The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce

of unpacked ring-binders. It was a scene of Aberystwyth in winter; he shook and snow fell. For many years relations between the two of us had been similarly frozen; because that was the natural state of affairs between a chief of police and a private operative. A snooper generally being regarded in the eyes of the law as someone who makes his living by getting to evidence before the police and then not telling them about it. But Llunos was not too worried about evidence since he could always invent what he lacked. And with time we had come to understand we were both fighting for the same thing. The only difference was one of approach – mine was more law-abiding.
    I took a bottle of rum out of the cabinet under the desk and fetched two glasses from the kitchenette. He glanced at his watch.
    ‘Bit early.’
    ‘Get a new watch.’ I poured the drinks
    ‘I’m just telling you, that’s all,’ continued Llunos. ‘For the record. Then when I have to charge you for obstruction or withholding evidence you won’t be able to say I didn’t warn you.’
    ‘I’ll bear it in mind.’
    ‘I know nothing I say will make a darned bit of difference.’
    ‘It’s nothing personal.’
    He nodded. ‘If it was me and someone took Myfanwy I’d be the same.’ He drained the glass and I refilled.
    ‘Bit smaller than the old office.’ He gave the room a look of appraisal. ‘What’s the tea towel for?’
    I paused for a second wondering how much I should tell him. He noticed; he always did.
    ‘Calamity is applying for her badge. She has to do a project so she’s writing a report on the case of the Nanteos fire.’
    ‘She won’t find much to look at.’
    ‘You don’t think so?’
    ‘Impeccable bit of coppering work that. Best the county’s ever seen.’
    I laughed. ‘Let’s hope not. I need something to keep her quiet.’
    ‘The guy in charge was my great-grandfather, Syracuse Obadiah Griffiths. First peeler in the county.’
    I looked at Llunos as if I was seeing him for the first time. ‘I wasn’t aware of that.’
    ‘It was an experiment, you see. Sir Robert Peel had introduced this idea of peelers in London but they weren’t sure whether to roll them out across the country. So they tested them out in a few places. Syracuse was the first in Wales. The mansion fire was his finest case: established the model for policing in Cardiganshire for the next 150 years. He was a great man.’
    ‘I’ll drink to that.’
    We raised glasses.
    ‘I’ll tell Calamity to call you if she needs any help.’
    He grunted a sort of sound that might have been agreement and said, ‘Reason I dropped by was to let you know: we’ve found the
gelati
van.’
    ‘That was quick work.’
    ‘Yeah, quick.’
    ‘Then again, can’t be easy to hide an ice-cream van.’
    ‘They found it in a deep freeze. Quite appropriate really.’
    ‘Are we talking about those big freezers at the meat-packing plant?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘One of the hotels then?’
    ‘No it was an ordinary domestic deep freeze. In a scrap yard.’
    ‘So what am I missing?’
    ‘The van had been in a car crusher.’
    I nodded. It made sense.
    ‘Some guy walking his dog saw it being crushed last night.’
    ‘And I suppose because it was done outside office hours there was no paperwork and no one working there knows anything about it.’
    ‘That’s pretty much how it looks. But we might still be able to find something useful in the chassis. We’re waiting for the heavy uncrumpling gear to be sent up from Cardiff.’
    ‘I suppose there’s no sign of the driver.’
    ‘On the contrary: there’s every sign of him. Judging from the pink stuff oozing out, I’d say he’s still at his post.’
    ‘Went down with his ship?’
    ‘Looks like it.’
    ‘Thanks for telling me.’
    ‘I also found out something else. I took the car registration numbers from the kiosk guy and traced the people who were there that day. We found a family staying in town, they gave us the film they