Free The Loyal Servant by Eva Hudson Page B

can’t just ignore – I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out… draw you a diagram.’ She took a breath. ‘And you know, Sod’s Law – I didn’t have the right coins for the machine. I had to do something.’ She let go of the chair. ‘I guessed that Martin would still be in the building, so I went up to his office to see if he could change a five pound note.’
    Prior’s face seemed to have lost some of its colour. He pulled his mouth into something approaching a smile that looked to Caroline more like a grimace.
    ‘Well, thank you for your time. I’m sure I don’t need to take up any more of it,’ he said. ‘Let me know when you make progress.’
    Caroline frowned at him.
    ‘In locating the CD-ROM.’
    She nodded and was grateful to finally turn away. She marched towards the door, but something made her stop and turn back when she got there.
    ‘Of course there is another possibility,’ she said.
    Prior leaned forward again.
    ‘The minister may have taken the CD-ROM home with him.’ She thought she detected the merest sign of a flinch, Prior’s shoulders seemed to tense. ‘Has anyone been to his house?’
    Prior continued to stare at her, the muscles in his jaw flexing.
    ‘Perhaps someone should make a visit,’ she said. ‘You never know – the disc could be in his study – just sitting in a drawer or something. Would you like me to go? It’s a bit out of my way, but if you think it might help—‘
    ‘That won’t be necessary.’
    ‘Oh – you’ve checked it out already, then?’
    He cleared his throat and reached for his desk phone. ‘You concentrate on questioning the team here in the department. Let me worry about everything else.’ He held the receiver mid air. ‘If you’ll excuse me?’
    Caroline opened the door, keeping her eyes on Prior as she backed out of the room. He was already murmuring into the phone as if she wasn’t there.
    She walked back to her desk, her legs getting shakier with every step. She sat down and looked back across the office to Prior’s room in time to see Lisa ushering Ed Wallis inside. He sat down on the chair Caroline had just vacated, his stomach resting heavily on the top of his thighs. Why did Prior want to speak to a lowly security guard? Ed said something and laughed. He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms. What was he telling Prior? It had to be something to do with what happened on Thursday night. Immediately the events of that night came flooding back. She remembered again the conversation she’d had with PC Mills about the suicide note. Ed glanced in her direction and nodded. She quickly turned away and grabbed her handbag from the desk.
    After a few moments fumbling inside the bag she located PC Mills’ business card and laid it on the desk. She stared at it, breathing slowly, trying to slow her racing heart, wondering again if she could trust the policeman with the kind face.
    She had to trust someone.
    Her call was answered swiftly and an efficient voice asked how she could help.
    ‘PC Ralph Mills, please. It’s urgent.’
    Caroline heard the plastic tap of fingers on a keyboard.
    ‘M, I double L, S?’ the woman on the other end asked her.
    ‘That’s right.’
    More tapping.
    ‘I’m sorry. I’ve checked it three times now. Are you sure you have the right number?’
    ‘I’m looking at the card he gave me right now. What’s the problem?’
    ‘There’s no record of a Ralph Mills on the system.’

9
    Angela Tate leapt out of the taxi and left her photographer to pay the fare. She pulled up her collar and picked her way along a stretch of uneven pavement towards a mass of bodies being hemmed in by a sparse cordon of police officers wearing bright yellow vests over their uniforms. Two or three ‘Save our Schools’ placards swayed in the strong wind and a faint chant calling for the sponsor of the academy’s early demise wafted from the back of the throng.
    The group had gathered at the entrance to a muddy building site