Partners In Crime

CRIME SHORT STORY BY VAL BONSALL

There was something about this couple that caught Luci’s attention in this mystery set in 1976…

“They’re predicting,” Lucinda’s mum began, “that this year is going to be an absolute scorcher.”

“Ah,” Luci replied, checking her appearance before setting off for her late shift at the seaside hotel where she worked.

The short form of her name was her preference.

Lucinda – what had her parents been thinking of?

“A good summer will please Di opposite,” her mum continued. “You’re not listening, are you?”

“No, I am,” Luci protested. “Something about Di.”

Di owned the large house at the corner of their road, ran it as a guesthouse and had been grumbling about visitor numbers being down, with everyone now going abroad for their holidays.

Better weather than here was the usual reason put forward, so a good summer would benefit her.

“There are enough people staying at Di’s place as it is,” Luci’s dad joined in.

With the parking on the road being over-subscribed because of Di’s guests, he was having trouble finding somewhere to put his van.

“OK, I must be off,” Luci said, opening the front door and setting out into the late-afternoon sunshine.

The hotel wasn’t far from her home and normally only took five minutes.

Presently, though, she reckoned you could at least double that, forever having to slow your pace because of the increased number of people on the streets of the little former fishing village.

This continued into the evening, with the shops and cafés round the harbour all, for the duration of the season, staying open late.

As she wove her way along, Luci reflected on how different it would be in just a few months.

Then, if you tried to buy something after five o’clock you didn’t stand a chance.

“Lucinda,” Mr Barnes the manager – or Barney, as everyone called him – greeted her as she entered the hotel. “Will you help in the lighthouse bar tonight?

“It’ll be busy. We’ve had a big coach party arrive.”

The lighthouse bar, open to the public as well as residents, was so called because it had a wonderful sea view, including the lighthouse.

Despite what Barney had said, the bar wasn’t that busy at first, and Luci found herself thinking about whether numbers were down in the hotel as well as at places like Di’s.

She’d left school not that long ago with three A-levels but without a clue about what she wanted to do.

Because it was summer she’d easily found work in a restaurant, then at another hotel and then at this one, without necessarily intending to stay in that industry.

But here she was, a couple of years on.

Was it time to consider something else?

With the bar remaining quiet, she proceeded to do precisely that.

Those computer things – everyone said they were the industry of the future.

Could she train for a job in that field? Get in at the start and make a name for herself?

She spent a few pleasant minutes happily fantasising, then changed her mind.

Machines weren’t really her forte. The telephone switchboard on reception she found challenging enough!

A noise at the entrance to the bar brought her attention back to the bar.

A group of women were coming in.

All of them were dressed in what looked to Luci like expensive clothes, but frankly she thought they’d wasted their money.

Their attire was very ordinary, except perhaps for the shoulder bag one of them had.

Fashion was one of her major enthusiasms and she reckoned she was good at it.

People were always admiring her outfits.

How about training to be a designer, she thought, wondering why the idea hadn’t occurred to her before.

For another few minutes she pictured herself at one of the big shows, Paris or somewhere, everyone admiring her new collection…

“A lager, please,” a voice said.

Luci looked up into the eyes of what she thought was probably the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

“And a Babycham, with a cherry in it,” he completed his order.

Babychams were a woman’s drink and now she saw, standing alongside him, a girl as striking as he was.

Someone like him was bound to have a girlfriend, Luci thought as she added a cherry to the Babycham.

She was busy then for a time.

When she was just about to get herself a glass of water, an excited yell sounded across the bar.

The handsome guy was at the huge window, pointing.

“There’s a dolphin out there!” he cried.

Suddenly everyone was on their feet and beside him at the window.

Alas, it was a false alarm.

“Where?” an older man asked the handsome one.

“I don’t know.” Mr Handsome shook his head. “I was sure I saw one. Maybe it was just the moon’s reflection, or something.”

Long days though they were, it was starting to get dark and the moon had risen.

Mr Handsome, looking embarrassed by his mistake, departed then, along with his girlfriend.

The next day, Luci was working from midday until early evening.

The hotel was popular for afternoon teas. There were fancy teapots and scones with jam and cream.

As she was going in, she saw the woman whose shoulder bag she’d thought was nice talking to Marina, the receptionist.

“So I’m not sure where I lost it. It could have been in a shop, but it could have been here,” the woman finished what she was saying.

She put the bag on the desk so Marina could examine it.

“Yes, I see,” Marina replied. “It’s easy for things to fall out.”

Luci saw that the bag had a design flaw in terms of practicality.

It didn’t have a zip or anything across the top.

If she went ahead with the designer thing, she’d make sure she didn’t make mistakes like that.

After the teas had finished, Luci took over from Marina for a couple of hours and then set off home.

The streets had a contented feeling. There were people returning to their accommodation from a day on the beach, all healthy and glowing and looking forward to their evening meal.

Others were coming from their accommodation to go out, perhaps for a relaxing dinner in one of the restaurants.

One of the new restaurants, with extra pavement space in front of it, had put a few tables outside.

They were for people to have a drink while they consulted the menu and waited to be shown to a proper table.

Some locals weren’t keen and said it obstructed the pavement, but Luci liked it.

As she was walking past, she heard a yell.

It wasn’t excited sounding like the previous night in the lighthouse bar.

This was someone in distress.

A woman was lying on the ground beside the restaurant’s A-board, which had also fallen over.

Luci joined the group of people who’d hurried over to help, and closer up she saw it was Mr Handsome’s girlfriend.

Then, looking round, she saw Mr Handsome himself.

Why wasn’t he coming to help?

The answer to that, she then saw, was that he was busy.

Luci recognised among the crowd one of the group who’d been sitting outside the restaurant.

They’d all come over and, in his haste, this particular man had left his rather flash jacket hanging over the back of the chair he’d been using.

And Mr Handsome was removing from the jacket’s pocket what looked to Luci very like a wallet.

Maybe she should have shouted, she would think later.

But at the time she was too shocked and unsure she was correctly interpreting what she’d seen.

Maybe Mr Handsome and the man whose jacket it was were together?

If so, Mr Handsome wasn’t waiting for his friend.

The wallet now in his pocket, he was disappearing down one of the little lanes that led from the street to the harbour front.

Moments later the girlfriend got to her feet.

She was fine, she said.

“Thank you, but I really am OK,” she told everyone as she, too, departed down one of the lanes.

Frowning, suspicions now forming in her mind, Luci followed the girlfriend.

And, yes, the girlfriend and Mr Handsome were now together on the harbour front, laughing.

After a couple of minutes, while still Luci hummed and hawed about what to do, the pair separated.

Mr Handsome went to the railings and looked down to the little beach below, then suddenly cried out as though alarmed by something he’d seen.

A woman and child who were sitting on a bench just a little further along stood up and went to join him.

Luci saw the girlfriend moving towards the vacated bench, where a camera had been left, obviously about to take it.

But before she could, the woman, clearly security-minded, turned back to get it and the girlfriend slunk off.

“I thought I saw something wrong in the sand,” Mr Handsome quickly explained to the woman, “but it’s all right.

“My mistake. No problem.”

He then hurried off to catch up to his girlfriend and both went into a fish and chip shop.

They then came out and got into a van parked in a space opposite.

For this they had keys – Luci didn’t think there was any skulduggery here.

But as for the rest…

“So it seems to me,” Luci finished describing events to the constable at the police station, “that one of them creates a diversion and then the other takes what they can.

“Or that’s what I suspect,” she added, suddenly unsure again. “I hope I’m not wasting your time.”

“I’m certain you’re not,” the officer assured her.

He told her there had been news of a number of thefts going on all down the holiday coast.

“There have been clusters of them in one place over a few days, and then in another, like the culprits move on.”

“They’ve got a van,” Luci explained. “I didn’t get the registration – I was too far away.

“But it was one of those you can sleep in,” she added, “and if they do, they must park it up somewhere for the night because they’ll need facilities.”

“Like at a campsite,” the constable suggested, nodding.

“Yeah, and it must be near because they had their fish and chips fully wrapped.”

“Right,” the officer said, looking baffled.

“Like they were taking it home to eat,” Luci explained. “So it must be somewhere close, or it would have got cold.”

“The old fishermen’s lookout shelter,” the officer murmured. “There’s a campsite up there.

“OK, leave this to us.”

Next day, the police officer, Thomas, came round to Luci’s house.

“We got them,” he told Luci, “and everything they’d stolen. You were brilliant.”

Luci didn’t reply immediately, thoughts spinning in her head about ditching the idea of a career in design and becoming a detective instead.

Clearly she had the knack.

Yes, a detective inspector – she could see it…

“Thanks from us all,” Thomas spoke again, giving her a big smile that brought her back to earth and at the same time sent her heart soaring up into the sky.

“See you round and about,” he added as he left.

“Yes,” Luci replied with a smile. “I hope so.”

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