‘We needed a creditor of Aubrey’s to ask the court to appoint an administrator, before the firm got wound up and the machines started being taken away for scrap. The energy company seemed a good bet. They have a two-year contract they want honouring after all, and it wouldn’t benefit them if the gates were locked tomorrow — they want someone there paying for their product for as long as possible.’
‘And they went for it?’
‘They didn’t take much encouragement, in fact they got the ball rolling first thing this morning.’
‘So Aubrey’s will be okay?’
‘They’re not out of the woods yet, I’m afraid. Wuthertons are the appointed firm — have you heard of them? Pretty strict in my experience. They’ll get you back on your feet, but do whatever it takes to get you there. Don’t be surprised if there are job cuts, changing work patterns. Scaling back in all kinds of ways.’
‘The workers won’t like it,’ lamented Grey.
‘No, I fear there’ll be trouble: you can’t expect someone who’s been doing their job, day in day out, to be happy to bear the consequences of their bosses not having been doing theirs. There will always be an edge of irreasonability in such scenes.
‘You know, it is the worst part of our job, Inspector,’ continued Keith Pitt, ‘when the best advice you can offer your client is for them to pass on control of their affairs to others; that efforts at turning things around have become a chase after shadows… Well, in such a circumstance you are not a professional, if you do not tell the person paying you for your expertise and experience that that experience is calling for the chase to be called off. I’m sorry, that’s a terribly inappropriate metaphor isn’t it, given the circumstances.’
It took Grey a moment to get Pitt’s reference, ‘Oh, no. Not at all.’
‘So, there have been developments in the Long case?’
‘Developments yes, progress no.’
‘I’ve seen how upset the women are at the office.
‘Of course.’
Pitt paused a moment before saying, ‘I believe it can often be a cry for help, running away, that they hope someone will care enough to come and look for them? Sorry, ignore my amateur theorising.’
‘Don’t worry. Half the time I don’t think they want to be found.’
‘Well, people are a funny sort, Inspector. I suppose we don’t always know who needs finding until we try.’
‘No, quite.’
‘Anyway,’ they reaching the door of the Post Office, ‘I must get these sent and then get back up to the plant. You were lucky to catch me in town, I’ve hardly been back since yesterday. And then I hope they don’t keep me too late tonight, I’ve got to get back for the wife.’
‘Going anywhere nice?’
‘The theatre, to see a play — Deceptive Alibis it’s called. She does love these crime dramas. Might be right up your street too, Inspector. Or perhaps you’d only judge it against the real thing?’
And with that the men parted, Grey pointing himself back in the direction of the station.
‘On Monday afternoon, Thomas Long attempts to run the Payroll,’ the Inspector expounded, the words rebounding from the walls of his office, ‘the effort ending in failure, a phone call from Mr Foy, and his telling all to Chris Barnes. So, wouldn’t it be the most natural thing in the world, for Thomas to want to track down his absent boss, and tell him of the chaos his company was in?’
‘If he didn’t know already?’ added his Sergeant, the only one in the building at that moment free to listen.
‘Well, thank God then that Keith Pitt has already discounted fraud; for otherwise who knows what the pair might have gone to the Club to talk about! But if the money was simply seeping — and not being wrongly extracted — from the account, then they could only have been meeting to discuss the failing payroll process, surely.’
‘No arguments here, boss’ agreed Cori, for though Grey was speaking the obvious, she thought she knew the direction he was moving in.
‘So, it strikes me,’ continued the Inspector, ‘that rather less important than why Thomas Long met Alex Aubrey on Monday evening, was why they then met again on Tuesday morning, and why it took this second meeting for Thomas to feel better about things at the office. That was what Gail Marsh told you?’
‘Yes,’ confirmed the Sergeant, ‘she thought Alex Aubrey must have agreed to take the payroll problems off Thomas’ hands awhile, and that the lad seemed all the better for it.’
‘So why not come up with that solution the night before?’
‘Perhaps Aubrey needed to come to work to see what the problem was before deciding?’
‘But we know what the problem was! And Aubrey was in no better position to ease his cashflow on Tuesday than on Monday. Whatever assurance he offered Thomas was false assurance, and probably only offered to stop the lad from panicking and telling all and sundry…’
‘Which he didn’t know he had already done,’ Cori mused.
‘Quite. But even so, why not flannel Thomas the evening before, and save him a sleepless night?’
‘Let’s look at those meeting times again, sir.’
‘Aubrey met Yamamoto before he met with Thomas on Monday,’ Grey repeated from his notebook, ‘and with Philpot after seeing Thomas for the second time on Tuesday. Nothing had changed inbetween.’
‘And you’re certain of the times?’
‘Absolutely, I’m certain. And it fits with Thomas’ coming home late on Monday.’
Cori had to concede that point, ‘But what we really need to know are Alex Aubrey’s movements these two days.’
‘Yes. We know Thomas couldn’t have got up to much between home and work, so something must have changed with Aubrey. I’ll tell you what did change,’ Grey realised. ‘The first stone was thrown that night.’
‘A stone in itself wouldn’t tell him much,’ Cori counselled.
‘Maybe there was a shout to go with it? “We’ve heard what you’re up to, Aubrey! You’re not taking our jobs!” or some such? That would have his senses working on overtime alright.’
‘Well, even if Aubrey linked the stone through the window with something Thomas may have told the thrower…’
‘Go on,’ he encouraged, she noting a gleam in his eye,
‘Then are we suggesting Aubrey might have wanted to silence Thomas Long?’
‘At last a motive!’ the Inspector declaimed. ‘Admittedly a little far-fetched.’
‘Just a little, sir.’
‘Yes, for wasn’t the secret already spilt?’
‘Indeed.’
‘And why stop there?’ Grey attacking his own theory with sarcasm. ‘Why not also silence the bank manager? He knew too.’ Before offering more measuredly, ‘People like him don’t do things like that though, do they?’
For all her level-headedness, Cori could show an occasional gothic streak, ‘Well, we have seen in the past, sir, how such matters can get out of hand. Aubrey may only have wanted to confront Thomas, find what he had told and to whom, telling him not to tell anyone else, at least while these important meetings were going on, and reputation was so important. Aubrey is under a lot of pressure.’
‘The law-abiding classes heading into unchartered waters, you mean, and getting into difficulties? A discussion, turning into an argument, turning into… And that would be a third meeting in two days,’ he despaired, ‘presumably sometime Tuesday evening? No,’ he shook his head, ‘Tom’s still out there somewhere, run away because he couldn’t face his dad.’
‘For two nights though?’
They sat awhile, neither sure quite what either believed.
The Inspector spoke first, ‘He’s meant to be back today, isn’t he? Aubrey?’
‘Yes.’
Make some calls, would you — try and run him down. I don’t like asking Rose about him, it’s a sore point. And Cori, we’ll keep our wilder theories to ourselves for now.’
‘Yessir.’
Grey settles in his chair to think. Thomas Long may yet be blameless in all this; even Alex Aubrey as innocent as a lamb — and yet the thought could not be avoided that they were players in an as-yet unknown game.