Page 96 of Hard Limits

“There’s not much to tell. I only spoke with him for a minute while he waited for her. Right here.” Silvio waved around the lobby we were standing in as Tulsa translated. This was no hotel. A rickety desk stood in one corner, and there were half a dozen plastic seats near a rack that held flyers for local attractions. “They were going to the beach.”

“Which beach?”

“They didn’t say.”

“Who told you they were going to the beach?” Ari asked. “Did he say it, or did she?”

Silvio pondered for a moment. “He did.”

“Where’s the nearest beach? Near Leiria or Coimbra?”

A shrug. “It’s possible,” Tulsa translated. “But there are many river beaches in Castelo Branco, so they could have gone to one of those.”

“Did either of them give a timeframe for their return?”

We already had that information from the police, didn’t we? Why was Ari asking the same question?

“A week, he said.” Another shrug. “But maybe more, maybe less. The beaches here are very beautiful.”

“How were they planning to get to the beach?” Ari asked. “Meera didn’t have a car.”

“Probably he had a car.”

“Probably? You didn’t see a vehicle?”

“I didn’t look. Why would I? A guest going to the beach with a friend is nothing unusual. Or maybe they took the bus? There’s a stop on the next street.”

I didn’t much like this guy. Meera’s colleagues at Quinta do Lago had been helpful, possibly feeling guilty that they hadn’t raised the alarm, but the manager of the hostel treated us as though we were nuisances.

“I understand Meera left some of her stuff here? And her bicycle?”

“That’s right.”

“Is it normal for people to do that?”

“It happens enough that we have a storage room. Tourists want to make side trips, and they don’t want to pay for a bed they’re not using while they’re gone.”

“Could we take a look?”

He shook his head. “What if you steal something? I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“A woman is missing.”

“If the police want to look, then they can do that. But I’m not giving people off the street access to private belongings.”

“Tell us more about the man you saw—how old was he?”

“The same age as her.”

“Tall? Short?”

“Average.”

“What about his hair? Was it dark blond? Light blond? Long? Short? Did he have a beard?”

“Short, I guess, but not shaved. Dark blond—not quite brown—and yes, he had a beard.”

“Any jewellery?”

---