“Councillor Claybourne.”
“Man’s a tosser,” Jeffries added.
“What am I supposed to have done now?”
“Harassed him,” Jeffries grinned as he told her.
“Not sexually,” Miller clarified quickly.
Callie suppressed a shudder at the thought.
“Did you follow him to a meeting he was attending the night before last?” Miller asked her.
“No!” she replied. “I was invited to attend by Ted Savage. I had no idea Claybourne was going to be there.”
“And you didn’t go into his arcade and question the staff?”
“I asked the girl in the change kiosk how I could get to see him,” she replied, irritated. “And, before you ask, I may have taken the opportunity to put a couple of other questions to her while I was there.”
“And you told Trading Standards he was involved in the cigarette smuggling.”
“No. I told them he might have been involved but I didn’t have any proof, it’s not the same thing at all.”
Miller sighed.
The waitress came over with a cup of tea and a plate of salad at that moment and they all waited until the woman had gone. Jeffries eyed Callie’s lunch with distaste before wiping the last of his fried bread round his plate to pick up the last of the egg and bacon grease.
“Perhaps you could try and keep your distance from the man for a while?” Miller suggested.
“It’s not my fault we ended up at the same meeting. I could accuse him of following me. After all, I arrived before he did.”
“Yes, but he hasn’t suggested you have committed a crime.”
“Yes, he has.” Callie was really indignant now. “He’s suggested I’m harassing him.”
Miller sighed again and rubbed his chest.
“Heartburn?” she suggested.
“Are you surprised?”
She wasn’t, what with all the work pressures and the state of his marriage, but it seemed unfair that Jeffries, gulping the last of his tea, appeared completely unaffected by his enormous and unhealthy lunch.
“Anyway,” Miller said, pushing back his chair and making to leave. “Don’t go anywhere near him, not unless you want to wind up being arrested.”
“Wait!” Callie stopped him. “How is the investigation going?”
He looked surprised.
“I’ve just told you to keep away from Claybourne. And anyway, there’s no evidence whatsoever to link him to the smuggling.”
“No, not that investigation. The one into the migrants. And the unidentified man.”
“Oh,” he said and sat down again. Jeffries had the advantage of not having started to stand as yet.
“We think we’ve identified the boat the migrants came over on before transferring to the RIB, but that’s been taken over by border police and the French. The Red Cross is taking the lead in identifying the migrants who died.”
“So that just leaves you with identifying body number nine and finding his and Michelle Carlisle’s killer.”
“Yes.”
“Had a lot of calls about the photo,” Jeffries said helpfully.
“But it’s too early to know if any of them are useful,” Miller added firmly and stood again. This time he meant to leave.
Callie took her paper napkin and leant towards Jeffries.
“Here,” she said as she wiped the worst of the egg yolk off his tie.
“Oh.” He looked surprised as if he had no idea how the stain had got there. “Cheers, Doc.”
Chapter 26
There was no doubt in Callie’s mind that Claybourne was the man behind the cigarette smuggling. She believed David Morris on that front, and that the councillor’s complaint to the Superintendent was nothing more than a ploy to discourage her from investigating his connection to it any further.
Little did he know that it was the one thing most likely to increase the chances of her doing just that. She hated bullying and that was exactly what she felt he was trying to do. She did concede, even to herself, however, that he wasn’t part of the people smuggling as the boat definitely seemed to have ended up in Hastings by mistake, but, as it also seemed that body number nine was also not part of the people smuggling, there was always the chance that he was connected to the cigarettes and so to Claybourne, one way or another.
“Honestly, the man’s a sleazeball,” Callie said after explaining her theory to Kate over a drink in The Stag later that night.
“I’m not arguing with you,” Kate replied. “But you have to remember that the man has power and he has it in for you already.”
“He’s a local councillor, that’s not real power.”
“Like, ooh, let me see, who has real power? Oh yes, an MP.” Kate grinned. “Is he as sexy in real life as he is on TV?”
Callie thought about that for a moment.
“You know, I hadn’t really given it much thought. Yes, he has bags of charm, but is he sexy? Not in my book.”
“Why ever not?”
Callie shrugged.
“Maybe he’s not my type.”
“Or maybe you are too much in lurve with Dr Iqbal to notice other men.” Kate sighed. “I have never been in that position.”
“In love with Dr Iqbal?”
“No.” Kate giggled. “So in love that I didn’t notice other men, silly.”
Callie knew that her friend didn’t have a good track record on fidelity, so she chose to say nothing. It was something that she couldn’t understand. She had always been serially monogamous, whereas Kate often seemed to be running two or three boyfriends simultaneously.
“Getting back to Councillor Claybourne…”
“Do we have to?”
“Yes. I mean, seriously, he made a complaint to the Superintendent – my boss, as far as me being a police doctor is concerned. He could have damaged my career, may already have done so.”
Kate looked at her thoughtfully.
“You are right.”
“And he intimated that he would be running against Ted Savage at the next election.”
“You can’t honestly believe he’d win?”
“I’m not prepared to take the chance.”
“Oh dear,
