‘Or if he didn’t before, maybe that was what he was working on after he left the DTI,’ Joanna suggested. ‘Did he never mention any of this to you?’ she asked Emily.
‘Not a thing. Which now I think of it was a telling point, because he used to like talking to me about his campaigns and investigations. But this one he played really close to his chest, so I ought to have known it was something serious.’ She sighed. ‘But if he didn’t want to tell, he wouldn’t have. You couldn’t force my dad to do anything he didn’t want.’
The same thing occurred to everyone simultaneously – that he had been forced, by a threat to Emily – but no-one said it. She obviously thought it too, because she looked unhappy and lowered her eyes for a moment.
Swilley spoke, mostly to break the awkward silence. ‘So what’s become of the Waverley B shipyard in all this?’
‘Sid Andrew said AM-BriTech were selling it,’ Slider said.
‘That’s not strictly true,’ Emily said. ‘They closed the yard as soon as their merger went through – which was pretty cynical, but I suppose that’s business for you. The gates closed at the end of May last year.’
‘And the election was in April,’ Atherton said. ‘That’s pretty cynical too. And now it’s going to be developed. I’ve seen the plans on the internet. It’s in a fabulous position, you see – on a sort of promontory sticking out into the Clyde, so it has water on three sides. It’s close to Glasgow – City of Culture, isn’t that what they call it now? – which is bursting at the seams with young money looking for somewhere to spend itself. It has good transport links. And there’s even an old railway line they’re talking about reviving. That was hinted at on the website, and it would mean a public money injection. “Infrastructure investment” is what they call it these days.’
‘And what’s it going to be?’ Joanna asked.
‘A mixture of leisure, retail and residential,’ Atherton said. ‘Shops, galleries, hotels, restaurants, small retail units – craft workshops and the like – and some swanky flats with river views.’
‘Like Salford Quays,’ Joanna said.
‘I was just going to say that,’ said Hollis. ‘Have you been there?’
‘We went out there when we did a concert in Manchester last year,’ Joanna said. ‘We had some time to kill between seating rehearsal and concert, so we thought we’d go out there for a meal. It was quite impressive, but a bit sad, I thought.’
Hollis nodded. ‘Like when they turn the great old mills into yuppy flats.’ He had been born in Oldham, where now there was nary a mill.
‘Still,’ said Joanna, ‘a generation breathes easier.’
Slider looked at Atherton. ‘That name rings a bell. Didn’t you report that Freddie Bell said Mr Stonax asked him about Salford Quays?’
Atherton nodded. ‘He asked what sort of money there was in a development like that, and Bell told him it depended on how much you had to pay for the land.’
‘You’re building up to something,’ Joanna said. ‘I know that look.’
‘The Waverley B development – or the New Clydeview Centre as they’re going to call it . . .’
‘What else?’ said Joanna.
‘The development is being done by Key Developments, Bates’s company which he took care didn’t get taken over in the takeover. And since he’s also a large shareholder in AM-BriTech, I dare say the price charged for the land won’t be too heartbreaking.’
There was a silence as these facts were absorbed. Then Swilley said, ‘So is that it? Is that the whole conspiracy? That Bates and Tyler were doing some fancy financial footwork together to make a profit out of the old shipyard?’
‘Isn’t it enough?’ Atherton asked. Their old resentment seemed to prickle the air for a moment.
Swilley frowned. ‘I don’t see how that makes a case for killing Stonax – sorry.’
‘Please, you don’t have to mind me,’ Emily said. ‘I know he’s dead. That’s why I’m here, to try to help find out why.’
‘OK, I’ll stop saying sorry,’ Swilley said. ‘What I’m saying is that Ed Stonax knew about the fix that went in over Waverley B and the election, and that’s what they got rid of him from the department for. Developing a site as a leisure complex is what goes on all over the country all the time, and apart from maybe the “infrastructure investment” you were hinting at, Jim, having Tyler’s fingerprints on it, there’s no extra scandal for anyone to disapprove of. The development would bring regeneration to what was presumably a run-down area, and surely that’s a good thing all round? OK, a few people are going to get extremely rich on the back of it, but blimey, we all know that happens. It’s not something to kill anyone for.’
‘And what about Danny Masseter?’ asked Hart, who had come to feel rather proprietorial about him. ‘Where does he fit into it?’
‘And why was Bates sprung – if he was sprung?’ Hollis asked. ‘Couldn’t be just to enjoy the fruits of his labours, could it?’
‘He was a friend of Tyler’s – isn’t that enough?’ Atherton said.
‘I wouldn’t have thought Tyler had any friends,’ Slider said. ‘Not of the sentimental sort. But you’re right, Norma – this doesn’t tie up all the ends. In fact, it leaves me with just as many questions as I started with.’
Hart’s phone rang, and she went over to answer it. She came back smiling. ‘That was Reading,’ she said. ‘Mrs Masseter recognised Mark from the photograph as the bogus Inspector Steel.’
‘Good,’ Slider said. ‘So we’ve got him for impersonating a police officer, obstructing the course, and burglary, just for starters. Get his description and photograph out to all units. He’s to be arrested on sight.’
‘And if the car damage matches the motorbike,’ Hart said happily, ‘we can have him for murder.’
‘You’ve got to link him with the car first,’ Mackay reminded her.
‘We’ll do it. Poor old Danny,’ she said. ‘By Grabthar’s hammer, I will avenge you.’
‘By what?’ Slider said.
‘Best not to ask,’ said Joanna, who had seen the film.
‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this,’ Joanna said when she and Slider were alone, ‘but I have to have some more clothes. I didn’t pack all that much because it was only two days. I have to go back to the flat.’
‘Not on your own,’ Slider said.
‘You went on your own,’ she reminded him.
‘And look what happened to me.’
‘Yes. You didn’t manage to avoid it, so how will your coming with me make things better?’
‘I saw the warning signs, without which I could have been much worse hurt.’
Joanna looked anxious. ‘It’s not that dangerous, is it? It was only a prank – the bucket? Painful for you, but not life-threatening.’
‘His threats have escalated,’ Slider said, choosing his words carefully. ‘I don’t know, I’ve never known, how seriously he means them, but I can’t take chances, especially not with you. If you tell me what you want, I’ll go and get it.’
‘Not on your own, to quote somebody I know and love,’ Joanna said. ‘You’d never find half what I want, and you’d get the wrong things. Besides, the whole thing about threats is that they are blackmail, and you don’t give in to blackmail. It’s my flat and I won’t be kept out of it by some creep of a criminal.’
‘Bravely spoken,’ Slider said, but he didn’t smile. ‘All right, we’ll both go – but you’re to do exactly as I say, if anything happens.’
‘OK,’ Joanna said, making certain mental reservations. Probably he could read her mind – they had been together a long time – but there wasn’t much he could do about it.