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.It contained an exercise machine and some hand and bar weights, a TV/video player, and empty shelving covering one wall.When asked what the shelves were for, he said he was thinking of buying a set of encyclopaedias.‘Miniature ones,’ Lowry muttered, measuring the spaces between the shelves.‘Eight inches? More like paperbacks.Or videos.’As for ketamine, the only possibility seemed to be the medicine cupboard, full of Mrs Verdi’s bottles and pills, from which samples were taken.After less than two hours the search seemed to be exhausted and the team prepared to return to Silvermeadow.Verdi watched them packing up with a satisfied look on his face.When Brock thanked him for his co-operation, he said, ‘Don’t mention it, Chief Inspector,’ barely keeping the sarcasm out of his voice.Then he added, ‘That Rutter woman had something to do with this, didn’t she?’‘I beg your pardon?’ Brock replied.‘Mrs Harriet Rutter,’ he repeated, spitting out the syllables of the name.‘She puts on airs and acts as if shopkeepers were her personal servants, and when someone like me stands up to her she gets to work with her poison tongue.I’m right, aren’t I? She put in the word against me, eh? You won’t say, but it’s true.Her and that old fool that tags along behind her.Well, if you want some advice, you should take a long look at him.I’ve seen the way he tries to talk to the young girls.He gives them little presents, has he told you that? I’ve seen him do it, winking at them like a hairy old goat.You should check him out and that hut of his.’‘What hut is that?’‘The site huts down below the east end of the centre.He had the use of one of them as his workroom when they were doing their excavations.Didn’t you know that? He’s been at Silvermeadow longer than any of us.He’d know better than any of us how to make someone disappear from that place.’When they were in the car, Brock said, ‘Bruno Verdi has an amazing capacity for making me feel that he knows in advance when we’re coming for him.All that fuss about getting entry to his home, and when we go there there’s not a teacup out of place.’‘Those empty shelves.’ Lowry said.‘Exactly.What about the huts he was talking about, Gavin? They’ve been searched, haven’t they?’Lowry didn’t answer straight away.‘I.Yes, they must have been.’‘You don’t sound very confident.’‘I was inside the building when we did the initial search, chief.Another team worked the carpark and external site areas.They’d have covered the site huts.’‘Get Harry Jackson to open them up for you when we get back.You and Kathy.Just to be on the safe side.’11Harry Jackson appeared to be unusually unco-operative and out of sorts.He was barking at someone on the phone when they looked into his office, and slammed down the receiver angrily when he finished the call.‘Half my bloody staff are down with colds and flu.It’s this bleedin’ weather.And they’re forecasting snow.Why are you interested in those flamin’ huts?’‘Just checking, Harry,’ Lowry told him soothingly.‘DCI Brock wants us to do it personally.Just give us the keys and we’ll get out of your way.’‘Can’t do that, Gavin.One of us’ll have to accompany you.New policy from senior management.And I can’t spare anyone.’‘New policy? You having us on?’‘Straight up.They’re getting pissed off with you lot, I reckon.And I can’t say as I blame them.’‘What’s brought this on?’‘Your guvnor’ll have to take it up with mine.’ He glared angrily through the glass window into the general office beyond, then swore.‘Oh fuck it.’ He looked at Kathy, who shrugged.‘Okay, I’ll go with you.Is it raining?’‘Bucketing down.’‘Great!’They walked the length of the service road to the far end of the basement, where a fire exit door gave access into a corridor which eventually discharged at the extreme east end of the building.They hesitated in the shelter of the doorway, bracing themselves before braving the rain cascading out of the louring sky.This area was remote from the mall entrances and no money had apparently been wasted on landscaping or on softening the functional shell of the building.The lower part of the wall alongside them was filled with steel louvres from which came a low mechanical murmur [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]