‘So, boss,’ Swilley interjected, ‘are we saying that Bates and Mark are connected with the Stonax murder? That the two cases are linked after all?’
‘I think we are saying just that,’ Slider said. ‘It’s not a coincidence that Bates has turned up here and now.’ He told them about his visit to Solder Jack, without mentioning his name, and Jack’s immediate fingering of Bates as the possible manufacturer. ‘So Bates makes the device to open the door, and Mark persuades old dipstick Borthwick to let him install it,’ he concluded. ‘I wonder, could Bates have been the “man in the van” that Borthwick never saw? The one Mark said was going to do the actual fitting?’
‘Bates would be careful not to be seen,’ Norma said. ‘That would be why he’d put Mark up as the front man in the pub, make him do the public work. But who did the actual murder? Mark? I can’t see Bates getting his hands dirty.’
‘He’s killed before, with his own hands,’ Hart said. ‘Susie Mabbot, the prostitute.’
‘By accident,’ said Swilley, ‘or at least in hot blood. The other deaths we think are down to him he may have had someone do for him. You don’t get to be a master criminal by doing your own dirty work.’
‘If Thomas Mark is mixed up with the Masseter death,’ said Hollis, ‘maybe he was the one that did both of them.’
Slider interrupted. ‘But even if Bates and Mark were implicated in Stonax, or Stonax
‘She’s dead, sir. Both the parents are. I checked that right away. I’ll have a look to see if there were any brothers or sisters, but it’ll take a while.’
‘Do it. Mark seems to be the only friend Bates has in the world.’
Mackay, who had been answering the phone across the room, called out, ‘Guv, they’ve found the car. The black Focus. They think it’s the same one because it’s got the damage in the right place. The number’s different from any of the ones we’ve reported, but the number it
‘Where did they find it?’
‘A traffic warden called it in, illegally parked in a residents’ bay without a permit. Duchess of Bedford’s Walk.’
‘Sinning above its station,’ Slider commented.
‘Where’s that?’ asked Hart, who hadn’t lived in Shepherd’s Bush all her life.
‘Just off the Campden Hill Road,’ said Swilley, who had. ‘And just round the corner from Aubrey Walk, where Bates’s house is.’
‘Creatures of habit, criminals,’ said Slider. ‘Even the ones who think they’re uncommon criminals. And overconfidence has brought down the mighty before. Get the car in, go over it with a fine-toothed comb. One nice dab or one long red hair inside would be very nice. And a bit of something interesting on the tyres or the wheel arches would be even better.’
‘Don’t get your hopes up,’ Hart said.
‘I don’t think my hopes know where up is,’ Slider said. ‘Also get a paint sample and photographs of the damage and send them through to the Reading police. See if they can get a match with the damage to Masseter’s motorbike. If we can get Mark it may lead us to Bates.’
Sixteen
Armageddon Too Old For This
Joanna arrived early, in buoyant mood, and bearing gifts: bacon rolls for herself, and doughnuts for everyone else.
‘I left so early I didn’t get breakfast before I left,’ she said. ‘God, it’s good to be back!’
Everyone clustered round for the goodies, including Emily, whose presence by now caused no surprise or comment. ‘I’ve found some things out about Bates’s company. Should I tell you now?’ She addressed the comment to Slider, but obviously with the rest of the team in mind.
‘Go ahead,’ he said. It would save repeating it all later.
‘Well, you know he had this electronics firm called OroTech? His own baby, built up from nothing over many years, so he was virtually the sole owner.’
‘Virtually?’
‘Ten per cent was owned by someone else, the shares registered to a holding company. I thought it was interesting that he would give up any part of his company, because from all I can find out he was pretty much of a control freak, but when I looked at the date of the transfer, it was within six weeks of his being awarded the government IT contract. So I wondered, you see, whether it was a quid pro quo.’
‘You give me the contract, I give you a hand in the profits?’ said Atherton. ‘Sounds feasible. Obviously it must be Tyler.’
‘Don’t jump to conclusions,’ Slider said. ‘If it was, Emily would have told us. What’s this holding company?’ he asked her.
‘It’s called Vollman Zabrinski. It’s a sort of offshore wrapper, if you like, but I can’t get in to check individual holdings, and obviously they won’t answer my questions. It would have to be a police inquiry.’ She looked from Slider to Atherton and back.
‘I’ll ask Mr Porson,’ Slider said. ‘Might have to go through Interpol, though, which will take time. Anything else?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Emily said. ‘Two years ago OroTech split off its property division, Key Developments. And shortly afterwards it did a merger with British Electronics Systems, or BriSys, and the two became BriTech.’
Atherton clapped his hands together in satisfaction. ‘Which then tried to merge with Anderson-Millar and was snubbed, until Sid Andrew came up with his brilliant idea.’
‘I wonder, though,’ Slider said, ‘whether it really was his idea. He didn’t seem all that bright to me. Maybe it was Richard Tyler’s invention, and he just let Sid do the fronting, and Sid got ideas above his station. He did say Tyler got the credit, while he got the sack.’
‘Whoever thought of it, it does mean than Bates was in on the whole Waverley B business,’ Atherton said, ‘and we’ve got even more connections between him and Tyler.’
‘I wonder if Stonax – I mean, Mr Stonax, sorry . . .’ Swilley corrected herself with a blush. Emily made a negating gesture with her hand. ‘I wonder if he knew about the Bates-Tyler connection.’
‘Or if he didn’t before, maybe that was what he was working on after he left the DTI,’ Joanna suggested. ‘Did he never mention any of this to you?’ she asked Emily.
‘Not a thing. Which now I think of it was a telling point, because he used to like talking to me about his campaigns and investigations. But this one he played really close to his chest, so I ought to have known it was something serious.’ She sighed. ‘But if he didn’t want to tell, he wouldn’t have. You couldn’t force my dad to do anything he didn’t want.’
The same thing occurred to everyone simultaneously – that he had been forced, by a threat to Emily – but no-one said it. She obviously thought it too, because she looked unhappy and lowered her eyes for a moment.
Swilley spoke, mostly to break the awkward silence. ‘So what’s become of the Waverley B shipyard in all this?’
‘Sid Andrew said AM-BriTech were selling it,’ Slider said.
‘That’s not strictly true,’ Emily said. ‘They closed the yard as soon as their merger went through – which was pretty cynical, but I suppose that’s business for you. The gates closed at the end of May last year.’
‘And the election was in April,’ Atherton said. ‘That’s pretty cynical too. And now it’s going to be developed. I’ve seen the plans on the internet. It’s in a fabulous position, you see – on a sort of promontory sticking out into the Clyde, so it has water on three sides. It’s close to Glasgow – City of Culture, isn’t that what they call it now? – which is bursting at the seams with young money looking for somewhere to spend itself. It has good transport links. And there’s even an old railway line they’re talking about reviving. That was hinted at on the website, and it would
