“I can’t even imagine how Roger Pilane suffered in that room. What sort of monster did that?” Debra said.

“You know, I was thinking about how this was not some random thing. Someone came to his house and collected him. It wasn’t just a theft that went wrong; his wallet still had cash in it. This was a personal thing,” Jade said.

“Yes, I think so too. We need to know this guy’s life. I say we go to the job,” Debra said.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Jade said.

*****

“Come in, come in,” the affable Miller Carling directed them into his office. “We were gutted to hear about Roger’s death. He was such an important part of our team. We’re all devastated.”

Jade was good with first impressions and straight away she disliked this guy. Was it the comb-over? The overkill dress-wise – designer suit, gold cufflinks? He worked for the Council. He was in the buildings department. What was all the fluff about? He exuded falseness and Jade didn’t like it.

“So, Mr Carling–” Debra started.

“Miller, please call me Miller.” He smiled. Jade nearly laughed out loud. If Miller thought his fancy suit and too-white smile was going to have an effect on her partner, he’d better have another think. First, she was gay, and second, she had no time for flash from anyone. She and Jade were always on the same page in that area, if not the other one.

“Yeah, okay, Miller, tell us about the projects Roger Pilane was working on,” Debra said.

“Sure. Well, he had his everyday inspections for business permits, extensions on residential properties etcetera. But really the airport project took most of his time nowadays.”

“What was his job on the airport project?’ Jade asked.

“He was the supervising engineer. The project was put out for tender, a company won it, and Roger’s job was to sign-off on each stage.”

“So how had the project been progressing?’ Debra asked.

“Well. We’re nearly finished. The last stage was just about to be signed-off and the project handed over to the Council. Now, with Roger’s death, we’ll need to get another engineer up to speed to do the final sign-off.”

“Did Roger have problems with anyone here? Enemies?” Jade asked.

“Well, you can imagine in this job you get a few angry clients. Business permits turned down, construction problems that need correction. All that costs people extra money, which they don’t much like. But Roger was a very level-headed and polite guy. People tended to take bad news from him quite well.”

“And do you know anything about his personal life?” Debra asked.

“Only a bit. He seemed to have a happy marriage. I mean the guy donated a kidney to his wife – he must have loved her. I’m not sure I’d have done that for any of my three ex-wives. The first husband, though, gave them a bit of trouble at the beginning.”

“So Mrs Pilane was married before?” Jade asked.

“Yes, some sort of criminal type. Came in here a few times, caused some problems. One time I had to call the police to get him out.”

“Do you happen to know his name?” Debra asked.

“No, sorry.”

“This airport project, who’s the contractor?” Jade asked.

“Quartz Engineering and Construction.” Miller dug around in his drawer, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Jade. “You can contact them here.”

“Have you been happy with them?” Debra asked.

“Sure,” Miller said. “It’s our second big tender with them. They did the new Vale Sports Complex too.”

“And was Roger the supervising engineer on that project as well?” Jade asked.

“No, that was Rob Campbell, but he’s retired now.”

Debra smiled. “I think that’s all then.”

They stood to go.

“Do you happen to have Rob Campbells’ phone number?” Debra asked.

Miller shook his head. “No, sorry.”

They left the office and Miller closed the door behind them, leaving the detectives with his receptionist, who would see them out. They walked a distance with her, and then Jade stopped and turned to the friendly young woman.

“You know, we forgot to get Rob Campbell’s contact details.”

The woman said, “We can go back to Mr Carling’s office if you’d like.”

“No, no need to disturb him. Maybe you could just give them to us. He had said he’d give them to us before we left, but it must have slipped his mind.”

The young woman smiled and walked them back to her desk. “I’m new here but I know Rob left just before I started and I had to fill in some paperwork for him. I’m sure I have the copies in the file.”

She took a small pad and pen to her filing cabinet and efficiently found the file, wrote down the information, and handed it to Jade. “There you go.”

“Thanks so much,” Jade said. She looked at Debra and winked. There were so many ways to catch a fish, she thought.

***

Tell us: Why do you think Miller Carling didn’t want to give Robert Campbell’s phone number to Jade and Debra?