“So now you are looking to get your own back and find something to ruin Claybourne with?”
Lisa nodded and Callie saw a tear run down her cheek.
“Look, Lisa,” Callie said. “Going to an FNM rally isn’t going to ruin him, he could claim, like you, that he was only there on a fact-finding mission.”
“But his thugs beat up that other man.”
“Who has chosen not to press charges.”
“I know he’s into all that though, I just know it!”
The woman was clearly desperate to find something she could use against the councillor.
Callie’s desk phone rang as the receptionist reminded her that she should have started surgery and that Mr Herring was waiting.
“Just tell him I’m dealing with an emergency,” Callie told her and turned back to Lisa who was standing, ready to leave.
“I’m sorry, you’re busy–” she said going to the door.
“No, wait.” Callie stopped her. “If I tell you that Claybourne is being investigated by the police for another matter…”
Callie crossed her fingers as Lisa looked at her, a gleam of hope in her eyes. She hoped the photographer wouldn’t ask her what, as she knew full well that there was nothing concrete to link him to the cigarette smuggling without Morris, so any investigation would likely be dropped.
“…and that I will do my best to make sure that they pursue it, would you do something for me?” Callie continued.
“Is this about the cigarette smuggling?”
“How do you know about that?” Callie reacted sharply.
Lisa thought for a moment before telling her.
“My boyfriend works for the council, they’ve been trying to link Claybourne to it, but haven’t got anywhere.”
“Did you know about the raid?”
“God no, he wouldn’t tell me anything about it. He knows how I feel. I wouldn’t have been able to keep away.”
“Good. We’ll need to tread carefully. Will you help me?”
“If you can pin anything on that slippery bugger, I’ll do anything I can.”
“Yes, well, this is to do with body number nine rather than Claybourne.”
Lisa looked disappointed.
“Okay.” She shrugged. “I’ll still help you.”
“Brilliant!” Callie beamed. “Do you know about aging photographs?”
“I did a course, a while back, but I’m no expert.” Lisa’s interest had been piqued.
“But you could have a go?”
“Yes, I could do. But why do you want me to make the man in the photo look older?”
“Younger. I’d like you to make him look younger. Maybe early teens?”
“That’s harder.”
“But you could try?”
Lisa thought for a moment before nodding.
“That’s great. Then we can see if anyone recognises him as a younger boy.”
“Provided you can get the police to release it.” Lisa still seemed dubious about Callie’s plan.
“Don’t worry, that’s down to me to try and persuade them.” Callie sounded more confident than she actually was, but she had plans to work on Miller. “And I won’t forget about Claybourne, either.”
Chapter 22
Despite considerable research on the internet, reports of how Claybourne had come to own the amusement arcade, or rather how his wife had come to own it, were few and far between.
“There has to be something in what Lisa was telling me,” Callie said to Billy as they shared a bottle of wine and a home-made Thai green curry later that night. The curry was delicious and Callie realised, with a slight feeling of guilt, that Billy was a much better cook than she would ever be.
“It’s a sad story, but it’s hard to know for sure what really happened.”
“I know. But Lisa clearly thinks Claybourne is responsible for her dad’s death, morally if not physically.”
“It might be worth checking if there was an inquest, as there might be some comment on the circumstances of his death.”
“No inquest. I checked. He’d been ill a long time by the time he died.”
“Then you are going to have to either have a dig around in the property archives, which may tell you little more than that ownership passed from one person to the next, or get some local gossip.”
It was frustrating, Callie thought as she cleared away the remains of their meal and loaded the dishwasher. And her hopes for getting a picture of body number nine as a boy were not looking good. Billy had already warned her, as Lisa had, that making people look younger in photographs, particularly trying to guess how they looked as children, was much less successful than aging them.
It seemed as if all her possible leads were turning into dead-ends, but Callie refused to be down-hearted. Kate would probably be able to help her with her search through the archives, and she might be able to find something about it in the local papers from the time. Heartened by at least a vague plan she could follow up the next day, Callie went back to Billy; after all, she didn’t know how much longer she might have with him, so she had better make the most of that time.
* * *
Her regular weekend brunch in The Land of Green Ginger with Kate was as good as ever and the two friends parted with Kate promising to look up any information about the amusement arcade and any changes of ownership, with the warning that it would simply be ownership information and none of the story behind any changes. Callie knew she was right and so she made her way to the library to trawl through old copies of the local paper. While they would still be constrained by libel laws, they might hint at the relationship between Claybourne and Furnow and what had caused their falling out. Having spent nearly two hours working through them on a computer she gave up. Whilst there was no shortage of pictures of the councillor – opening a
