I was taken back to the Police Station this was where nurse was able to patch up my wounds as best possible. The wound in my foot was nasty but the glass had been clean so there was little danger of infection, that didn't stop Nurse Cecil (yes, the nurse was sadly male,) from covering the wound in antiseptic. My screams were probably heard in London.
All the while Inspector Lehrmann endeavoured to explain the strange situation to me,
"Normally Monsieur I would not tell you anything but I believe you are owed an explanation. First I have what may be considered good news, your would-be girlfriend is not a nun, nor has she ever been. We believe that her father hid her in the convent to hide her from persons unknown, the reason for this will become clear. M. Burune, or Mr Brown as he is known in other circles, has been involved somewhat in smuggling - diamond smuggling. We believe that he has tried to relinquish his involvement with the operation but found his daughter threatened if he did not continue. Gunni Burune was sent to the convent as a place of hiding, yet she is wilfull, sneaks out of an evening and it seems unfortunate in who she must have bumped into one night. Finally we come to you….."
I broke my uncharacteristic silence,
"So somehow the smugglers think that I am involved, or may have been told something by Gunni and 'they' whomsoever 'they' may be have decided to find out what I know?"
"Unlikely Monsieur, she had many one time boyfriends, you are one of that many…."
Ouch, …..
"…However," Lehrmann continued, " Your business card was found in the ransacked lodgings of Monsieur Burune, advertising your business as an investigator of any situation. Clearly they are concerned by your presence and interest in this Gunni Burune, an interest that I take to be purely conjugal."
This Inspector was good with words I'll give him that.
"That's a very genteel way of calling me a 'dirty old man', sir," I replied with as much dignity as was both appropriate and possible.
"Not at all, Sean, I recognise you as a man of opportunity, You take what you can, where you can."
Gee thanks, I thought. Not sure where this was going or if I'd now be allowed to leave Bruges, I couldn't help wondering if all this banter was going somewhere.
"So, what do you want from me?"
"Monsieur, I should like you to finish your holiday at our expense and make sure you see as much of our city as possible,"
"With escort?"
"With Escort."
"So you want me to be the bait for a trap to try and catch the felons who took Gunni and consequently the diamond smugglers. I'm to walk around as much of Bruges as possible, spending lavishly, at your expense (of course), get attacked again and that's where your boys do the Sweeney thing and arrest my would-be captors? What's wrong with the prisoners you already have? You did arrest my attackers didn't you?"
I didn't like the awkward silence, Lehrmann clearly did, he had so many of them.
"You didn't arrest my previous attackers, did you?"
It transpired that the Inspector was too busy tending to a wounded tourist and assisting him away from danger, hence the villains were still loose, not least their employers. The lunacy was that the Inspector now wished to set up exactly the same trap that he'd rescued me from, this did not strike me as being sensible, however…..
"As we will technically be employing you M. Morgan we will pay twice your usual rate plus those notorious expenses and turn a blind eye to the stolen credit cards that were in your wallet. Are you, as they say, game?"
The Inspector seemed like a decent chap and I have to say I was growing to respect him, his methods were almost as slap-dash as my own. The whole thing seemed crazy, goons were looking to do me wrong, further wrong than I already had been done and I really wasn't too happy with that. I suppose if we caught up with these mysterious fellows then the Inspector would turn a blind eye while I stuck the boot in.
"How could I refuse? It sounds like fun. I'm in."
Acting upon my instinct for stirring up trouble my first port of call was the boat house where Mr Burune moored his little boat, the pun wasn't intentional. The police officers given the job of shadowing me were good I had no idea they were there…. I assumed they were there, at least.
I chose to go late at night, if these crooks thought I was an investigator on a case involving them then I had better go about my alleged business. Being a cheap investigator that meant more Spade and Bogey than James Bond, I was going to break into the boat house. The Brugellian Constabulary provided the crow bar and I provided the elbow grease. This wasn't too easy as my foot was still in a lot of pain and I had keep the weight off it as much as possible. There were many locks on the boat house door and the charge I was now facing of breaking and entering was looking more like criminal damage. Crow bars, however, are not delicate tools and don't require much precision. After a lot of noise I had the door open. Torch out and switched on I ventured into the gloom of the little boat house.
Unlike Mr Burune's lodgings the boat house had not been ransacked, in fact it was empty. The walk way down one side of the water looked solid but well trodden. I couldn't see in the gloom if scuff marks showed any signs of activity. Something however caught my eye. I reached for a boat hook to fish something out of the water.
My Blood ran cold as a stretched, slightly worn but definitely stripy jumper came out of the water, this was the same pullover that Gunni had been wearing on the night we met. This wasn't good. It was then that the obvious fact smacked me proverbially the nose for being stupid. This was a boat house in the late hours of the night. Where then was the boat?