.
“That hadn’t occurred to you, had it?” he said with satisfaction. “Bring the man Kouzos here.”
Eager hands pushed Kouzos from the back of the crowd to the front where he stood in front of the table trembling slightly with awe at the majesty of the law.
“Now,” said the Inspector, “tell me exactly what happened.”
“He heard a noise late at night —” began Papa Yorgo.
“If you please,” said the Inspector holding up a hand, “I would like the witness to tell his own story.”
“I heard a noise late at night,” began Kouzos in a trembling voice, “and being a man of intrepid disposition I immediately seized my shotgun and my lantern and went out to investigate.”
“What kind of shotgun was it?” inquired the Inspector.
“A double-barrel twelve bore,” said Kouzos.
The Inspector wrote this down with every evidence of satisfaction.
“It’s important,” he said, “not to overlook a single fact in a case like this. For all we know, the shotgun might turn out to be a vital clue. Well, go on.”
“I shouted out, ‘Who’s there? Stand still or I’ll drill you full of holes’,” said Kouzos.
“It would have been very unwise of you to do that,” remarked the Inspector severely, “I might have had to arrest you for murder. Go on.”
“From behind a tree leaped this — this thing,” said Kouzos, “with huge horns and a huge tail and shaggy legs like a goat.”
“Did it have hooves?” inquired the Inspector. “Yes,” said Kouzos eagerly. “Huge hooves,” The Inspector made a note of this.
“And then?” he said.
“And then it said, ‘Kouzos, I have come for your soul and to suck your blood’,” said Kouzos, crossing himself.
“To which you replied?” inquired the Inspector.
“Saint Polycarpos preserve me from Vyraclos,” said Kouzos.
“Very right and proper,” said the Inspector. He sat back and pulled his curved pipe out of his pocket and tapped it thoughtfully against his teeth.
“It was obviously a good disguise,” he said at last. “Otherwise you would have known it was a Communist. Wouldn’t you?”
“But of course,” agreed Kouzos. “My family have always been well known for their eyesight.”
“Well now,” said the Inspector, “the first thing to do is to go and examine the place where you saw it.”
Picking up his magnifying glass he strode off towards Kouzos’s house, closely followed by the entranced villagers of Kalanero.
The way he had conducted the case so far had fascinated the children. Indeed, Amanda was hard put not to have a fit of giggles. When the Inspector, accompanied by the entire village, got to Kouzos’s house, he clenched his pipe between his teeth and surveyed the area majestically.
“Whereabouts,” he inquired of Kouzos, “did you see it?”