Atherton felt the disappointment of deep conviction that Freddie Bell was telling the truth, and that this was the end of a potentially promising trail. He also knew his time with Bell was fast running out and that he’d be unlikely to get more than one more question in before the emperor chucked him out. And given what appeared to be Bell’s ample connections with the government, he knew what it would be. It might not be anything to do with the case, but it was the thing most of all that he wanted to know.
‘Why did the DTI want to get rid of Ed Stonax?’ he asked. ‘What had he done?’
‘It wasn’t what he’d done so much as what he was going to do,’ Bell said promptly. ‘He’d found something out and he wanted to investigate it and make it public, as if he was still a bloody journalist. I told him he wasn’t working for the BBC any more, he was out in the real world where real things happen and people get hurt. He wouldn’t listen. They said he could go quietly, take a nice big settlement and keep his mouth shut, or he could do it the hard way. So what did he do? Wanker.’ Bell’s face was hard now, and yet Atherton felt he could discern something softer imperfectly hidden in his eyes. Regret?
‘So what was this thing he had found out?’ Atherton asked.
‘I can’t tell you because I don’t know,’ Bell said briskly. ‘And if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you. It’s none of my business – and it’s none of yours, either.’
‘Everything becomes my business in a murder investigation,’ Atherton said.
‘Then you’re as big a fool as he was. I hate bloody Boy Scouts! I said to him, all you’ve got to do is keep your mouth shut. I said, who’s the loser? And d’you know what he said? He said, the truth is the loser.’ He made a sound of disgust. ‘I told him to grow up. And now look where he is.’
One of the phones rang, and he snatched it up as if glad of the distraction. ‘Yeah? All right, cut him off. Who? No, Lorraine’s got those figures. Put him on to her. All right, I’ll be through in a minute.’
He put the phone down and stood up, and Atherton was obliged to do likewise. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a business to run. You’ll have to go.’ He walked across to the door on to the corridor and opened it, holding it for Atherton, and said, ‘I’ve told you everything I know, and I don’t expect to see you or any of your little friends here again, savvy? Otherwise I might have to stop being polite, and I wouldn’t like that.’
Atherton didn’t like being threatened, but he had no hand to play. He said politely and meekly, ‘Thank you for your time,’ and Bell nodded, as if it was his due.
Atherton stepped through the door, and as it was closed behind him, Bell said, ‘And tell your boss he’d better not go stirring up any hornets’ nests. Keep his nose out of other people’s business or he might get it bitten off.’
‘Is that a threat?’ Atherton said, surprised at its brazenness.
Bell gave an impatient shrug. ‘It’s a friendly warning. There are some people who don’t like him, that I wouldn’t want to piss off.’ And he closed the door.
The delectable Rain Forrest was walking towards him, alerted by some means to his departure. ‘I’ll take you back to the lift,’ she said, smiling pleasantly.
‘I’m sure I can find it myself,’ he said acidly.
She shook her head like a nanny with a sulky child. ‘We like to know that visitors have left the building, and aren’t wandering round unsupervised. Mr Bell didn’t get where he is today by being careless.’
‘You’re beautiful, intelligent and kind,’ Atherton said. ‘What are you doing working for an outfit like this?’
‘Like this?’ she said, with what seemed like genuine surprise. ‘It’s a thriving international business. What can you mean? And Mr Bell is a very good boss.’
‘You just don’t seem like the type,’ he said glumly.
She actually patted his arm. ‘You did very well in there. Better than I expected.’
‘You were watching?’
‘Everything that happens in this building is monitored and recorded. What did you expect?’
‘So I’m on tape for ever, am I?’
‘Oh, I except you’ll get wiped at some point in the future.’
They had reached the lift. She pressed the button and the door opened at once: no-one had used it since him. ‘I’d really like to get to know you,’ Atherton said, turning to face her, holding the door with one hand to stop it closing. ‘Would you like to go out somewhere? Dinner tonight.’ She shook her head. ‘Tomorrow night?’
She pushed him gently back into the lift and pressed the G button. ‘I have you on video,’ she said. ‘Whenever I miss your face, I can always watch that.’ And she stepped back out as the door closed, still smiling and shaking her head.
‘So, how was it?’ Slider asked as Atherton came in. ‘It must have been hard to get anything out of him.’
‘I don’t know when I’ve done anything harder, unless it was getting a kitten out of my bedroom slipper,’ Atherton said. ‘He was positively forthcoming.’
‘Then why the air of disgruntlement?’
‘He says he knew about Stonax and the woman and didn’t mind, and I believe him.’
‘Oh. That’s a shame.’
Atherton told him the whole story, ending with the ‘friendly warning’.
‘I wonder who he meant by “your boss”,’ Slider said. ‘Me? Porson? Wetherspoon? The AC?’
‘I don’t think it was the Home Secretary,’ Atherton said. ‘He’s obviously got a lot of government contacts and equally obviously likes keeping on the right side of them. I’m sure he knows what was behind Stonax’s sacking, but I’m equally sure he’ll never tell us.’
‘And you think that’s important?’
‘I don’t know,’ Atherton said. ‘It was obviously a big thing in Stonax’s life, but it was nearly a year ago, and if anything was going to happen to him because of it, you’d have expected it to be then.’
‘Unless he was still investigating, and getting closer,’ Slider said.
Atherton shrugged. ‘I suppose mostly it just bugs me not knowing what he’d found out. I don’t like not knowing.’
‘Well, we haven’t got many other lines to follow up,’ said Slider. ‘Why don’t you look into it? Interview Sid Andrew and the woman – whatever her name was—’
‘Funny how nobody remembers,’ Atherton said moodily.
‘And ask them what it was all about. Go on from there. And go through his papers, try and find out what he was doing these past months. We’ve got his diary to go through, his latest correspondence, and they’ve taken his computer to Jimmy Pak to examine. Enough there to keep us all busy for a day or two.’
‘Right,’ said Atherton, pulling himself together. ‘First find out the woman’s name, then find out where she and Sid Andrew have gone. A bit of phone and computer work there. And on the subject of computers . . .’
‘You’d better find out how Emily’s doing,’ Slider supplied for him. ‘She’s had her head down all day, as far as I can tell – no-one seems to have seen her. In fact, I dare say she needs a cup of tea. I could do with one as well.’