mean a public money injection. “Infrastructure investment” is what they call it these days.’
‘And what’s it going to be?’ Joanna asked.
‘A mixture of leisure, retail and residential,’ Atherton said. ‘Shops, galleries, hotels, restaurants, small retail units – craft workshops and the like – and some swanky flats with river views.’
‘Like Salford Quays,’ Joanna said.
‘I was just going to say that,’ said Hollis. ‘Have you been there?’
‘We went out there when we did a concert in Manchester last year,’ Joanna said. ‘We had some time to kill between seating rehearsal and concert, so we thought we’d go out there for a meal. It was quite impressive, but a bit sad, I thought.’
Hollis nodded. ‘Like when they turn the great old mills into yuppy flats.’ He had been born in Oldham, where now there was nary a mill.
‘Still,’ said Joanna, ‘a generation breathes easier.’
Slider looked at Atherton. ‘That name rings a bell. Didn’t you report that Freddie Bell said Mr Stonax asked him about Salford Quays?’
Atherton nodded. ‘He asked what sort of money there was in a development like that, and Bell told him it depended on how much you had to pay for the land.’
‘You’re building up to something,’ Joanna said. ‘I know that look.’
‘The Waverley B development – or the New Clydeview Centre as they’re going to call it . . .’
‘What else?’ said Joanna.
‘The development is being done by Key Developments, Bates’s company which he took care didn’t get taken over in the takeover. And since he’s also a large shareholder in AM-BriTech, I dare say the price charged for the land won’t be too heartbreaking.’
There was a silence as these facts were absorbed. Then Swilley said, ‘So is that it? Is that the whole conspiracy? That Bates and Tyler were doing some fancy financial footwork together to make a profit out of the old shipyard?’
‘Isn’t it enough?’ Atherton asked. Their old resentment seemed to prickle the air for a moment.
Swilley frowned. ‘I don’t see how that makes a case for killing Stonax – sorry.’
‘Please, you don’t have to mind me,’ Emily said. ‘I know he’s dead. That’s why I’m here, to try to help find out why.’
‘OK, I’ll stop saying sorry,’ Swilley said. ‘What I’m saying is that Ed Stonax knew about the fix that went in over Waverley B and the election, and that’s what they got rid of him from the department for. Developing a site as a leisure complex is what goes on all over the country all the time, and apart from maybe the “infrastructure investment” you were hinting at, Jim, having Tyler’s fingerprints on it, there’s no extra scandal for anyone to disapprove of. The development would bring regeneration to what was presumably a run-down area, and surely that’s a good thing all round? OK, a few people are going to get extremely rich on the back of it, but blimey, we all know that happens. It’s not something to kill anyone for.’
‘And what about Danny Masseter?’ asked Hart, who had come to feel rather proprietorial about him. ‘Where does he fit into it?’
‘And why was Bates sprung – if he was sprung?’ Hollis asked. ‘Couldn’t be just to enjoy the fruits of his labours, could it?’
‘He was a friend of Tyler’s – isn’t that enough?’ Atherton said.
‘I wouldn’t have thought Tyler had any friends,’ Slider said. ‘Not of the sentimental sort. But you’re right, Norma – this doesn’t tie up all the ends. In fact, it leaves me with just as many questions as I started with.’
Hart’s phone rang, and she went over to answer it. She came back smiling. ‘That was Reading,’ she said. ‘Mrs Masseter recognised Mark from the photograph as the bogus Inspector Steel.’
‘Good,’ Slider said. ‘So we’ve got him for impersonating a police officer, obstructing the course, and burglary, just for starters. Get his description and photograph out to all units. He’s to be arrested on sight.’
‘And if the car damage matches the motorbike,’ Hart said happily, ‘we can have him for murder.’
‘You’ve got to link him with the car first,’ Mackay reminded her.
‘We’ll do it. Poor old Danny,’ she said. ‘By Grabthar’s hammer, I will avenge you.’
‘By what?’ Slider said.
‘Best not to ask,’ said Joanna, who had seen the film.
‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this,’ Joanna said when she and Slider were alone, ‘but I have to have some more clothes. I didn’t pack all that much because it was only two days. I have to go back to the flat.’
‘Not on your own,’ Slider said.
‘You went on your own,’ she reminded him.
‘And look what happened to me.’
‘Yes. You didn’t manage to avoid it, so how will your coming with me make things better?’
‘I saw the warning signs, without which I could have been much worse hurt.’
Joanna looked anxious. ‘It’s not that dangerous, is it? It was only a prank – the bucket? Painful for you, but not life-threatening.’
‘His threats have escalated,’ Slider said, choosing his words carefully. ‘I don’t know, I’ve never known, how seriously he means them, but I can’t take chances, especially not with you. If you tell me what you want, I’ll go and get it.’
‘Not on your own, to quote somebody I know and love,’ Joanna said. ‘You’d never find half what I want, and you’d get the wrong things. Besides, the whole thing about threats is that they are blackmail, and you don’t give in to blackmail. It’s my flat and I won’t be kept out of it by some creep of a criminal.’
‘Bravely spoken,’ Slider said, but he didn’t smile. ‘All right, we’ll both go – but you’re to do exactly as I say, if anything happens.’
‘OK,’ Joanna said, making certain mental reservations. Probably he could read her mind – they had been together a long time – but there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Slider drove by a roundabout route, and this, and his constant checking in the mirrors, began to work on Joanna’s nerves. He had been hurt before – the memory of it chilled her – and Atherton had been seriously wounded some years back, so badly wounded that his nerve almost went and he was on the verge of leaving the Job. Being pregnant made you feel differently about all sorts of hazards. She had never given a thought to the hazards of falling over until the baby started to show. Now being at the top of a flight of stairs gave her pause. She didn’t let it stop her using stairs, but she
But you can’t give in to it, she thought, otherwise there was no point in being alive at all. She wondered, though, how often Bill had been afraid for her, how often he was afraid for his other children. He never spoke of it, but that would be Bill anyway. Men’s courage was different from women’s. What they had decided to put up with come what may, they didn’t see the need to talk about. She reached across and laid a hand on his thigh as a huge gust of love went through her. He took his hand briefly from the wheel and laid it on hers in acknowledgement.
There was a parking space right in front of the house, for once in a blue moon, and for a moment he wondered if that was ominous. Then he told himself not to be a fool; and not to appear one, either, by driving past it and parking further away, which was what he would have done had he been alone. But after all, if they were following him, they knew by now where he was going – would have known it as soon as he turned into the road. He parked, told Joanna not to get out until he opened the door, checked all the mirrors minutely, then got out and went round to her side. The day-empty street mocked his precautions. A car went past and he tensed, but it was a silver Peugeot with a young woman driving it.
‘OK,’ he said, letting Joanna out. He helped her to her feet, and as her face reached a level with his, he saw that she was nervous now. ‘This is silly,’ he said. ‘I’ll buy you some new clothes.’
‘You will not,’ she said. ‘
He walked up the path with Joanna behind him, scanning the house for any signs of change, scanning the path for any hint that anyone else had been there. He got the key out, inspected the lock and the door, turned it cautiously, and let himself in.
The door opened without resistance, and a tiny alarm bell rang in his head before he realised what it was:
