and his family, I have never known them to be anything other than open and honest in their business dealings.'
Boswell was looking astonished,
'Are you seriously asking us to believe that the Hills are all reformed characters, have you not heard about recent accusation regarding their involvement in the death of a young schoolgirl?'
Wellington shook his head dismissively,
'I would point out that these are unfounded allegations which have been whipped up by the media, and I for one certainly don;t believe them. I should also point out that through their businesses, the Hills have brought far more jobs to this area than Mr Boswell ever did during his brief stint at Westminster. In fact I find it tragic that Mr Boswell is willing to allow his personal..... and it is clearly personal..... animosity towards myself and the Hills take precedence over the best interests of the people of this area, as well as apparently supporting the criminal behaviour of those who seek to blacken the name of local businessmen, in the despicable guise of dispensing vigilante justice!'
Boswell was immediately back on his feet.
'If drug-dealing, car-theft, mugging and burglary are the preferred career choice of people in this area, then the Hills have certainly done their bit to bring jobs here! And let's face it, once this factory site is redeveloped, what other jobs will there be in this area? And, as far as dispensing vigilante justice is concerned, perhaps what we have seen recently is the result of ordinary, decent people becoming sick and tired of seeing the likes of the Hills and their lackeys appearing to be immune from the official legal system. I definitely don't believe these particular leopards will ever change their spots!'
'I really feel that Mr Boswell ought to learn to moderate his public attacks on the Hill family,' warned Wellington, 'As I suspect the day may come when they reach the end of their patience, and perhaps Mr Boswell may find himself in court defending what could almost be construed as incitement to commit acts of aggression against Sammy Hills and his family.'
'Is that a threat?'
'Enough, gentlemen!'
Elspeth Johnstone, the formidable chair of the planning committee drew herself up to her full height and declared,
'I don't know about the Hills or anyone else's patience, but I am certainly reaching the end of mine. Could we please remember, this is not a political debating chamber, nor is it the school playground. We are here to discuss proposals for the future of the Rutherfords factory site, and with that goes the responsibility for the future of the many people affected by this decision. If you gentlemen cannot behave responsibly, you will be asked to leave.'
Wellington appeared ready to argue, but decided against it.
'I apologise to the chair, it won't happen again.'
Leaving Boswell no option but to do the same, after which the discussion moved forward in a more civilised manner.
DI Ann Morrison called her team together,
'Just to bring everyone up to speed on the phone situation, the message to Liz Kingsley's phone came from an unregistered pre-pay handset. This mobile has also been used to send and receive messages from several other phones.'
'By monitoring calls over the last few days we have established a relationship between these users, one of which is none other than Benny Patterson. Two others are Gary McCall and Drew Oldman, who are known associates of Patterson, and another unregistered phone which we have so far been unable to track down. Our plan is to try and round them up at the same time to avoid any one of them tipping off the others. A priority here is to try and ensure that none of them have the opportunity to delete anything on their handsets. Although I'm aware we have the technology to recover most of it. I don't want to give any smart-ass lawyer the opportunity to claim that we've interfered with the evidence.
Ian, I want you to take charge of the team dealing with McCall,' she said, handing him a sheaf of papers,'
'And Brian, you will be dealing with Oldman.'
'OK boss.'
'Kit, you and I will collect Patterson.'
'We have permission to search their homes and their cars, and to examine anything we find, so check and double check the paperwork I've given you, remember what I said, we don't want to give some lawyer a get-out clause. Again, I would remind you of the importance of them not having the opportunity to delete anything, so don't give them any access to their own phones after you arrest them. We should also be keeping an eye out for drugs, particularly Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, which we know was used on the two girls. Any questions?'
Ian raised his hand,
'Are we allowed to tie their dicks to a concrete block, and throw it out of a first floor window?'
'No, and if you try it, you'll be the next one in line, and I'll be the one chucking the concrete block out the window!' she said wagging an admonishing finger at him. He held up his hands in defeat.
'Oh my, you're a hard woman.' he declared.
'Yeah, but you'd never again be able to claim to be a hard man!' she laughed.
In the council offices, Julie was sitting in front of her computer screen in the IT department, going through her usual routine at this time of day, uploading the tedious day-to-day facts and figures of council business. Lord help her if anybody went onto the council's website and couldn't find the latest information on which pharmacy was open late that night, or if the bin collection times had been changed, or next door's plans for an extension had been passed.
But as usual, her mind wasn't really on the job on hand, instead she was thinking of David. The night at the cottage had been fabulous, better even than she had hoped, and she realised now that the stolen moments they had been sharing were never going to be enough for her. She ached for him now, his voice, the touch of his hands, the feel of his body. She wanted to be free to be seen with him in public instead of hiding away in the dark, but that raised the whole question of splitting with Allan, ending her marriage, possibly moving out of her home. And there were her children to worry about. Although they were old enough to understand that relationships didn't always last, and let's face it, they only had to look at many of their friend's parents to see that thing can go wrong, she still didn't know how she could bring herself to tell them that she was leaving their dad.
She knew they loved him, despite the occasional battle over the years. Often she had used the old “wait till your father gets home” ploy to maintain some semblance of discipline, only to see his resolve crumble as they managed to wind him around their little fingers. And even Mandy, who could take sulking to an Olympic standard, had been known to come round from one of her moods with Allan's silly teasing.
The whole prospect filled her with dread, despite the love she felt for David. But what if he didn't feel the same? He told her he loved her, but did he feel the same commitment? He was going through a divorce and was currently living with his sister and her husband, which was the main reason for the furtive romps in the back of his car. Would he really be that keen to get involved in a serious relationship?
As often seemed to happen, thinking of the practicalities of ending
