The two big men made the room seem even smaller, Sarah Vaughan thought. She said, ‘I have the smallest office here, as the last of the executive staff to be appointed. It’s quite big enough for my needs, though.’
They looked round unhurriedly at the small desk with its PC, at the swivel chair behind it in which she sat, at the two upright chairs which barely fitted into the space in front of it. They took in the single filing cabinet, the pictures of Provence and the portrait of an eminent nineteenth-century French vineyard-owner on the walls.
Lambert folded his long legs carefully into the limited space between him and the front of her desk. With Hook accommodating himself equally carefully, shifting his chair three inches sideways so that he was not actually touching that of the chief superintendent, Sarah felt hemmed in. Their faces were too close to hers for comfort, and the grey, all-seeing eyes of Lambert seemed to be boring into her mind and soul as their exchange developed.
He began conventionally enough. ‘Could you tell us a little about your role here please, Miss Vaughan?’
‘I’m responsible for Research and Development.’ She spoke it with the capital letters which she hoped would give her a little more standing, then immediately threw a little of that away. ‘Mr Beaumont does — sorry, did — a lot of the research himself. He went to the French vineyards almost every year and the German and Italian ones every two or three years to find how the newer grapes are doing there and check on the production of the long-established brands. Of course, wine production for export is a much more worldwide industry now than it was fifty, even thirty, years ago, but we research other areas from here. Not even Martin could go everywhere.’ She gave a little laugh to show that was a joke, wondering how much of what she used in her talks to the public she could feed in here. It was safe ground for her, this stuff.
‘I see. You have quite a few competitors in the English wine industry nowadays. Does your research work take any account of that?’
‘Indeed it does. You have to keep your eye on your competitors, as Martin always reminded us. I keep a record of the volumes sold and prices charged, as comprehensive as I can achieve. It’s usually about a year out of date, as you would expect. Martin used to get out and about and do a little incognito investigation into how well the bigger English producers were doing, in relation to us.’
‘A little industrial espionage.’
She wondered whether to take this as a tease and respond in that spirit, but decided she had better not do that. ‘There’s nothing to prevent you going incognito into retail shops and even wholesale outlets. It’s surprising what some people will tell you about the way their year is going, if you can fasten on the right person to talk to.’
She wondered quite what truncated version of this the detective sergeant was making in his notes. As if he divined that her attention was on him, Hook now looked up and said, ‘So much for research. What about the development side of your work?’
‘Well, I’m rather proud of my work in pushing some of our new lines. I suggested that we should supply beer and cider in our shop here, when other people thought it would militate against wine sales. It didn’t, and Martin got us an excellent deal with the brewery. We now make a very good profit on our beer sales in particular. And whilst it’s impossible to be definite about this, I’m sure that our wine sales have benefited too, because of the extra customers we have attracted into the shop. Mr Davies, the shop manager, certainly supports that view. And whilst we’re very much a team here, I’d say that I was mainly responsible for the development of our sparkling wines. We do a surprisingly good English champagne here — we can’t call it that of course — which I think we shall be able to retail at?7.99 a bottle this year. I recommend it to you: I think you’ll find it surprisingly good.’
She smiled nervously into the encouraging face of Bert Hook, wondering if she was lapsing too much into the commercial chat with which she concluded her talks to the public. But he said, ‘Thank you. We have a clearer picture of your role here now. Is there anything else you do?’
‘You’re right to ask that. We’re still quite a small organization, though our turnover increases each year. I help in the shop when they’re busy. And I do little tours of the vineyard, in which I talk on the history of winemaking and of Abbey Vineyards. The abbey part’s a bit of a con, actually. We don’t think there was ever an abbey here, though there may at one time have been a Saxon church. I think Martin thought it would give the right ring to the name when he started. It suggests an ancient lineage for the place, I suppose, which is a bit more glamorous than farmland to most people. I don’t disillusion them unless anyone asks. I think my talks have been going well this year — I’ve got bigger audiences, even though I’m doing them more frequently.’
‘They’re very interesting, from what I’ve heard,’ said Hook.
‘I hope so. It’s like anything else, one improves with practice. And I don’t try to disguise the fact that like everything else we do the tours are directed towards bringing in a profit, even if that’s indirect and long term.’
‘And you think they do that?’
‘I do. They’re getting more orders in the shop at the conclusion of my little talks, quite often for full cases. Of course, I can’t prove that these people weren’t planning to buy in any case, but Gerry Davies, our shop manager, says a lot of the sales come directly from what I’ve been saying. I speak quite honestly about our best wines and our best years for them. And Martin wouldn’t have increased the frequency of the tours if he hadn’t thought that. He was a very shrewd commercial operator.’
‘So everyone tells us,’ agreed Lambert. ‘And the evidence is all around us in the growth of this place. How did you get on with him?’
She was rather thrown off her guard by the abruptness of this, after she had been encouraged to talk so much about herself. ‘I’d say very well. He was very successful, which always helps. A successful ship is usually a happy ship.’ The phrase came back to her from a course during her Business Studies degree. She hoped it wasn’t the cliche to them that it was to her.
‘You found him a good employer?’
She made herself take her time, knowing now that they were coming to the heart of the interview, where she was most at risk. ‘He was a good boss, as long as you did things his way. And I was earning more than I’d ever earned before, with the prospect of it rising year by year.’
‘But how would you describe your relationship with Mr Beaumont?’
‘Good. He paid well and he was fair. You had to toe the line, as he made clear when he interviewed me, but as long as you did that you earned good money.’
‘You didn’t feel once you were well established here that you wanted a say in future policy? Research and development are all about the future, after all.’
‘No. I’m still only thirty-three and making my way. Martin was a generation older and had much more experience.’ She paused, then was unable to resist the opportunity to divert their attention to others and thus take some of the heat off herself. ‘I think some of the executives who’ve been here longer than me were chafing a little about Martin’s dominance, but you’d have to ask them about that.’
Lambert afforded her a smile which made her uncomfortable, as if he knew very well what she was about. She wondered if her face was colouring; she knew that her fair skin and delicate features often revealed more than they should. She was very conscious of how close those gimlet grey eyes were to hers as he said, ‘Everything you’ve said has been related to your working relationship with Mr Beaumont. We’re grateful for that information. But what about your personal relationship with your employer? You’re a small team here, as you’ve told us yourself, and no one works all the time. How did you get on with Mr Beaumont outside your working relationship?’
‘Perfectly well. Martin was wrapped up in the business: it was his whole life. He has a wife, I believe, but I’ve never seen her. I was perfectly content with my social life. I think I’ve indicated that our working relationship was a good one.’