Grey revelled in these details of the boss’ personal life, a side of him so rarely glimpsed. He also knew the message could have been waiting on their phone when he was there scouting around the garden, no more likely to have been picked up by anyone in that empty house now as then.
‘He hasn’t reported the windows or the injury, you know.’
‘Well he is very busy. I’m sure if he wants it followed up he’ll be in touch.’
Was it just Grey, or did he detect in the Super’s voice a slight sadness at his friend’s having left so suddenly and at such a moment, when his officers could have so used his assistance? Perhaps a darker feeling lurked there too, of the Aubreys not having played above board, of them being mixed up in something unsavoury, disappointing, unedifying. Yes, Grey decided, the Super must be worried, and not just for his friend’s wellbeing but also reputation.
‘How did it go?’ asked Cori as he returned to the office.’
‘He’s worried about the factory. Thank you for finding all that out on Dunn though.’
‘No problem, sir.’
The catching up of paperwork — finally clearing the backlog after the conference — and writing up his initial findings of today, took Grey long past the time a man occupied in more routine tasks might have been released back to the bosom of his family. He didn’t sense his day was over though. Where next? The bank, he considered.
It wasn’t far to walk, just a stretch of the legs across the Town Square and along the High Street. It didn’t seem right so warm a day drawing in so early though, he not the first to wonder how long this Indian summer could last? For it was already dark at getting on for seven o’clock, dusk encroaching enough that as he neared the bank he could see the lights on inside. Upon arriving he found himself at a loss as to how to get in, the doors of a bank once locked never normally needing to be opened until the next morn; indeed quite the opposite. Nor was there a bell, or any justification for customers to disturb those who may be inside once the stated hours of opening were passed. The building exuded security, the imperviousness of stone, its chiselled edifice stating in slow, steady tones, do not fear, your money is safe within these chambers.
The door though soon swung open, it’s heavy form in the hands of the tireless Mr Foy, in this instance fulfilling the manager’s role of keeper of the keys. He ushered the Inspector through behind the teller’s protected desks and up the stairs, toward the office that overlooked the street and shops below.
‘Ah, hello Inspector,’ Keith Pitt greeted, he seeming even in the manager’s office to have taken charge of things somewhat, young Gareth eager beside him, while Mr Foy upon returning hung at the back of his own room (bless him, Grey thought) looking scared half to death.
He quickly voiced his disquiet, ‘I must say, Inspector, going into others’ accounts in this manner is most irregular, even with your Superintendent’s assurances. I have insisted on certain limits though, even in such… pressing circumstances: I must insist any request for access to the Aubrey’s personal accounts will require their personal permission.’
‘Thank you for all your help, Mr Foy,’ Grey attempted to mollify him. ‘The Superintendent and I are most grateful for your and the bank’s assistance.’ Before reassuring, ‘I don’t however see any need to delve into their personal dealings as of yet.’
‘Well I am glad of that,’ muttered the man. Grey wondered if he always seemed so small, or only when frightened?
‘All our actions here will, I am sure, prove to have been justified as a part of our enquiries. I only want to know what Thomas Long found out about the finances on Monday and Tuesday, not the finances per se.’
‘That’s my job,’ added Keith Pitt chirpily.
Foy put to bed for now, Grey turned to the two men at the desk, ‘So what can you tell me?’
‘Well,’ began Keith Pitt, ‘Mr Foy has graciously allowed us access to the statements of the main income account of Aubrey Electricals.’
‘This is the account their bills and costs come out of,’ added Gareth equally cheerfully. Keith Pitt and his apprentice, the Inspector noted with some humour, hardly sharing the bank manager’s concerns for data protection, and loving every detail of Alex Aubrey’s business life uncovered.
‘Yes,’ continued Keith Pitt,’ and to be honest, Mr Foy, I am not sure we would need to see very much more than you have already graciously permitted us to, even if we requested it. It is a very simple tale, Inspector: of the company’s costs remaining much the same, while the income available to cover them went slowly down. It really is a tragic tale. Come here and look.’
Grey noticed the manager wince at this, the consultant playing fast and loose with the information he had been gracious enough to release, bringing a physical reaction with the thought of another set of uncleared eyes gobbling up information from their closely guarded, password-protected computer screens.
‘You can see, Inspector,’ Keith Pitt instructed while the officer craned to look over his shoulder, ‘certain bills recurring from month to month, the amounts virtually the same, and funds released for their payment at the same dates and times. These will I expect turn out to be for materials, electricity and utilities, fixed overheads.
‘And set against that, although it takes a little more looking, you can trace the balance month on month after each of these big bills leaves the account. And I see, Inspector, that though the costs remain the same, the money left at the end of each month — or rather, what is left of the overdraft — is ever less. Not a dramatic fall, but a consistently one. There is a pattern.’
‘So,’ Grey dared surmise, ‘this is a situation building up over many months?’
‘Oh yes, at least as far back as Mr Foy has kindly permitted us to look. I wonder, Inspector, were you expecting something rather more dramatic?’
Grey wasn’t sure what he expected, but caught the drift. ‘Foul play you mean? I had no reason to suspect. Did you?’
‘Well, you’d be surprised. I’ve seen some dodgy dealing in my time.’
Mr Foy grimaced again, as if an attack on people who may have been his customers was an attack on him.
‘But in this case,’ continued Keith Pitt less dramatically, ‘there has been no cataclysmic failing of the firm’s finances, nor anything illicit as far as I can see — simply a company losing a bit more money each month; and at a remarkably consistent rate too, although that is perhaps not surprising when their earnings come from long-term contracts.
‘But,’ he concluded with a flourish, ‘you could have plotted this decline on a flipchart many months ago.’
Grey’s thoughts, though not yet his gaze, turned directly to the man almost cowering at the back of the room, unsure as to what degree Keith Pitt was alluding that it was Mr Foy who should have spotted this pattern. After all, weren’t Aubrey’s one of the biggest accounts on his books? Didn’t he have a responsibility here?
‘So,’ Grey wanted the picture clear in his head with all its implications,’ if the finances were heading south as such a regular rate, then Aubrey, if not also Thomas Long, would have known this was coming this month?’
‘More likely Aubrey than Long, depending on what his role entails, how much responsibility he is given. But yes,’ continued Keith Pitt, ‘with the rate of decline so shallow, and payroll being a variable cost at the best of times — what with temporary staff, overtime, family leave, other absences — then they may have hoped for a couple of more months yet before things became critical.’
‘Or,’ Grey speculated aloud, the look of approval in Pitt’s eyes suggesting he was on the right track, ‘Aubrey may have been counting his lucky stars that this hadn’t happened already?’
‘Quite right, Inspector. The analogy would be of an aircraft looping ever lower over a mountaintop, itself covered in an ever-changing thickness of snow. You couldn’t say which swoop would bring calamity, only that it became more certain each time.’