I waved, caught his eye. He raised his arm and shook a cheerful fist in the air, turned to someone beside him and pointed me out.

It was his mother.

Chapter 13

I pushed through the crowd, touched Giles’s head, took his handgrip and gave Helen a preoccupied kind of kiss. That is to say a bob at each cheek. She was carrying a green and white bag from Harrods food halls, thrust it towards me. She had a bundle of newspapers under her other arm.

‘Here you are! A pound of farmhouse Cheddar, Cumberland ring and a delicious Arbroath smoked haddock. All wrapped up in tin-foil.’

I juggled a handgrip and Harrods, muttered thanks.

‘If you looked in a mirror now, my dear, you’d recognize extreme shock,’ she said. We were walking through the chattering throng without direction.

‘Not shock. Not that. Just surprise, that’s all.’

‘Well I was coming down anyway. Eric’s at his place at Valbonne. We’re off on the recce. In two days.’

‘You said a week?’

‘I said soonish, dear. Remember? So I just brought Giles. He wanted to come. And here we are.’

A seedy little man in jeans and trainers pushed towards us, a piece of white card with ‘APHRODITE PRODUCTIONS’ chalked on it.

‘It’s Ron!’ said Helen brightening considerably. ‘Dear old Ron. You got here then?’

‘Last evening,’ said Ron. ‘Got your baggage tags? How many pieces?’

‘This is my husband, Ron, Mr Caldicott.’

‘Hi,’ said Ron indifferently. ‘How many pieces? It’s down here; watch the steps.’ He turned us left, towards the baggage claim, hastening ahead to get a trolley.

‘I don’t know about accommodation, my room is a bit cramped for two.’

‘William, dear. Those days are over! No mummies and daddies now. I am staying with Eric at Valbonne. Easier. We leave together and there is a lot of, you know, preliminary stuff to do before, so …’

We had reached the carousels. Rome, Ajaccio and London at the far end.

Giles said, ‘I’ll take the carrier, shall I?’

‘Well, it would be kind.’

‘If I had told you on the telephone what I was doing you’d have made all kinds of a fuss and excuses. I know you. So I decided on a fait accompli, right?’

‘Obviously.’

‘As obviously as you are absolutely ill with delight that I’m at work again. Your face! William, really. What news of your Treasure Hunt? Hot on the trail, are we?’

‘If you mean James, no. Not at all.’

‘Good grief! What did he do? Evaporate or something?’

‘Something like that.’

Giles said, ‘Our flight’s gone up. On the notice thing. And it’s started to move.’

Helen was fishing about in her handbag. Someone was making an announcement over the sound system, an appeal for a Mr Hackenburger in two languages. Then Helen found a card and gave it to me.