humour, or lack thereof. I wonder if you know that your colleague Thomas Long has been reported missing since yesterday?’
‘Missing?’
‘He didn’t come home last night.’
‘Bloody hell!’ His genuine shock at the news instantly liberated him in both officers’ minds of having any involvement, it becoming no more than a fact-finding interview.
‘Has this place got something to do with it?’
‘We don’t know yet,’ answered Grey.
The man was silent, before saying in a low voice, ‘We’re not getting paid, are we? Tom was right. The money isn’t there.’
‘We’re looking into that. We’ll know very soon.’
‘I spoke to him on Monday night. Is that why you wanted to speak to me? It’s pretty common on the week we get paid. Sometimes on Monday or Tuesday he has the payslips ready early. I was on the later shift, so when I came back from my break I popped up to see if he was here still. It was only about half-five, Gail was just leaving, and he was on the phone when I got there. So I waited a minute.’
‘And what happened when you asked?’
‘Well, he said he didn’t have them. He looked a bit… you know. So I was going to leave him to it’
‘How did he look?’
‘A bit stressed, worse than he normally is.’
‘And how’s that?’
‘Well shy, quiet, doing that thing where he’s looking down when he speaks to you.’
‘And then what?’
‘Well, as I said, I was about to go. And then Tom… he just collapsed, and started crying. I was embarrassed at first; but then I got worried. I put my arm around him, trying to get him to pull himself together. And then it all came out: about how he couldn’t find the money to put in our accounts; and how that had been the bank manager on the phone just, confirming it, and now he didn’t know what to do. That sealed it for me, the bank manager being involved. I mean, if it was just Tom getting upset…’
‘Oh?’
‘Well as I say, sometimes he gets stressed. Not that I’ve ever had a reason to doubt him. I know he messed the payroll up that one time, but that was a one-off. And now you say he’s..?’
‘Did you go to school with him?’
‘I was a couple of years below him.’
‘How well do you know him?’
‘We’ve never been the of best mates.’
‘But you still say hello in the corridor?’
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t know if he has any other friends, anyone he might be stopping with?’
The lad looked almost apologetic as he shook his head.
‘You weren’t one of the people Mrs Long called on Tuesday evening?’ asked Cori.
‘No. I’ve never known the family that well.’
‘But you know his dad.’
‘Yes, I know Phil, but he’s been on another team the last few weeks.’
Grey paused a moment before delivering his next vital question, which needed to be pitched just right, ‘Well son, you may not have been his best friend; but at that moment, here alone and scared out of his wits, you appeared at his door and he trusted you enough to pour his heart out to. I wonder if you didn’t seem to him the closest thing he’s ever had to a friend in all his life? Was there anything else, anything at all, he may have said at that moment when the floodgates opened?’
‘I honestly can’t think.’
‘Well take a moment. Do you want a drink?’
Chris Barnes shook his head.
‘So, you went to drown your sorrows after work.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you shared all you’d heard with Larry Dunn?’
Chris nodded disconsolately.
‘And he took the news as badly as you did.’
‘Well, you heard him.’
‘I did indeed,’ concurred the Inspector. Interrupting my quiet drink, he could have added, but restrained himself. ‘And so did the barman, and so did half the town too I shouldn’t wonder: that was you fellows I heard singing later on?’
He laughed, ‘Yes, that was Larry. He started up with “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag…”’
‘…and smile, smile smile?’ deadpanned Grey. ‘That wasn’t his attitude a minute before.’
‘Well, he’s a funny bugger, is Larry. One minute he’s furious he might be losing his job, the next he’s full of ideas of where he’s going next; y’know, places he’s heard about where there’s work. He’s always moving around, you see. Only been here a couple of years.’
‘But that doesn’t mean he hates Alex Aubrey any the less?’
The man caught the look in Grey’s eyes, his tone quickly sharpening, ‘You can’t pin those stones being thrown on Larry.’
‘Who mentioned any stones being thrown?’
‘It’s all over the factory floor.’
‘The last one only happened a few hours ago.’
‘News travels fast.’
‘Do you know his address?’
Cori jotted it down as he said it, ‘But he has friends all over,’ added the man. ‘He could be anywhere.’
‘Anyone specific?’
‘I don’t know them myself. I don’t know who he knows outside of work. But he won’t be gone for long. He travels around a bit, but he’s always back on Monday morning — he needs the money.’
‘Oh, where does he go to then?’
‘Racing meets, 4x4 rallies, that kind of thing. He’s got one himself, a Land Rover.’
‘Do you know the registration?’
‘Not off the top of my head. He sleeps in it sometimes, if he’s away.’
‘Okay. We’ll check it out,’ said Cori jotting the details in her notebook.
‘And if you do see your friend,’ Grey burst in, ‘then tell him that he can’t make this cigarette break last forever. And if he didn’t attack Aubrey then he’s better coming forward sooner rather than later.’
‘If I see him I’ll tell him.’
Cori sensed the Inspector was keen to get on, but also that there was something in the lad’s demeanour, ‘Is there anything else, Chris? Anything that might help us?’
‘Well,’ began the young man sheepishly, ‘it’s just that I think Larry saw Tom, on Tuesday.’
‘On the morning,’ remembered Cori, ‘asking for his payslip?’
‘No, after work.’
Something in Grey stirred at those words, Cori seeming even more studious at her notepad.
‘Larry had gone up to see Tom that morning, after what Tom had told me the day before — I tried to stop him, but…’
‘Headstrong, eh?’ the Inspector urged him on.
‘You could say that. Anyway, Gail Marsh saw him off, told him the payslips weren’t ready yet, and that Mr Aubrey would let us know if there was a problem. So he left it at that. Anyway, about five he went out to get his sandwich — we’ve been on lates this week. There’s a van that parks up at the end of the High Street, it does those big baguettes?’
‘Yes, I know the one,’ encouraged Grey.
‘And when he came back he told me he’d seen Tom, up by the shops. Anyway, Larry had called out to him,
