Lost Hours

by Alex Walters

  ‘I understand that, Stuart. I’ve no desire to be the centre of attention on this.’

  ‘So we need some progress. Soon.’

  ‘Understood.’ She started to say something more but then realised that, in his familiar manner, Jennings had already ended the call. If nothing else, she supposed, it usually meant that he had the last word.

  She was turning off the main road on to the single-track road that provided a shortcut home when the phone rang again. At first she thought that Jennings must have thought of something else to chastise her about, but then she realised it was Zoe calling.

  ‘Hi, Zo. How’d it go?’

  ‘Bit weird, actually. That’s why I’m calling.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I ran through the update like we’d agreed, gave them a bit more detail on the lines of enquiry, all that stuff. That was fine as far as it went. But the odd thing about it was that they didn’t seem too interested. They made all the right noises, but neither of them seemed really to be engaged with it. Michelle in particular seemed to be thinking about something else, as if her mind was elsewhere.’

  ‘Maybe she just hasn’t engaged with it yet and is just still in denial about it.’

  ‘I wondered that. But it wasn’t like any other response I’ve encountered. Usually, it’s the opposite – people who obsess over the detail of the inquiry, or who keep telling you what you’re doing wrong or that you’re not doing enough. There was none of that. Hardy asked a few questions but it felt as if he was just going through the motions. It wasn’t just that, though. I had a general sense they were uncomfortable about me being there. Hardy in particular. Once I’d finished the update, he seemed to be almost on the point of actually getting my coat for me. I tried to spin it out a bit, have a bit of a more general conversation with Michelle, but he wasn’t having it. He was very polite, but I wasn’t left in much doubt he wanted me out and pronto.’

  ‘You think they’ve got something to hide?’

  ‘That was the way it felt. But why report the call at all if that’s the case?’

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps as a way of taking the focus off Wentworth herself,’ Annie suggested. ‘We may have to look at them again as potential suspects. But my gut’s still telling me it’s something else they’re concealing. Which might or might not be connected with Justin’s killing.’

  ‘I don’t know how much I’m likely to succeed in building up any kind of rapport with Michelle. But I did have the sense she might welcome someone she could talk to.’

  ‘Which might be why Hardy’s so intent on keeping you at arm’s length,’ Annie said. ‘Maybe he thinks there’s a danger of her saying too much.’

  ‘All the more reason for me to keep trying to spend time with her. I’ll have to try to find a period when Hardy’s not around. Maybe in the daytime.’

  ‘Worth a try,’ Annie agreed. ‘We definitely need to know more about both of them. I’ve got someone checking out their backgrounds, business dealings and suchlike, but we may need to dial that up a bit.’

  ‘I wish I had something more concrete. I hope we’re not wasting our time.’

  ‘It’s worth it, one way or another. That’s why I wanted you in there. The more insights we can get into those two, the better. Like Stuart says, it’s always best to trust your instincts.’

  ‘Stuart said that? It doesn’t sound like him.’

  ‘No, took me by surprise as well.’ Annie laughed. ‘I thought at first he was taking the piss. And maybe he was. But you and me, we can take him at his word, can’t we?’

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘I’d like to say I’ve been cooking up a storm waiting for your return,’ Sheena said. ‘But I haven’t. Though I did get as far as turning the oven on.’

  ‘Oh, and there I was expecting a gourmet feast ready and waiting for me. Thought it was the least I deserved after taking calls from both Stuart Jennings and my mother in the past hour.’

  ‘Blimey. I don’t know which of those two is harder work,’ Sheena said. ‘No, I do. It’s your mother. What did she want?’

  ‘The usual. First, to remonstrate with me for not calling her more often. Second, to remind me of all the reasons why I don’t call her more often.’ Annie was hovering in the doorway of the living room, preparing to head upstairs to exchange her work clothes for something more comfortable. Sheena was sitting on the sofa with her laptop, working through her usual backlog of correspondence.

  ‘That must have been nice.’

  ‘A joy, as ever. And she’s got some interview in one of tomorrow’s nationals.’

  ‘Oh, great. Why do they give her airspace?’

  ‘Because she’s good copy. Says what people want to hear.’

  ‘Populist crap, you mean.’ Sheena shook her head. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t bad-mouth your mother like that.’

  ‘Bad-mouth away. Like her, you’re only saying what people want to hear. What I want to hear, anyway. You’ll be interested in this one, because she’s attacking those thuggish trade unions. The vandals and hooligans on the picket line.’

  ‘Oh, Christ. Is that about that thing in Matlock?’

  ‘In part. That sort of thing plays right into her hands.’

  ‘Tell me about it. One of the reasons I was late back was that I went for a drink with that union guy, Keith Chalmers. He’s furious about it. He spends years cultivating an image of moderation and good sense, and then some idiot goes and does something like this. Actually, he told me one or two things that might be of interest to you. You go and get changed, and I’ll stick in a frozen pizza to make up for my lack of kitchen-storminess. Then I can share with you the wisdom of Comrade Keith.’

  Fifteen minutes later, they were both back in the living room, Annie now in jeans and T-shirt, with a sliced pizza and two glasses of red wine on the coffee table between them. ‘It’s not much,’ Sheena acknowledged. ‘But it is pizza and wine.’

  ‘Which is pretty much exactly what I needed. So what did Chalmers have to say?’

  ‘He seems to be in a slightly paranoid frame of mind at the moment. First, he’s got a suspicion that the union might be being set up. That there might be ringers among the local membership who are deliberately out to cause trouble.’

  ‘Is that likely?’

  ‘Who knows? There’ve always been some shady doings in industrial disputes. Look at the miners’ strike. All sorts of rumours about MI5 involvement and the like.’

  ‘And a lot of accusations levelled at the police,’ Annie said. ‘Some of them probably justified. There were more people like my mother at the top in those days. But there’s a difference between something of that kind of national significance and some local barney, surely?’

  ‘Oh, sure. But if there are vested interests involved, who knows what dirty tricks people might play? Let’s face it, Michelle Wentworth doesn’t exactly have a squeaky-clean reputation on such matters.’

  ‘She seems to have a reputation for ruthlessness. Whether she’d go as far as that, I’ve no idea. She’s probably got other things on her mind at the moment, anyway. When I mentioned the damage to the car to her, she pretty much just dismissed it. I didn’t get the impression she was wanting to exploit it.’

  ‘No, that’s fair. But if Chalmers is right, this would all have been arranged a while ago. I imagine her priorities have probably changed now. I can imagine that winning some tawdry industrial relations battle might seem relatively unimportant if your son’s just been murdered.’

  Annie leaned forward to take another slice of pizza. ‘So you think there might be something in what Chalmers is saying?’

  ‘It’s possible. Tempers can run high in disputes, but that kind of serious vandalism’s fairly unusual. I guess we might never know.’

  ‘I assume Chalmers has told the police about his suspicions?’

  ‘Yes, though I don’t think he’s pushed it too far in case they think he’s protesting too much. Last thing he wants is to be labelled as a conspiracy theo
rist.’ She laughed. ‘That’s the thing about conspiracies. There must be some real ones, but we’re all too afraid to say so in case people think we’re cranks. Remember that obsessive guy they were trying to frame for my kidnapping?’

  ‘Although it turned out he was probably saner than anyone else,’ Annie pointed out.

  ‘That’s the point. It’s how the conspirators get away with it.’ She paused to take a sip of her wine. ‘But that wasn’t really the most interesting thing Keith said to me. He was telling me about Wentworth’s business dealings. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of what he said, but I’ve generally found him a reliable source of gossip. Anyway, I thought it might be of interest to you.’

  Annie shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m not sure. I’m always wary of listening to unsubstantiated gossip, and I think we need to be careful what information we share, given Jennings’ concerns.’

  Sheena looked mildly offended. ‘I’m only trying to help.’

  Annie sighed and reached out to take Sheena’s hand. ‘Sorry, Shee. I’m just being oversensitive. Too much time talking to my mum and to Jennings. I do want to hear what you’ve got to say. Wentworth’s business dealings have been troubling me.’

  Sheena gazed back at her for a moment, then grinned and squeezed Annie’s hand. ‘Okay, apology accepted. And, yes, it is just unsubstantiated gossip. But Keith reckons they’re looking to expand the business substantially. They want to pitch for large-scale contracts in a way they haven’t before. The way I understand it, Wentworth’s grown the company quickly but it’s all been essentially organic growth. They’re looking for the next step to be a huge one.’

  ‘That fits with what I understand,’ Annie said. ‘I’m having one of our business analysts take a look at the company.’ As she rarely talked this kind of shop with Sheena, she’d been uneasy about this conversation. But she wasn’t intending to say anything that wasn’t already in the public domain. If necessary, they could follow the appropriate protocols to carry out further digging into Wentworth’s business affairs, but so far Annie had seen no justification for that. ‘He had a look at its published accounts for the last few years. Reckoned it was impressive growth, but mostly relatively low-risk. They don’t seem to be saddled with any large debt. In fact, they’ve always been pretty cash-rich, funding their expansion from their own profits. Whatever else she might be, Michelle Wentworth’s a smart businesswoman.’

  ‘From what Keith said, the point is that they’re looking to change that business strategy to fund some really big expansion. They know they’re good at what they do – even if, from Keith’s perspective, what they do is mainly screw over their employees – and they want to leverage that into something much bigger.’

  ‘Does he know what kind of things?’

  ‘If he does, he was keeping it to himself. He said they were looking to expand various areas of their business. He mentioned transport, security, back office work…’

  ‘Back office work?’ Annie tended to switch off in the face of managerial jargon. She heard too much of it at work, especially from Stuart Jennings.

  ‘Admin, I suppose. These companies are supposed to be able to streamline all that paperwork and processing stuff. Increased digitisation, all that guff.’

  ‘This is why they’re building the barricades in Matlock?’

  ‘Pretty much. It’s rare for Wentworth to take on a unionised workforce, although she doesn’t have much choice when she takes on public sector contracts. Even when she does she’s generally been canny enough to deny the unions much room for manoeuvre. I’m still not sure whether she just allowed this one to slip through the net, or whether she was deliberately looking to make an example of them. Hence Keith’s concerns about dirty tricks.’ She paused to take another slice of pizza. ‘Keith’s point was that this new business strategy carried a couple of implications. First, that it might mean that for the first time they’re treading on the toes of some really big players. The second is that they’re not going to be able to fund this level of expansion simply through their own profits.’

  ‘So where are they going to get the investment?’

  ‘That was another area where Keith was characteristically vague. He just said that there’s a lot of money sloshing about and that its provenance is uncertain. I think I’m quoting more or less verbatim.’

  ‘He’s suggesting it’s illegal money in some way?’

  ‘Keith never allows himself to be too explicit. A master of deniability. But I’m guessing so.’

  ‘That’s very interesting. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’ve had a definite sense that Wentworth’s been keeping something back from us. My instinct is that it’s not something directly to do with her son’s death – though of course I could be wrong about that – but something else. Something like this would definitely fit the bill.’

  ‘All I’m doing is passing on what Keith told me. I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but from my limited dealings with Keith he’s not one to make these kinds of accusations lightly. I wasn’t initially sure why he wanted to see me today, but my guess is that he wanted me to pass this on to you.’

  ‘He could have called us direct.’

  ‘That’s not Keith’s style. Not with something like this. In any case, what would he have said? Presumably, he’s got no hard evidence for any of this. And with what’s happened in Matlock it would have just sounded like another attack on Wentworth.’

  ‘Maybe that’s all it is.’

  ‘It’s possible. That wouldn’t fit my experience of dealing with Keith, though. I wouldn’t exactly say he always plays straight. He’s too much of a canny game-player for that. But I don’t think he generally just plucks stuff out of the air. There’s likely to be something in this.’

  ‘I’ll get someone to have a closer look at Wentworth’s business dealings. It’s a tricky one because I don’t want us to get deflected by something that might have nothing to do with her son’s murder. On the other hand, we still don’t have any clue what the motive for that might have been. If it really was linked in some way to his mother, this might be a good place to start looking. Thanks.’ She smiled sheepishly. ‘And sorry if I was a bit dismissive about it at first.’

  Sheena leaned over and kissed Annie on the cheek. ‘You’re forgiven. Or you will be when you pour me another glass of wine. And don’t thank me. Thank Keith. Or rather don’t, because he’ll probably just deny he ever said anything. That’s Keith. Tosses just enough pebbles into the pond to create a few waves, then disappears back into the undergrowth.’

  Annie smiled. ‘Okay. Well, the next step, I suppose, is to see if I can find anything that’s been washed up on the shore.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  It was another warm evening, only the softest of breezes drifting in off the moorland. The summer’s flowers around the garden were beginning to die off, but the gardener had been skilful in creating a display that, in some form, lasted most of the year round, and there was still a rich, slightly heady scent in the air. A thin sickle moon hung in the sky ahead of her, and the first stars were starting to appear.

  Michelle Wentworth knew that, if she was smart, she wouldn’t be sitting here all alone. The security here was good but she knew it wasn’t impregnable. If someone really wanted to break in, she imagined they probably could.

  Even so, she’d felt that being here alone was still preferable to the alternative. Peter Hardy had made it more than clear that he’d have liked to stay the night, and initially she’d been tempted by the idea. She’d grown accustomed to him being here and sharing her bed when it suited her. But she didn’t really want him here all the time. It wasn’t entirely personal. Much of the time, she simply preferred her own company. She had little interest in Peter – or anyone else – sexually, though Peter fulfilled a physical need in that respect. And outside of their business dealings, she had only limited interest in him in any other way.

  She was happier on her own. That was one reason, even though she f
elt a little guilty about it now, why she’d found Justin’s presence so irksome. He could be irritating and he was always lazy, but that wasn’t really the issue. The problem was that, even if he’d been the most perfect son imaginable, she still wouldn’t have wanted him here all the time.

  She wasn’t even sure whether she actually liked herself or her own company. But she understood herself. She knew what she wanted and needed, and she could trust herself. She wasn’t going to let her herself down. She wasn’t going to screw herself over. She wasn’t going to try to take advantage of herself.

  She wasn’t sure she could say those things about anyone else.

  Not even about Peter Hardy. Especially not about Peter, just at the moment.

  She had taken Peter on board and allowed him much further into her life than anyone else, because she’d come to trust him. She’d trusted his expertise. She’d trusted his judgement. And she’d trusted – well, if not exactly his integrity, at least his loyalty to her. It had taken her a long time to build up that trust. He’d been working with her for ten years or more, gradually rising in her estimation from being just another lawyer to someone with a stake in the business and her most trusted advisor.

  She told herself that none of that had changed. She still had no strong reason to doubt his ability, his judgement and perhaps not even his loyalty. Since Justin’s death, he hadn’t always told her what she wanted to hear, but he’d generally told her what was in her best interests. Her immediate instinct after Justin’s death had been to call Peter and she’d had no cause to regret that decision. Peter had calmed her down, planned out what they were going to say to the police, made sure everything was done by the book, and directed the police towards areas other than their own current business dealings. She couldn’t fault him on any of that.

  But the doubts had been there for a while, one way or another. And they were gradually growing. She didn’t trust him as much as she had.