‘Is Mr Perric in?’ said Riley.
The man shook his head. ‘Mr Perric doesn’t work here anymore. What can I do for you?’ He looked from Riley to Palmer with a touch of impatience, and pointed to a printed sign on the wall. ‘We only see reps by appointment.’
‘Do we look like sales reps?’ said Palmer. When the man said nothing, he continued, ‘What happened to Perric? I thought he was the boss.’
‘He was. But no longer. Who wants to know?’
Palmer ignored the question and gave the man a hard stare. ‘We’re investigating certain allegations about Mr Perric. We’d like to speak to him.’
‘Are you the police? I want to see some ID.’
‘Do yourself a favour,’ muttered Palmer tiredly. He took out his wallet and flashed a card, and Riley recognised the Ministry of Defence logo. ‘I’d say you’ve got about an hour before this place is crawling with every kind of official suit you can imagine, so why not make it easier?’
The man looked taken aback for a moment, licking his lips and looking at them each in turn. He eventually nodded. ‘Perric was let go yesterday morning. His contract was terminated.’
‘There must have been a reason.’
‘He was involved in activities outside the business which the directors didn’t know about. He was in violation of his contract.’
‘Who are the directors?’ Palmer asked.
But the man folded his hands together defensively, and merely repeated what he had said. ‘Like I said, he was in violation of his contract.’
‘Are you referring to VTS?’ Palmer queried. ‘According to our sources, the two businesses were working in tandem. Are you saying he wasn’t the overall boss?’
‘All our divisions are legitimate businesses,’ the man replied eventually. ‘Perric was a manager of this one, but whatever he was doing elsewhere was contrary to our rules. That’s why he was let go.’
‘What’s your position in the company?’ Riley pressed him.
But the man had clearly had enough questions, and drew himself up. ‘That’s all I’m saying.’ He slapped his hands on the counter to reinforce the statement and stepped back, putting more space between them. ‘I don’t care who you are. I am asking you to leave. Now.’
Back outside, Palmer lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. ‘Well, that went swimmingly,’ he murmured dryly. ‘But no more than I expected.’
Riley nodded and kicked at a plastic bottle, which skittered away to bounce off a rubbish skip. ‘They were tipped off and got rid of the problem.’ She felt the burn of frustration at knowing that Perric was probably somewhere out of reach, where he couldn’t be got at. Like Palmer, she knew that calling here had been a long shot, and that any vestiges of the VTS business or its people would have long gone. But sometimes even long shots pay off.
‘Radnor must have ordered Perric to clear out. Blue eyes in there will be the legitimate face of the company, rolled out whenever things get sticky. He’ll be as clean as the driven snow.’ Palmer flicked the cigarette away and watched it bounce along the ground in a shower of small sparks. ‘Never mind. We’ll let the powers that be worry about him. In the meantime, let’s go see if Radnor’s up to receiving visitors.’
Riley paused in unlocking her car. ‘It might be better to leave them to Charlie’s friends. They’re probably out of the country by now.’
Palmer looked unusually grim. ‘I’ll believe that when I see their names on a passenger list. Anyway, I owe Radnor for Reg Paris. And Rubinov for Cecile.’
Riley gave him with a worried frown. ‘I never thought of you as the Great Avenger, Palmer.’
‘I’m not.’ Palmer grinned, his old self again. ‘Only when there’s a full moon, anyway.’
Chapter 37
The address the owner of White Tower cabs had given Riley was a large detached Edwardian villa on the outskirts of Pinner. Set in an open expanse of lawn, with a few small shrubs dotted around in a haphazard fashion, the overall appearance was slightly unkempt, as if the building and the garden were in need of a friendly make-over.
The front of the property was shielded by a stretch of larch fencing and some sturdy wooden gates, but none of it prevented Riley and Palmer gaining a clear view of the house and the surrounding grounds. There were no vehicles parked out front, and no signs of movement at the windows. The gravel drive led from the gate down past the side of the house, vanishing behind the building and a heavy laurel bush.
‘I thought they’d be hiding behind high walls and security fencing,’ said Riley, peering through a gap in the wooden panelling. ‘This is like a goldfish bowl.’
‘Hiding in plain sight,’ replied Palmer, nodding at the few shrubs in evidence between the house and road. ‘They can see anyone taking an interest and deter the local hoodies from thinking there’s anything going on that might offer rich pickings.’ He turned his back to the fence and went to light another cigarette, then thought better of it. ‘What do you reckon?’
‘About what?’ Riley turned from peering through the fence.
‘Is there anyone in?’ He smiled. ‘I thought you might be able to tell, that’s all.’
She frowned. ‘Now why on earth would I be able to do that?’
He shrugged. ‘Girl I went out with once, she could always tell if anyone was in a house. I thought it was a woman thing… something about atmosphere and… ‘ He paused and gave another shrug.
‘And what?’
‘Curtains. She had this thing about soft furnishings. Said she could tell all you needed to know about a house by the state of the soft furnishings — especially the curtains. According to her, you could even tell what type of people lived there.’
Riley gave a mild hiss of disgust. ‘Yeah, right. And you think I should have the same instincts? What am I — the House Doctor?’
He grinned and pulled a face. ‘Well, maybe not.’
But Riley bent back to her peep-hole and studied the building for a while. She saw no evidence of occupation, but that didn’t mean anything. If Radnor and Michael were inside and currently about to flee, they would hardly be telegraphing their presence to onlookers. And the absence of vehicles was nothing. They either had a car locked away somewhere, or had other means of transport, like cabs. She checked the front doorstep, but there were no tell-tale milk bottles to help her, full or empty.
In spite of herself, or because of what Palmer had said, she found her eyes drawn to the curtains, and wondered why there were nets at all of the windows except one; a narrow one in a room adjacent to the front door. Could it simply be a quirk of the household or was it a sign that there was no woman around to give a balanced appearance to the place? Then she noticed that at the top of the window was a curving line of pale fabric, as if the net had been tucked away to one side. Was that because someone inside wanted an unobstructed view of the front garden and gate?
‘It might be a good idea to check with White Tower cabs,’ she suggested to Palmer, and handed him her phone. ‘See if they’ve got a booking.’
‘Gotcha, miss.’ He hit re-dial and waited. When it was answered, he asked if there were any cabs booked for Radnor that day or the next, giving the address of the house where they were standing.
Poppy replied none had been ordered, and that all their cars were fully booked.
He switched off the phone. ‘No booking. They must have other plans.’
Riley pressed her face close to the fence. ‘I reckon the drive curves round the back of the house. If so, there’s easily room for a car or two round there.’
‘Maybe. I wonder if this is the only way out.’ Palmer stood back from the fence and looked along the street. The larch fencing across the front of Radnor’s property ran for fifty feet or so, then stopped at a narrow lane with a metal bollard in the centre to prevent vehicle access. Across the other side of the lane was a high wall bordering another large house.