He paused to check out Bliss’s reaction. Bliss put on a smile. Harmless Terry Stagg had already talked to the chairman of Hereforward, assembling the nuts and bolts of Ayling’s last meeting. When Bliss had suggested it might be worth looking at some of the issues Hereforward was involved in, Howe could hardly say no at a briefing. Only privately pulling the rug when she had Bliss over a barrel. Bliss had picked out Steve, looking for an official, an employee, rather than a slippery councillor. It was proving a good choice. Steve was slippery, too, but in a different way, and he oozed personal ambition. Therefore no loyalty to Hereford or its councillors.
‘This is how it came about,’ Steve said. ‘There was some new funding available for a number of local joint committees to be set up to consider the long-term economic prospects and cultural directioning of particular areas of the West Midlands.’
‘Cultural conditioning,’ Bliss said. ‘Right.’
So this would be a clutch of councillors, council officials, sharks, leeches, token ethnics and tame gays tolerating each other over a free lunch. Not a new concept at all, then.
‘Hereford was encouraged to go for it, as we’re out on a limb,’ Steve said. ‘Geographically more Wales than West Midlands — but of course Wales is a different country now with its own government.’
‘And this would be another way for us to get quietly reined into the Midlands, would it?’
Steve laughed, glancing across at the bar-huggers. Wiped his nose with a red-spotted handkerchief and lowered his voice.
‘Think of it as a much-needed shot of adrenalin. We get to think outside the box. We were almost certainly the first to float the idea of a University of Hereford, which is now on the wider agenda.’
‘Blue-sky think-tank, in other words.’
‘Exactly. Look, Francis… sorry, is it Frank?’
‘It’s not Frank,’ Bliss said.
Through his teeth.
‘I mean, you’re obviously an outsider, too,’ Steve said.
‘I just talk like this to sound cool. Go on. You want to educate the hicks.’
‘The point is, there hasn’t been enough overview. Local government gets lost in details and, inevitably, parochialism — individual councillors nursing their pet projects and nothing getting done. Our brief is to come up with radical, global ideas which we feed directly to the cabinet, so that they’ve been fully shaped before they’re put before the authority en masse.’
‘I see.’ A fait-accompli machine, in other words. ‘And Clement Ayling…’
‘… was initially suspicious of us, as he always was of anything new. But he had a lot of influence and got himself co-opted onto Hereforward. More to keep an eye on us than anything. I think he saw us as some sort of central-government infiltration.’
‘Perish the thought,’ Bliss said. ‘So… what global concepts were you discussing at the meeting on Wednesday, Steve?’
Steve looked doubtful about being able to answer this one, maybe on the grounds that a report had not yet gone to the cabinet, or some bullshit.
‘All right,’ Bliss said, ‘answer me this. Was Councillor Ayling in any kind of, shall we say heated discussion during the meeting?’
‘Not that I recall, Francis, no. He seemed to spend most of it sitting there with his chin sunk into his chest, conveying a certain boredom with the proceedings.’
‘He leave with anybody?’
Terry Stagg had spoken to the Hereforward committee secretary, confirming times and stuff, but going over the same ground would often throw up an anomaly.
‘He left with me, actually,’ Steve said. ‘As I told your colleague.’
‘And what did you talk about?’
‘Oh… trivia. Date of the next planning meeting, that sort of—’
‘Did Hereforward have a view on the Dinedor Serpent?’
‘Ah,’ Steve said.
‘Because Clem Ayling had very definite views, didn’t he?’
‘Ah, well, you see, Clem…’ Steve leaned back on his stool. ‘I’m afraid poor old Clem couldn’t see the romance in it. Old-fashioned Herefordian, wanted the city to expand and prosper, offer more jobs and, yes, have its own university, he was with us on that…’
‘But couldn’t get excited about a trickle of gravel.’
‘No, I — Francis, where’s this going?’
‘You tell me, Steve.’
‘Well, we…’ Steve picking up his coffee for support. ‘We had quite a debate about the Serpent some months ago. Yes, the tourist potential of a world-famous prehistoric monument… if that’s what it is, we can’t easily ignore it.’
‘So, in saying it was worthless, Ayling was at odds with the rest of the committee?’
‘Ahm…’ Steve putting down his coffee. ‘Essentially, no. This was one of the few issues where Clem and the rest of us were broadly in agreement, although most of us were more tactful about how we phrased it.’
‘I see,’ Bliss said.
‘Obviously, if we’d been talking about something on the scale of Stonehenge… but, as you said yourself, this is a trickle of gravel. The tourism potential is always going to be minimal. That was how we saw it. And we certainly need that relief road — Hereford being the only substantial centre in the country without a bypass. This is a move in the right direction. Vital, really.’
‘Had to go through…’
‘Had to go through.’
‘So Hereforward didn’t manage to come up with a brilliant compromise solution.’
‘We’re working on it. We’ve asked to be kept informed of developments. If the Serpent does turn out to be something unique, then it’s our job to capitalise on it. But the council would need some convincing, and the more they get slagged off from outside the more they’ll resist.’
‘Who’s been slagging them off? In particular.’
‘The archaeologist, Blore, didn’t help an awful lot did he? Considering we were paying him…’
‘Who were?’
‘Hereforward used him as a consultant on the Serpent.’
‘Must’ve been costly.’
‘Not particularly, and we wanted an educated viewpoint.’
Big name, more like, Bliss thought.
‘And then he shoots his mouth off to the media. My colleagues weren’t pleased.’
‘Why? Blore’s a notorious loose cannon. They’d been thinking they could buy his opinion?’
Steve shrugged, wiping his nose.
‘I hear he’s in charge of this other local dig now,’ Bliss said. ‘Ledwardine?’
‘Got in by the back door. Not our problem, that, thank God — strictly a local issue. Local councillor wanted us to intervene, but a bunch of upmarket houses is not the same as a road and I suppose big stones would have more tourist appeal than pebbles.’ Steve looked at his watch — wafer-thin, and an extra dial, probably for New York time. ‘I’m afraid I’ve a meeting at three at Ross and Belmont’s close to impassable, so if you have any major questions…’
‘Would hate to hold you up, Steve. You look like a man in a hurry.’
‘Always,’ Steve said. ‘Surprised I haven’t seen you around, Francis. Which gym do you use?’
Bliss stared at him. This was a man who would get on well with Annie Howe. Christ, this man might even be able to seduce Annie Howe. Bliss kept on staring, but Steve Furneaux seemed quite relaxed in the company of a fellow incomer, an ally against the hicks and the rednecks.
‘Out of interest,’ Bliss said. ‘You being a blue-sky thinker, Steve… a radical thinker—’
‘I’m a planning officer. But, you’re right, Hereforward lets us off the mental leash.’
‘So who did it, Steve? Who killed Clement Ayling?’