Evanly Bodies by Rhys Bowen Page A

"If they feel too threatened, they'll just
     send her away from here out of our reach. On second thought, it might be best if you spoke to someone at her school. They
     might be able to intervene for her legally and declare her a ward of the court if necessary."
    "But that would mean taking her away from her family, which I'm not sure is the best idea," Bronwen said. "Making the parents
     see reason is obviously what I want to achieve. I think it's the brother who is the big problem in the family. He's probably
     putting a lot of pressure on the father to act like a Muslim patriarch, and the father doesn't want to lose face by having
     his daughter defy him."
    Evan stroked Bronwen's hair. "I'm glad we don't go in for arranged marriages in Wales," he said, "or your parents would have
     had you hitched to some gentleman farmer or boring solicitor."
    "And yours would have married you off to a policewoman." Bronwen laughed.
    "Oh no. My mother would have never come up with anyone good enough for me. She'd have kept me at home."
    "She thought that Maggie girl was pretty special," Bronwen reminded him of an old flame in Swansea.
    "Only when it was clear I was already interested in you. When I was dating Maggie, Ma never had a good word to say for her.
     I don't suppose either set of parents is too happy about us right now."
    "Don't say that, Evan. Mummy really likes you, and Daddy had to be impressed after you rescued me. Of course, when it comes
     to your mother . . . I've come to realize I'll never be good enough. But luckily, Swansea is a long way away." She turned
     and brushed his cheek with a kiss. "Look at the time," she said. "There were so many things I wanted to talk to you about
     this evening, and now it's bedtime already."
    "What did you want to talk about?" Evan asked. "I'm not sleepy yet."
    "Well, for one thing, you've got a new murder investigation, and you never got a chance to tell me about it."
    "I suspect the actual investigation will be fairly straightforward," Evan said, and gave her basic details. "It's going to
     boil down to someone who had a grudge against Professor Rogers."
    "One of his colleagues, do you think?"
    "I can't say yet. We only just spoke to them for a few minutes today. They all seemed normal enough people. If they killed
     Rogers, then they all came straight in to work as usual and put in a full day with students. That would take a cool head,
     wouldn't it? Tomorrow I hope Bragg will listen to my suggestion and start interviewing some of the students. We can find out
     from them if any of their professors seemed particularly stressed or distracted that day. Also, Sergeant Bill Jones in Caernarfon
     suggested it might be a disgruntled student who took a potshot."
    Bronwen looked up and nodded. "Quite possible. They do seem to take grades as a matter of life or death these days, and so
     many of them can get their hands on guns too." She paused, thinking, and sat up. "You said you hoped Bragg might take your
     suggestion? Why don't you go and interview the students yourself?"
    "Oh dear me, no," Evan said. "I've come up against the ultimate dictator. I've been told I'm the junior officer, and my job
     is to run errands. I've been with him to interview people all day long, and if I open my mouth I get frowned at. It's not
     easy, I can tell you, especially since he has this unfortunate, pushy manner. He flings out one question after another and
     doesn't wait for the full answer to come out or to watch the reaction."
    "Evan, that's terrible. Doesn't he know how successful you've been? Didn't you tell him that you've solved cases on your own
     before now?"
    "I rather think he's heard rumors about that and is determined I'm not going to step into his limelight. After all, there
     must be a reason I was selected for the first team in this new Major Crimes Unit. It must have been a recommendation rather
     than a punishment, although it feels like the latter."
    "Poor Evan." She swiveled around to him