by Candy Denman
“Yes. It is.” Callie turned the sound up.
“Police in Hastings are asking for help in identifying a body that was found on the beach at about the same time as the terrible tragedy of the migrant boat capsize. They believe one of the young men found was not from that boat and earlier, I spoke to Detective Inspector Miller about the reasons why.”
The picture changed to a pre-recorded section where Miller stood, looking slightly uncomfortable, in front of Hastings’ main police station.
“We believe that one of the bodies found on the beach at Fairlight might not be that of a migrant and that he may be connected to the body of a young woman, identified as Michelle Carlisle, found later. No one has come forward to identify this young man and we have come to believe that it is possible he has been missing for some considerable time, perhaps living rough, or in a squat, in London. Given that his family may not have seen him since he was a teenager, or younger, we have done an age regression picture of him in the hope that someone may recognise him from this.”
The sanitised picture of body nine, as he was now, and the picture of him as he might have looked as a young boy were then flashed up on screen. The presenter then finished with another plea for anyone recognising either picture to get in touch and giving out the phone numbers for them to do so.
“Well that should get them a few phone calls,” Billy said before giving her another quick kiss on the cheek and hurrying out to work.
Callie thought that that was probably an understatement.
* * *
The café where she had agreed to meet Miller was near the pier, and Callie walked past the amusement arcade on her way. She was surprised to see Peter Claybourne standing outside the arcade, almost as if he was waiting for her. He waved and smiled as she passed. No, Callie thought, that wasn’t a smile it was more of a smirk, just like the one he had had on his face at the MP’s meeting, and made her feel that he knew something that she didn’t. And that she wasn’t going to like it when she found out.
If so, he would have been right.
“The Superintendent has had a complaint,” he said between hurried mouthfuls of a cheese omelette washed down with black coffee. Sergeant Jeffries was eating a full English, including fried bread and black pudding and had an extra-large mug of tea to go with it. The speed at which he was shovelling it into his mouth made Callie alarmed for his digestion if not his cardiovascular system, but at the moment the only casualty seemed to be his tie, which had a blob of egg yolk sliming its way slowly down it.
“Oh yes? Who from?” Callie asked, although she had a pretty good idea.
“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 ha
ve 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, where is this leading, Callie?”
“If he’s charged with the cigarette racket, he’ll lose his seat on the council and won’t be able to stand as a candidate.”
“Isn’t that bullying, Callie?”
Even though Kate had a twinkle in her eye that told Callie she wasn’t serious, Callie gave it some thought.
“No, it isn’t. He’s the one who is breaking the law and thinking he can ride roughshod over everyone else. I’d just be exposing the truth.”
“And tell me, dear friend of mine, just how exactly are you going to do that?”
Callie had to concede that it was a good question. A very good question indeed.
* * *
It was a question that Callie spent a lot of time thinking about during the rest of the evening. Her one link, David Morris, had disappeared off, goodness knows where, and Callie could hardly blame him after the beating he had received.
The shop where she had seen Morris buy cigarettes was open but they were hardly likely to be selling the cigarettes again with the Trading Standards people already breathing down their necks. She couldn’t understand how they had failed to find any stock when it was raided.
Unless they had been tipped off. But by whom? And how did they know the raid was going to take place?
Callie knew that Trading Standards was part of the council, was it too great a leap of the imagination to think that someone in that department tipped off Councillor Claybourne? The more Callie thought about it, the more she believed it was possible, and even likely. The trouble was, she couldn’t just go to the head of Trading Standards and say she thought one of his team was corrupt. For all she knew, he, or she, could be the one.
She was going to have to find another way of implicating Claybourne in his illegal activities, and maybe, Callie conceded, that was a job for the police.
* * *
“I might not be investigating the people smuggling anymore, but I do still have two murders on the books,” Miller complained.
Callie patted his hand soothingly.
“I know, and they obviously take precedence over a little matter of council corruption.”
“Of which you have no proof whatsoever.”
“Which is exactly why I need your help, or the help of one or two of your team.”
“I can’t just go loaning out my team to an investigation that isn’t even official. Do you have any idea how much paperwork I have to fill in before I so much as ask one of them to leave the room?”
“Okay, when I said I needed the help of one or two of your team, I wasn’t meaning me personally. I meant that the investigation into the smuggled cigarettes needed them.”
“But that’s not my case. It’s Trading Standards’.”
“And they aren’t going to solve it if someone is helping Claybourne.”
They seemed to be going round in circles.
“The best I can do is tell the Super we’re looking into a possible leak in Trading Standards and maybe put together a sting operation.”
Callie grinned.
“But only if it is simple.”
She leant back, still smiling.
“And I can’t guarantee he will go for it; in fact, I can almost guarantee he won’t.”
“But he might.”
“Only if I don’t mention Claybourne and keep your name out of it. So, do me a favour, Callie, don’t go anywhere near him or any of his cronies. You hear me?”
Callie nodded.
“I promise. Scout’s honour and all that.”
He left and Callie uncrossed her fingers. She never had been a scout.
Chapter 27
Callie was surprised to see Anna Thompson in the waiting room when she went back to do her evening surgery. She looked tearful and Callie went straight over to her.
“Anna, what’s the matter?”
Anna could only manage a sob in reply.
“Come into my room and tell me what’s happened.” She gave an apologetic shrug to the receptionist, who would have to field complaints about her running late, and led the teenager into her consulting room.
Callie busied herself getting a glass of water and some tissues for the girl, giving her time to get herself under control. When Anna had blown her nose and taken a gulp of water, Callie sat down and spoke to her.
“What’s happened?” she asked.
“My friend, my best friend, Louise, she’s in hospital, and I’m worried about her.”
Callie could see where this conversation was going.
“And does she have asthma?”
Anna nodded.
“But she hasn’t been using her preventer inhaler, like you?”
Anna nodded.
“Callum said we’d put on weight if we used them, but Mum says that’s not true.”
“It isn’t. The dose of steroid you get in one of those inhalers is tiny because it goes straight to where it’s needed.”
“Oh.” Anna seemed to understand.
“So, this Callum, what made him say that?”
Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“Dunno.” She resorted to a teenager’s favourite response when they believed to answer truthfully would get them in trouble.
“I think you do know, Anna. And I think you need to tell me. Think about your friend Louise and the other two girls who have already ended up in hospital. One of them died.” Callie didn’t like frightening the girl, but she really needed to get to the bottom of this before there was another death.
“He said we was helping them,” Anna blurted out. “He said it was just because doctors wanted to save money that they wouldn’t let us use the blue inhalers all the time.”
“The blue inhalers are cheap as chips, Anna. It’s the others that are more expensive. The reason we don’t just give out the blue ones is because of exactly what has happened to your friend and what I have been warning could happen to you. You could have an acute asthma attack and the hospital won’t be able to treat you because you are resistant to the drugs that could work. You have to listen to me.”
“I’ll be all right.”
“Like Louise.”
“She’s different.”
Callie had a sudden light-bulb moment.
“In that she really does have asthma.”
Anna nodded.
“So how did you know how to fake asthma to get hold of the inhalers?”
“Callum’s sister is a nurse. She told him that half the people doctors give inhalers to don’t have asthma, it’s just to keep them quiet.”
“Did she also tell him that doctors won’t keep on handing them out?”
“I dunno. Probably.”
“And Callum thought up this way of making money? Tell girls the other inhalers would make them put on weight and then sell them the ones he got from you?”
Anna nodded.
“Only it wasn’t just me. I found out he had a few of us getting them for him.” She looked at Callie and a tear ran slowly down her face. “He told me I was special for getting them for him, but he had Beccy and Dawn doing it for him too, maybe others.” She sobbed.
Callie patted her on the shoulder and handed the distraught girl ano
ther tissue. One dead, three more ending up in hospital, and what for? Money in the case of Callum, and feeling special in Anna’s case. The question was, what was Callie to do about it? Besides speaking to the school and killing the myth of weight gain.
Maybe she needed to talk to a policeman. Or a lawyer.
* * *
“The trouble is always going to be proving that he did it knowingly,” Kate explained to Callie over dinner at Porters. “I mean, obviously he can be done for illegally selling prescription drugs but I’d doubt the CPS would go for any charges like deliberate wounding or grievous bodily harm.” She paused to cut herself a hefty mouthful of rare steak. “He could claim that he had no idea there would be consequences like that.” She popped the steak in her mouth.
“Even if he got the idea about doing this from his sister who is a nurse?” Callie asked and realised she would have to wait a moment or two before Kate could answer, so she took the opportunity to tackle her cod fishcake.
“You would have to prove that she told him it could cause this situation, and I doubt she did, or would admit to it.”
“So, what do you think I should do?”
“Exactly what you are doing. Speaking to the pupils. And it sounds as if at least one of his suppliers won’t be helping him anymore.”
“I’ve taken her off the asthma register and told the nurse about the scam; in case she has any other girls on the list who she thinks might be pulling the same trick.”
“There you go then. You could also mention him to the community police, or even the drug squad. They may know who he is and be able to pay him a visit.”
“Warn him off?”
“Exactly. Scare the pants off him. He’s probably already thinking of his next money-making project. He sounds just the sort of shit to progress to major drug dealing if someone doesn’t stop him now.”
Callie wondered if her friend had already represented Callum in her professional role, or if it was just that she knew the sort of manipulative petty criminal he seemed to be.
“Right, it’s a plan. More wine?” And Callie concentrated on enjoying herself for the rest of the evening.
Chapter 28
Getting into work nice and early the next day, Callie had time to make a couple of phone calls. As Kate had predicted, it turned out that both the community policeman and the drug squad were well acquainted with a lad called Callum, recently suspended from the school. They explained that whether or not they were able to arrest him for selling prescription drugs depended on them finding some on him, unless the headmistress was willing to act as a witness.