‘Sorry no,’ he had had to admit to her evident disappointment, the Inspector and he moving in quiet different circles he explained, their work far from always overlapping; but he painted in what details he could.
And then, going in to answer a ringing phone, catch up on chores and make another drink for them both, she came out moments later — to tell him that the man who hadn’t been back since the Inspector’s visit yesterday was there right now, was busy at his post. Up to speed in an instant after his lazy afternoon, Ravi’s radio soon crackled back and forth, the instruction: hold tight, and further details would soon be following.
The sun was sinking now over the industrial buildings, the wall Ravi leant on still warm, as the car arrived at pace to park roughly before him. It had been only ten minutes since calling the news through, during which time only a couple of workers had left the building for a furtive smoke. Don’t let anyone leave, he had been instructed. It had not been a hard detail.
‘Any trouble?’ asked Grey, bounding out of the car, as usual leaving Cori to lock it.
‘None at all, sir,’ answered Ravi, as a squad car pulled up also, two male officers emerging.
‘Head around the sides,’ Grey instructed them. ‘Cover the doors. You’re sure you haven’t seen our man leave?’ he asked, turning back to Ravi. ‘What’s he doing in there?’
‘Doing his job apparently, as if nothing had happened.’ (Grey listened, stunned.) ‘In fact he could have been there for hours, as far as anyone knows.’
‘And no one spotted him before now?’
‘Well,’ Cori reasoned aloud, ‘where’s the best place to hide a man in green overalls?’
‘Right then, come with me.’
‘Yes, sir. We’re going in now,’ Ravi breathed into the cracking receiver on his chest.
‘Hello, Inspector,’ called Shauna Reece gaily from her desk as they entered reception, a ringing phone having brought her in just as they arrived.
‘Madam,’ answered Grey curtly, but only by way of having matters pressing on his mind.
‘I’d only just noticed he was back. I’m sorry I hadn’t called you earlier.’
‘Thank you. It’s more than anyone else did.’
‘It’s loyalty I think… amongst the men.’
‘Could you swipe this door again, please?’ He asked as politely as he could while this wound up.
She did so quickly and silently, in tune with his mood, releasing the three officers into the thundering factory floor. Refusing again the ear mufflers offered in the receptionist’s outstretched hand, Grey strode in the direction he remembered Chris Barnes’ machine to be. Chris’ colleague Larry Dunn, seeing the officers almost the moment they saw him, bolted off in one direction, only to be faced by one of the auxiliary Constables entering by the side door; before turning the other way, where Ravi now ran fully at him. Dashing erratically in a third direction between two pounding presses, Dunn caught a colleague on the shoulder and sent them both to the floor beneath a hail of greasy tools, the metallic clatter still echoing as the lines of turning machines powered down to silence. This all took place in the space of maybe twenty seconds.
‘You could do yourself an industrial injury there,’ said Grey, stood above the sprawling figures, somehow neither injured from the falling ironmongery. Green-suited colleagues helping up the innocent party seemed not sure of who to look at in the most accusing manner, as the three uniformed Constables gathered up a rather less grateful figure. And all this occurring under the gaze of several hundred men baffled or angry by the officers’ now repeated visitations. Chris Barnes yesterday, Larry Dunn today — who were the police going to turn up to take away tomorrow? All work had stopped, the room was stunned to silence.
…or silence bar the muttering Larry Dunn, now being manhandled to the door, his random outbursts bubbling down to more sensical pronouncements as they reached the reception,
‘What are you bothering with me for?‘ he thundered. ‘Aubrey’s gone! He’s not coming back, they stopped work to tell us so. It’s in the paper, for God’s sake! Wuthertons run this place now — for as long as that lasts.’
‘I suppose Chris Barnes called to tell you all that?’ asked Grey, recalling catching the lad’s downcast features amid the excitement.
‘I called him, not that it matters.’
‘No, Mr Dunn. What matters is that you’re the last person to have seen Thomas Long in town on the day he vanished — anything else comes second at this moment in time. Now how hard are you going to make it for us to get a statement out of you?’
‘Vanished?’
‘He hasn’t been home for two days.’
‘But I didn’t see him! Well, I saw him at the busstop, but I didn’t speak to him.’
‘We’ll need you to tell us that at the station.’
‘I only wanted to ask him what he knew about the payroll. I did see him in the High Street; but by the time I’d got over to the busstops he’d gone, lost in the crowd.’
‘Lost in the crowd… that’s one way to put it.’
‘He was right though, wasn’t he? What he told Chris. He saw this crisis coming.’
The man was being held more upright now, he having been almost horizontal as he was wrestled from the factory floor.
‘Yes, he was right about it,’ Grey agreed. ‘But his family haven’t seen him since.’
‘I don’t know anything about that.’
‘Well, I hope for your sake that’s true,’ lamented Grey with true sadness. ‘Anyway, we’re not going to have this conversation here,’ he concluded, as with a nod of the head he instructed Ravi and the other officers to take Larry Dunn out to the waiting black maria.
‘No time for a cup of tea then?’ asked Shauna of the Inspector.
‘Alas not,’ was all he could say to her, as his people bustled out through the door like handlers of a giant eel. ‘Not ideal circumstances.’
‘Quite,’ she concurred; as nodding goodbye he left after his team.
Cori counted out some cards from her pack.
‘He’s very… at times, isn’t he,’ asked the receptionist.
‘Yes, he can be,’ smiled Cori. ‘Can you put these out for anyone who wants to call us?’
‘Another successful visit to the plant?’ offered Superintendent Rose upon their return. ‘Doing your bit for public relations? Tussling on the factory floor like Graeco-Roman wrestlers, by all accounts.’
‘We got our man, sir,’ offered Grey hopefully.
‘That you did, that you did. And we’ll soon have a statement from him; but you won’t be taking it. Remember your evening appointment?’
The Inspector did indeed remember. Rose continued, though quieter now,
‘He’s not our suspect though, is he? Dunn? We don’t think he actually..?’
‘No, I don’t think we do. He saw Thomas Long that evening, probably smashed Alex Aubrey’s windows. But beyond that…’
‘Working all Tuesday evening I believe?’
‘Yes,’ concurred the Inspector. ‘Then in the pub again, I’ve heard. Then off in the small hours to wait for the Aubrey’s to come down for breakfast, if we follow the likely chain of events.’
‘And we still haven’t had a sighting of Thomas after Tuesday evening,’ lamented Rose, as wishing Grey good luck on his travels, he turned to go to his office and brood.