‘Can you tell me when you last saw him?’
‘Month, six weeks ago. He came to see me here. Had a brief chat, then he was on his way.’
‘What did you chat about?’
‘This and that. Time of day. Nothing in particular.’
‘He came to see you, and then didn’t have anything in particular to say to you? I find that hard to believe, such busy people as you both are.’
Bell made a restless movement. ‘He asked me about Salford Quays. Big retail development in Manchester.’
‘I’ve heard of it. What did he want to know?’
‘He asked how much a development like that would stand to make for an investor. I told him it depended on how much you had to pay for the land.’
‘Why did he ask you that?’
‘I don’t know. I said did he have something in mind and he said no, he was just interested. Then he asked me about government investment – Salford had quite an injection for the infrastructure – and I said he should come and see me when I had more time and I’d tell him what I knew. Then he pissed off.’
Atherton could make nothing of all this. ‘Did he often ask you for investment advice?’
‘No. Doubt if he had anything to invest. Anything else?’
Atherton took the plunge. ‘Candida Scott-Chatton,’ he said. Bell’s expression, bright and watchful like a cat at a mouse hole, did not change. ‘I understand you’re seeing her.’
‘Yes. What about it?’
He wasn’t going to offer anything. Atherton was going to have to ask. ‘I wondered how you felt about the fact that she was also still seeing Ed Stonax.’
‘Why should I feel anything about that?’
‘Well, there was an occasion some years back when you got rather riled about a similar situation. A fight outside the Ram pub in Manchester, a young woman called Sharon Railton, a – shall we say? – business rival called Gus Oldfield. Oldfield ends up in hospital with a knife wound. Ring any bells?’
As he spoke, he saw Freddie Bell relax, and was intrigued. What had he been afraid of, Atherton wondered, that was worse than having this bad episode from his past brought up again?
‘That was ten years ago,’ he said, ‘and you know perfectly well that the police found no knife and Gus refused to press charges. It was just a bit of high spirits, a friendly tussle, and the press got hold of the wrong end of the stick, as usual. There was nothing between me and Sharon Railton and she was free to go out with anyone she pleased as far as I was concerned. And Gus accidentally wounded himself when he slipped over and fell on some broken glass.’
‘It was a very neat wound for broken glass,’ Atherton said. He had read the files. Frustration on the part of the police breathed from every line. Despite the fight taking place outside a popular pub at chucking-out time, following a violent argument inside about the girl, the witnesses had all melted away when questioned. No-one had seen anything.
‘Gus said himself that was what happened, Sharon confirmed it, and I don’t know why you’re dragging all this up again. I’m a peaceable man. I’ve never gone tooled up. I don’t need to.’
‘A man as powerful as you,’ Atherton said, ‘with so many loyal employees, certainly doesn’t need to.’
But Freddie Bell only laughed and shook his head. He ought to have been – or at least have pretended to be – annoyed at the suggestion, but he wasn’t, which bothered Atherton more than a bit. ‘It’s no good sizing me up for Ed Stonax’s murder. You’d never get me to fit. Apart from everything else, I liked Ed. He and I worked on several projects together, and I gave him money on more than one occasion for his campaigns. Why on earth would I wish him harm?’
‘Men have fallen out over less tasty dishes than Candida Scott-Chatton.’
‘She’s a grown woman, she can choose for herself who to go out with. And I’m not so infatuated I can’t cope with her seeing another man as well. I knew it was Ed she was in love with, and good luck to it. I didn’t want to marry her. I’m not the marrying kind. Besides, it was Ed who suggested it.’
‘Ed Stonax suggested you started seeing his woman?’ Atherton said with derision; and yet he felt uncomfortably that it was going to turn out to be true. Freddie Bell might have literally fought his way out of the mean streets and have built his empire on ruthlessness and sometimes questionable acts, but he had crossed the line now into a world of such wealth that it guaranteed its own respectability. He looked massive and unshakable, like a national monument.
‘Look,’ he said, easing himself in his chair as if for a long chat, ‘I’m going to tell you the whole story, because I can’t afford to have you lot tramping about all over my business and my private life. This is the truth, and you can believe it or not, it’s up to you.’
‘Fair enough,’ Atherton said.
‘I’ve known Candida for a long time,’ said Freddie Bell. ‘I always quite fancied her. She isn’t as strait-laced as she looks, you know. That girl likes a bit of fun. She could drink you under the table, and get her in the right mood and she’s got a stack of filthy stories that would curl your nose-hair. A lot of those public-school, rich-daddy, Tatler girls are like that. Butter wouldn’t melt and all that, but they go like trains in the right company. Anyway, Cand was married to that twerp Bannister when she was eighteen and only just out of school. It was her parents’ choice, and she went along with it because she didn’t know any better, and he wasn’t bad looking. But he was so wet he was a non-starter, and he must have bored her to tears. So she started doing her charity work, just to fill her life. And it gradually took over. That’s how I first met her, at a fundraiser, and we hit it off like nobody’s business. We saw a bit of each other over the years, on a casual basis. We kept it private, because she was still married, and I didn’t want any scandal. I had plenty else on my mind in those days. Then, thank God, Bannister ran off with that girl, Candida met Ed, and everything looked set fair. I still thought she and I might have a little fling now and then if the occasion arose, but if it never happened, so be it.’ He shrugged. ‘In actual fact, it didn’t. For a couple of years I hardly saw her, except at the occasional function, just to nod to each other. But I was cool with that. I’ve never lacked for female company.’
‘So I understand,’ said Atherton.
‘Then that business of Ed’s came up,’ Bell continued. He paused, for the first time looking away from Atherton, his eyes reflective. ‘They wanted him out, and the bloody fool wouldn’t go quietly. So they came after him, went public with those photos. Then he had to go. And he came to me. He wanted to stop them going after Candida. He asked me to step in and start dating her publicly, make it look as if she’d dumped him and taken up with me instead. Well – ’ the eyes were direct again – ‘I didn’t mind. It suited me just then to start looking a bit more establishment. The government was talking about super-casino franchises, but they weren’t popular with the voters so they needed to make them look more respectable. Mr F. Bell plus the Marquis of Alderley’s daughter looked a lot better than plain old Freddie Bell with the likes of Sharon Railton tottering along on his arm, falling out of her dress, bless her, and getting mouthy drunk on screwdrivers. Bit of a stereotype was our Sharon.’
He chuckled softly in reminiscence, then shook himself back to the story. ‘Anyway, Ed knew it would work for me and it would work for them. They’d get the casinos through, I’d get the franchise, Candida wouldn’t have sleazy pictures of her spread round the glossies, happy result all round. And maybe it would even be Lord Freddie next January. Not that it matters to me, but Cand would have liked it. Make us less unequal. Meanwhile Ed could get on with whatever he was planning to do – which frankly I couldn’t care less about and didn’t want to know. I knew,’ he added, as though Atherton had raised the point, ‘that she was still seeing Ed, and I told her she was a fool – they were both fools – but it didn’t bother me. I only thought they’d be better off staying apart until the heat was off, but she said they were being discreet and no-one would know. Fair enough, nothing ever got in the papers about it. So there you are,’ he concluded. ‘Now you know everything and you can chuck out any idea that I had Ed bumped off out of some sexual jealousy, or whatever you boys call that motive nowadays. I wished them well, and that’s the truth.’