Chapter Fourteen
T illy printed out the report and then tapped the pages on her desk to straighten them up. Not that she had a whole lot to say, but she was going to do things properly.
Anyway, writing reports took her mind off Sophie. Sophie, who she’d almost kissed last night. If it hadn’t been for the interruption of the others, she was pretty sure that they would have. What she wasn’t sure about was how she felt about that.
On the one hand, she was police; she had a job to do, she shouldn’t be distracted. On the other hand… well, there was so much. There were Sophie’s big, dark eyes for a start. And then the curve of her neck into her shoulders. Not to mention the curve of her waist that was begging to be held. And then, a little weirdly perhaps, was the fact that Sophie sang like a little angel and didn’t appear to know it.
Tilly’s heart had soared when she’d heard Sophie singing last night, and even thinking about it now brought a smile to her face. Mind you, thinking about parts slightly less internal than her voice did things to her too.
She groaned. The one time she really needed to focus and all she could think about was Sophie… It occurred to her that actually, she didn’t know Sophie’s last name. Something Italian probably. No, wait, Max had said her mum was Italian, so maybe not.
Whatever her name was, Tilly had the feeling that a few extra rehearsals weren’t going to make things better. It seemed that the closer they got to each other, the more inevitable it became that something was going to happen.
Which made Tilly feel all warm inside.
Yes, she had a career. But that didn’t mean a personal life was out of bounds, did it? Except that all too often, relationships with officers just didn’t work out. Look at her mum and dad. Long hours, promotional moves, a stressful job that the officer couldn’t always talk about at home. It wasn’t the recipe for a happy marriage.
Max and Mila seemed to be doing alright though. Well, mostly. She’d definitely heard a strained conversation this morning as she’d come down the stairs. But everyone argued. In fact, it hadn’t even really been an argument, more like a stressed discussion.
“Is that for me?” Max grinned cheerfully and slid the report out of Tilly’s hands.
“Yes, sir,” she said, wondering how long he’d been standing there and whether she’d been sitting around with an embarrassingly vacant look on her face. Or, worse, a love-lorn smile.
“Why don’t you fill me in on the highlights?” Max said, laying the report on the desk and taking a seat opposite Tilly.
“Sir, yes sir.” Tilly took a second to gather her thoughts, then began. “As part of an ongoing investigation into possible infractions regarding—”
Max coughed a cough that was obviously covering a laugh.
“What?” asked Tilly.
“Nothing,” Max said. “Go ahead.”
Tilly cleared her throat. “Possible infractions regarding—”
Max coughed again. “Um, do you think maybe we could do this in plain language? It’s been a long day so far and I’d like to get home at some point.”
Tilly blushed. “I mean, yes, if that’s what you want.”
“Unless you want to go the whole formal route,” Max added quickly. “If you need the practice or something. Otherwise, well, communication is key and we’ll probably understand each other a lot better if we just, um, speak normally, rather than using all the jargon.”
“Right, yes, sure.” She took a breath. “Well, um, in that case, I visited a bunch of places, had a look around as best as I could, though I didn’t cross any property lines obviously, and didn’t find anything incriminating. That about sums things up.”
Max eyed her. “You don’t have to look so disappointed,” he said.
“Do I not?” In truth, she was a little disappointed with herself. In her head she’d solved this case in the course of an afternoon. But the reality of police work was a lot different.
“These things take time,” Max said comfortingly. “Besides, think how awful it would look if I had this case for weeks and then you swooped in and solved it in an afternoon. I’d have to start looking for a new job.”
Against her will, she grinned a little at this. “Fair enough,” she said. “So, what do you suggest I do next?”
“Observation is good, key even, but what do you think you should be doing?”
“Asking questions,” she said immediately, without thinking. It was the natural answer.
“Right,” Max said. “Have a poke around. Whoever these people are, they’re good. We know that much. They’re not leaving a shred of evidence at the scenes, so they’re not likely to be leaving scrapped cars sitting around their garage either, are they?”
“Suppose not,” said Tilly.
“Right, so look for other things. Maybe staff will talk to you, maybe someone’s been overworked, asked to work night shifts which would be unusual, for example. Or maybe there’s extra money lying around where it shouldn’t be. Or someone’s wearing a watch that they shouldn’t be able to afford, that sort of thing.”
“Right,” Tilly said, getting the idea. “Yeah.”
“Observation is good,” Max said again. “But you need to go a bit deeper than the surface. You got any gut feelings about this that you didn’t put into the report?”
Tilly scratched her nose. She hadn’t been going to say anything, but Max had asked. “At most places I just had a wander around, maybe a chat to a mechanic or something if someone was around. Nothing official and, for the most part, people were friendly. But…”
“But?” asked Max.
She sighed. “I know you said that more than likely these cars are getting chopped outside the village. But from the second I stepped foot in the Farmer garage they knew I was police, and the father confronted me before I even opened my mouth, told me there was nothing there.”
“Right.”
She shrugged. “He was defensive. People aren’t usually defensive unless they’ve got something to be defensive about. It just struck me as odd.”
Max nodded. “Could be. On the other hand, he might just have had bad experiences with police in the past. You can’t assume too much from all this.”
“I know,” Tilly said. “I know. But you asked, and that’s the best I’ve got.”
“Fair enough,” said Max, getting up. “Now, I need you off to Mrs. Dodds’ place, please. It’s just off the high street, turn right out the door and take the first right. Number thirty-six. She wants some new locks fitting and a basic security system, chains, that sort of thing. No alarm, her son says.”
“Okay,” said Tilly, confused. “And I need to be there because?”
Max sighed. “Because this is community policing. Because preventing crime is just as important, if not more important, than catching criminals, and because this is the part of the job where, if you’ll excuse me saying so, you’re not so hot.”
“Not so hot?” Tilly squeaked.
“It’s not all big cases, Till. You need to focus on the people. I keep telling you that. Think about the people involved, they’re not numbers, they’re not names in a report. Policing is about humanity, and if you overlook that, you’ll never be the kind of officer I know you want to be.”
Which stung, she wasn’t going to lie. She wasn’t used to being criticized. She was used to being number one, top of the class. But she looked at her desk and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Hey, cheer up,” said Max, patting her shoulder. “You’re here to learn. And if it’s any consolation, I don’t think anyone’s ever given me a typed up report before. Mostly people just bend my ear about things.”
She gave him a smile. “You’re welcome.”
“And so are you,” grinned Max. “Now off you go, there’s work to be done.”
“ARE YOU SURE the burglars won’t get in now?” Mrs. Dodds was saying.
“They won’t,” said Tilly, who was unsure whether or not Mrs. Dodds herself would be able to get into the small house. “Can you show me how you unlock the doors from the inside?”
“I’m no fool,” grumbled Mrs. Dodds as she unlocked the new locks.
Tilly picked up the bunch of keys that the locksmith had left and stepped outside with Mrs. Dodds. “Alright, now lock up.” She waited and watched as the old woman fumbled with the keys and locked the door. “Now unlock again.”
Another palaver and they were back inside the house.
“Now, lock us in safely,” said Tilly.
Mrs. Dodds clicked the locks back to closed. “See?” she said. “I told you I’m no fool. I know how to lock a door, young lady.”
Tilly, who’d thought Mrs. Dodds was a frail and slightly demented old woman the last time she met her, was revising her opinion. She’d spent the afternoon mediating between a tired locksmith and a demanding Mrs. Dodds, and all she really wanted was to go home and take her shoes off.
But it wasn’t to be. She checked her watch, almost time. “I have to be leaving now,” she said. “Are you going to be alright?”
“Better now that the burglars are on the outside,” Mrs. Dodds said, and tottered off toward the living room.
“Don’t forget to lock up after me,” Tilly shouted, shaking her head.
She left quickly. Billy had said that the village hall was free from five until six if she and Sophie wanted to use it, and it was quarter to five now. She didn’t want to keep Sophie waiting. Actually, she didn’t want to miss a second of being in Sophie’s company.
She was walking fast and was distracted trying to message Max at the same time as walking, so she didn’t see the shiny red car drive past her and then pull up to the curb. The window slid down and someone shouted at her.
“What? Sorry,” she began, getting closer to the car.
A young man was glaring at her through the window. “You stay out of things,” he said, pointing a finger at her. “Stay away from my garage and stay away from my family.”
It was only then that she recognized him as the Farmer son. He’d been in the background when his father had been trying to throw her out of the garage. “If you’ve got nothing to hide, there’s no reason to threaten me,” she said, holding her head up high. She was no coward.
He just stared at her. “Stay away from my family,” he said again, voice loaded with meanness.
Then he revved the engine and left, and Tilly watched him go.