Free Troubled Waters by Trevor Burton

I’m off early today. What can I do for you?’
    ‘Thought I’d better let you know that Sophia Peroni, a colleague of the murdered girl from Salford into Work–’
    He is definitely in a hurry as he cuts me off quite sharpish. ‘Yes, it’s a murder case, and I’m well aware of the details and as of now we’re getting nowhere with it. What do you want?’
    ‘Sophia has asked Enodo, via Amelia, if we can help her. She’s frightened she may be thought of as a whistle-blower, thinks her phone’s bugged and she is being followed.’
    ‘I know. We’ve bugged the phone, but all calls are recorded for quality assurance and training purposes in that type of operation, you know that. We just got in on the act, especially as Barry Milton has gone to ground. It stands to reason we would like to be aware if anyone from the company is in contact with him. I have certainly not approved any tail on her, though. No reason to as yet.’
    I’m not pleased about the as yet , but don’t mention it. ‘I was aware of the disappearance of Barry Milton,’ I confirm. ‘We’re going to meet Sophia for lunch at the Lowry Hotel tomorrow.’
    ‘Don’t be asking too many questions there, or overstepping the mark,’ he warns.
    ‘Merely advisors and consultants,’ I answer.
    ‘Yes!’ he mutters, ‘so long as you keep it that way. I suppose two heads are better than one, but the problem is we’ve got three scenarios here: fraud, murder, and the fracking protest. We know Milton is involved in fraud and fracking, but murder as well?’
    ‘It would be too easy,’ I admit.
    ‘I’d better get going,’ he finishes, a little bit more jovially. ‘Keep me in the picture.’
    ‘Certainly will,’ I confirm, wondering what he is rushing off for.
    Amelia is stood waiting apprehensively as I finish the call. ‘Couldn’t help overhearing the conversation. Is everything OK?’ she asks.
    ‘Yeah! He was a tad brusque, said he had somewhere to rush off to.’
    ‘Oh, that’s not like him. It’s gone five, if there’s nothing else?’
    ‘No, that’s fine. Don’t forget I drove in this morning, so I’ll give you a lift. We can talk about Sophia and tomorrow.’
    I fire up the Saab and we negotiate the choked town centre of Stockport, picking up the M60 clockwise at the Pyramid roundabout, intending to use the M56. We are listening to the radio, hearing from traffic reports that the M56 is queueing traffic, so we divert onto the more leisurely A34 into Cheshire.
    Amelia now starts the conversation proper, with no preamble. ‘Do you think Sophia and or Marian were involved in the fraud?’
    ‘I don’t know at this stage. If they were, I’d say they were bit-players not leaders. Sophia is certainly very scared of something, and we are assuming it is Barry Milton, but we can’t be sure. How much do you know about her friend Suzy Meredith?’
    ‘I’ve only met her a few times. She used to come to our keep-fit class in Macclesfield, but dropped out. She said she was too busy with husband and kids, but in all honesty I’m not sure she enjoyed it that much. She was trying to lose weight, she said, but didn’t really give it enough oomph, if you get my drift.’
    ‘I do,’ I answer, absent-mindedly patting my belly and making a mental note to upscale my own fitness regime.
    ‘Do we play good-cop and bad-cop tomorrow?’ she asks.
    ‘No,’ I answer. ‘We merely have lunch, and proceed as agony aunt and uncle until we get the background. There has to be more than we know so far, and as you said we know virtually nothing about Suzy.’
    I drop Amelia off at her cottage and drive the rest of the way home trying, without success to make it all fit, but on initial face value it all comes back to Barry Milton.

Chapter 11
     
    Because of our lunch appointment I drive to Crewe station on Tuesday morning. After spending fifteen minutes driving round and round the official car park, I can find not a single space. For one whole second I