“We’re not open yet. You’ll have to come back later.”
Callie jumped back guiltily and turned to face Mrs Savage. She was dressed in her usual style, cream cotton shirt, dark blue skirt, pearl stud earrings, and flat blue pumps; plain and understated, very professional, nothing flashy. Nothing to get her noticed at all.
“Dr Hughes!” The MP’s wife couldn’t hide her surprise, or her disapproval at seeing Callie. “What are you doing here?”
“I, um, wanted a word with Ted, about the migrants.” Callie smiled and tried to look innocent, taken aback by the rudeness. “I didn’t realise you were planning to redecorate.” She indicated inside and moved back as another workman hurried in with more carpet tiles.
“You must have seen how tired and grubby it was, when you came before.”
“Well, yes,” Callie agreed, she had noticed it, but she couldn’t help feeling the timing of this refurbishment was suspicious.
Mrs Savage looked at her watch pointedly and spoke to the carpet tile layer on his knees in the corridor.
“You have fifteen minutes to finish.”
She got nothing but a grunt in reply as the man carried on working. Callie thought the woman looked stressed; perhaps the fact that the workmen were behind and the office might not be ready for when the constituents arrived was enough to cause it.
“Ted is running a bit late, so he won’t have time to talk to you.”
“Oh, right, well, I’ll drop in another day, perhaps. Thank you.” Callie started towards her car.
“A word of advice, Dr Hughes?”
Callie turned back.
“My husband flirts with everybody. It’s just the way he is. It doesn’t make you something special.”
Callie could feel a blush rising up her neck at this put-down, but Mrs Savage had already turned back to oversee the workmen.
* * *
“You must see that the timing is a bit coincidental, to put it mildly,” Callie told Miller. She had rushed to see him as soon as she had left the MP’s office to tell him about the decorators.
Jeffries didn’t seem convinced.
“Yes, but that’s exactly what it could be, Doc, a coincidence. Could have been planned months ago.”
“Well, that’s something you could check, isn’t it?” She tried to conceal her irritation, but failed.
“Given that the bodies were found on the beach, I was more interested in his house than the office,” Miller added.
“Yes, but they could have been moved. If they were killed in the office, he could have taken them to his house or wherever he keeps his boat.”
“If he has a boat.”
“He’s trying to cover up the evidence. Why else would he redecorate now?” Callie was more than a little exasperated, she had been so sure they would be interested.
“If he’s the killer, and that’s a big if.”
“And even if he is getting rid of the forensic evidence, he’s done it, hasn’t he? We’re too late,” Jeffries chipped in.
“But you could get hold of the carpet tiles before they’re dumped. If you are quick enough.”
Miller did at least seem to consider this.
“I took down the name and phone number of the company doing the work. It was on the van.”
She held out her phone to show him the photograph she had taken of it before leaving. Miller ignored it.
“Look, have you got any other people who fit the bill?” she pushed him. “You seemed pretty sure it was him.”
“We’ve got about twenty on the list.” Jeffries was still openly dismissive. “And much as I have a low opinion of politicians−”
“Very low,” Miller chipped in.
“Like Councillor Claybourne, I have a hard time thinking of him as a murderer,” Jeffries continued.
“Are any of these other suspects really viable?” Callie wasn’t about to give up, not just yet.
“None as good as Savage,” Miller conceded. He was thoughtful. “I just don’t see how I can get a warrant on the evidence I have.”
“Do you need one for a carpet that’s been taken away? Can’t you check with the CPS? I mean, Michelle Carlisle had a head injury, what if it happened there? In his office? He could be getting rid of the flooring because of a blood stain.”
“Or he could just be redecorating.” Jeffries clearly wasn’t convinced.
“If you don’t move to get the discarded carpet tiles now, before they go to the tip or are destroyed in some way, it will be too late, or will involve sifting through tons of rubbish.”
Miller could see the sense in this argument and he certainly wouldn’t want the cost of having to pay for a large-scale search of the council landfill site at a later date if Callie was proved right, but still he hesitated.
“I take it none of Daniel’s friends have identified Savage as the client?” Callie really wasn’t going to let it rest.
“No, that would be too easy.” Miller washed his face with his hands as he thought about what he could do. Callie crossed her fingers and willed him to agree to it.
“Sod it,” he said and reached for the phone.
Chapter 31
Callie was on tenterhooks as she waited at home to hear the result of Miller’s phone call. Or phone calls. When she had finally given up and left the incident room, he was still trying to persuade the CPS that he had enough cause for a warrant to seize the discarded carpet. They clearly did not agree, and she understood that, but meanwhile, the evidence, if there was any, could have been lost. She just hoped Miller got permission to prevent the carpet’s destruction, even if they weren’t allowed to actually take it away or examine it for evidence at this point. What always seemed so easy in television dramas, was clearly not
