‘Sure, give me a second.’
Rachel waited, her pulse too loud in her ears, tapping her pen on the desk until Marlene came back on. ‘It’s a Stalybridge number…’ and she reeled it off.
As Rachel repeated it, writing it down, Kevin walked in. He came over to her desk where she finished scribbling and ended the call. She turned the paper over.
‘Doing something you shouldn’t?’ he asked. ‘Personal call in work time?’ He was smirking like some big schoolboy.
‘Phone sex,’ Rachel said. ‘Helps pay the bills.’ Enjoying the way he blanched. ‘You ruined the moment.’
He began to laugh a little nervously.
She scooped up the note and her bag. ‘You think I’m kidding?’ she flung over her shoulder as she left. She went into the Ladies, where he wasn’t able to follow. Now she had to decide how to tackle Martin Dalbeattie.
Gill called them into the meeting room. Rachel made sure to be on time. Was Gill quick to forgive misdemeanours? Or one of those bosses who never let it go? Rachel felt disgruntled. It was she who’d cottoned on to the shopping in the first place. Yes they’d have got there eventually – well, soon as they did the CCTV trail – but Rachel had been thinking one step ahead and it had turned out to be a significant issue. Because Sean had stolen the clothes and the phone, and denied doing so for long enough.
‘CSM’s been on,’ Gill said, not looking very happy about it. ‘No bags, no phone. Whatever Sean Broughton did with them, he didn’t stick ’em in the bins as he claims.’
‘Why tell us he had?’ Rachel spoke out. ‘He must know we’d find out.’
Janet said, ‘He was winging it. He took the stuff but didn’t want to tell us where he’d left it, so he makes up a story.’
‘Arse over elbow. He cops for taking the stuff’ – Gill flung out one hand – ‘but tells porkies about disposal…’ she waved the other. ‘Isn’t taking it the bigger deal? Once he’s rolled over on that, why send us on a wild-goose chase?’
‘Because he’s hiding something else,’ Andy said, ‘at his place.’
‘Maybe he’s lying about the shopping because, wherever he dumped it, he dumped the knife, too,’ Rachel said.
‘Had crossed my mind,’ Gill remarked drily.
‘Can’t give us one without the other,’ said Janet.
‘On that…’ Kevin said.
‘Kevin,’ Gill said brightly, ‘you’re awake!’
Rachel smothered a laugh.
Kevin glowered. ‘We’ve extended the house-to-house and we have a sighting of Sean outside the school, heading downhill at three twenty.’
‘Reliable?’
