I gave him my most angelic smile and restrained myself from pointing out that if someone was to be shot at such close range they would therefore most probably be dead, in which case there wouldn’t be much point in asking them any questions at all.
Instead, I thanked the policemen and the nicer one wished me good luck with my project. They marched smartly off to go and destroy Papa’s notebook and I turned towards the harbour and started counting boats.
‘What are you doing, Josie?’ Papa asked. His voice sounded a bit weak and when I glanced up at him he still looked a little green.
‘I’m counting boats. For my project. And then I think we could probably both do with a little refreshment at a café, don’t you? That way, we can work out what else there was in your notebook that I haven’t already written down and we can try to remember the details. After all, two heads are better than one, as the saying goes. Wouldn’t you agree, Papa?’
He just stared at me for a while and then he reached out his hand and stroked my cheek very softly, saying, ‘Ma p’tite, what an extraordinary child you are.’ Once again, just like when we were in the cave, there was so much love in his expression that for a moment I could hardly breathe. But we had work to do, I reminded myself sternly, and so I returned to my counting.
When we’d sat down at a café and Papa had taken a large gulp of brandy to calm his nerves （I find chocolate ice cream has a similarly soothing effect）， we worked out that I’d collected pretty much all the information he needed. The only thing that was missing was which ports had a telegraph line. He could remember that he’d seen them at El Jadida and Safi but not Oualidia, and so I added that information to each of the relevant sections. There was no sign of a telegraph line in the port there at Mogador either, so I noted that down in my schoolbook too.
After he’d sipped the rest of his brandy a little more slowly, Papa looked at my project thoughtfully, turning the pages. ‘Where did you find out all these other things?’ he asked. ‘The purple islands and the sea snails and everything?’
‘I don’t only take novels out from the library, you know, Papa. You can read all sorts of interesting things in books.’ Then I gave him a very stern look. It was time to lay my cards on the table. ‘So,’ I said in a businesslike tone. ‘On the basis of what I’ve found, I have deduced that if I were contemplating an invasion of this coastline, I would choose Safi as the best place for a landing.’
He gave me a startled glance again, but then a smile crept slowly across his face. The brandy must have been taking effect, I think. ‘And why is that, ma puce?’ he asked.
‘Well, El Jadida is closest to the north, which is where the fighting is, but it’s too much of a stronghold to invade easily with that big fortress. The harbour there is fairly small too, and the boats I counted were all little ones, which tells me the channel into the port is probably not very deep, so we can rule it out. Oualidia is completely out of the question because it’s much too small and of course the harbour is all silted up. I wouldn’t want to disturb the flamingos there, either.’
I paused to take another spoonful of my ice cream and then turned the page. ‘Here at Mogador the harbour is quite small too, although there are a few larger boats so the channel’s probably a reasonable depth. But at Safi there’s a good-sized port for all those sardine boats and some of them were huge. That means the channel must be deep enough to accommodate larger vessels so, if I was invading, I’d be able to get troops and equipment in fast. As I’m sure the Portuguese found back in 1488,’ I added with an innocent smile, pointing to the date that I’d jotted down in my book.
Papa nodded, digesting what I’d said.
‘I wouldn’t bother looking any further south either,’ I added. ‘On the map the next port is Agadir, which looks quite large but it’s too far from the north. Any invaders wouldn’t be too keen on a long journey by land where they could be attacked and pinned down by an enemy.’
Papa nodded some more, thinking about that too. Then he smiled at me again and said, ‘I think we should go back to the hotel and put your schoolbook away in a very safe place now. I’m quite sure Miss Ellis will be extremely satisfied with your work.’
‘I hope so,’ I replied. ‘And Mr Reid as well.’
Here are some words from the thesaurus to describe the expression on Papa’s face when I said that about Mr Reid and he realised I knew pretty much everything that he was up to: startled, amazed, astonished, astounded, flabbergasted, dumbfounded.