Page 33 of Play Our Song

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 notleaving 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.

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