Page 45 of Play Our Song

Cautiously, slowly, Max began to walk toward the barn. “Police,” he shouted. “Police.”

There was no answer until… until music began to drift through the air. It took a second, maybe two, and then Tilly was running toward the barn, toward Max.

“Sophie,” she shouted.

“Tilly?” cried a voice from inside.

“That’s Sophie Farmer,” Tilly said, catching up with Max.

“What’s she doing in there?” Max asked, confused.

“Not a clue,” said Tilly. “But I’d recognize that voice anywhere. Maybe she’s being held hostage?”

The sweet sounds of the Coventry Carol were drowned out by two voices singing what sounded like a very rude song about a young man from Venus. Max coughed. “Um, being held hostage by Amelia and Cass from the cafe? Seems unlikely.”

He gestured to Dougie, who came over and handed him the key to the barn.

“Still, stand back,” Max said. “Just in case.”

But the only thing that came out when Max unlocked the barn were the strains of a song about a monkey doing something very untoward with a bowling ball.

“WHAT WERE YOU thinking?” hissed Tilly as she bundled Sophie into the police station.

“We were looking for car thieves,” Sophie said miserably.

Tilly rolled her eyes. “Where do you want her?” she asked Max.

“We’ll put the four of them in the interview room back there. The one that’s for families,” he said. “Give them a chance to sober up a bit before we ask too many questions.”

When the four were locked away safely, complete with a pot of coffee that Max had made, Tilly finally collapsed onto her seat. “I should have known better,” she said.

“Better than what?” asked Max, sitting down at his own desk.

Tilly took a breath and then explained. It was better to be open about these things, she’d realized. She’d made a mistake getting anywhere close to Sophie Farmer, a mistake she wasn’t about to make again. Which was exactly what she told Max.

“Why not?” Max asked.

“What?”

“She’s a nice girl,” Max said. He glanced over at the interview room. “Well, mostly.”

“She’s just got arrested,” said Tilly.

“Not a usual occurrence,” he said. “Is it just because she’s a Farmer?”

“Obviously.”

Max shook his head. “You can’t do that. These are people, remember? You can’t judge someone on their family, it’s not fair.”

“Is it not?” Tilly said, nodding toward the interview room.

“I don’t expect you to be a chief superintendent,” said Max. “I do, on the other hand, expect you to give people a decent chance and to behave like a decent human being. Not too much to ask in an officer.”

“But… Well…” Tilly didn’t quite know what to say to that.

Max was looking quite cross. “Has it occurred to you at all to question what they were doing up there and why they were doing it?”

Tilly rolled her eyes. “Sophie said that they were looking for car thieves.”

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