It all makes sense,’ Atherton said to the assembled desk-squatters. ‘Clydebrae was a ship-building yard until 1943, when the government takes it over. They use the site for secret nuclear experiments, trying to catch up with the Germans. After the war they hand it back for shipbuilding, but change the name in case Clydebrae has any associations for anyone. But the land is contaminated with cadmium and beryllium. Nobody realises this, but the yard is known as an “unlucky” one with a high absentee rate. Not the workers being naturally bolshie, but falling sick rather too often, and not feeling terribly well when they are at work.’
‘And there are no seabirds any more on the nearby beach that used to be a bird-watching site. I wondered why there was a road to nowhere,’ Emily added.
‘Finally Dansk, the latest in a series of owners, decides it can’t make a go of it, and decides to sell. And then the government gets involved, because there’s an election coming up and the loss of two thousand jobs could just swing the seat in favour of the Nats. Anderson-Millar buy it, but they don’t really want to run a shipyard there where everyone else has failed. They want to sell it for development.’
‘Like Salford Quays,’ Joanna said quietly, from Slider’s shadow.
Atherton nodded towards her. ‘Freddie Bell said the profit of a development like that depended on what you had to pay for the land.’
‘But if the land was toxic and had to be decontaminated, it would add millions to the cost.’
‘Could be a billion or more,’ Atherton said. ‘And it would ruin the cachet—’
‘The what?’ said Hart derisively.
‘Who would want to visit, let alone live and work in, a development they knew had been built on contaminated land?’ he translated for her. ‘Even if they were told it had been cleaned up. It could never be a prestigious, luxury venue for the movers and shakers with that reputation. On the other hand, if you don’t tell anyone . . .’
‘Nobody could be that cynical,’ Joanna said, shocked. ‘You’re talking about risking people’s lives.’
Slider said, ‘Two of the players, at least, have no particular reverence for life.’
‘If they knew about it,’ she said.
‘Somebody knew about it,’ Emily said. ‘There was a big housing development project supposed to happen right next door after the war. But it didn’t go ahead. They cleared the land and demolished most of the houses, but they never built on it. Why, when they were so short of housing? I think somebody back then knew the truth and the project was just quietly dropped.’
‘It would be something to know the history of that,’ Slider said, ‘and who owns the land now.’
‘If it was bought for council housing it must be the council,’ Atherton said. ‘And they’ve just left it empty. Maybe that was one of the things Danny was looking into.’
Hart came in. ‘All Danny’s protests were environmental things. He tried to get the Hartlepool ship-recycling thing stopped. And he’d borrowed that book from the library about breaking up nuclear submarines. So he’d know about the toxic chemicals that came with it.’ She clapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Blimey, I forgot to ring Reading Library, to get them off Ma Masseter’s back.’
‘What does it matter? They can buy another copy, can’t they?’ Fathom said, wanting to get back to the exciting bit.
‘It’s not like the new Dan Brown,’ she told him severely. ‘It costs two hundred and fifty quid a copy.’
‘Yeah, and it’s rubbish,’ Hollis said. ‘You could never make a film out of it. Guv, it occurs to me that Richard Tyler was junior minister in the Department of the Environment. So any questions about cleaning up a toxic site would come to him, if anyone. And he was supposed to be tight with Sir Henry Paxton, the boss of Anderson-Millar. Suppose Paxton had found out about the contamination, and went to Tyler quietly, saying what are we going to do? We know Tyler was in to make a lot of money out of the development, through his shares in Key Developments . . .’
‘Do we?’ Atherton said. ‘I thought that was only a supposition until we got an answer from Vollman Zabrinski.’
‘All right, we assume Tyler had the shares, and who knows what other bungs and percentages he might have through his mate Bates? So he says to Paxton, I won’t tell if you don’t tell. And the plans get pushed through.’
‘Until Danny Masseter finds out something, and goes to Stonax because he’s known as an eco-warrior,’ Mackay said. ‘And maybe his interest in the place is known about in eco circles.’
‘And maybe also because he knows he’s been in Dutch with the government,’ said Swilley. ‘Sorry, Emily – but Danny wouldn’t want to take it to an establishment figure, and he might well think your dad had a grudge and would be more willing to listen to him because of it.’
‘You don’t have to apologise,’ Emily said patiently.
‘And it just so happens,’ Atherton continued, ‘that he hit on the person who already knew more than he wanted to about dear old Waverley B.’
Joanna was shaking her head, though Slider knew it was more in despair that people could be so corrupt than in disbelief of the scenario. He knew it was a far cry from working things out to proving them, but it all
‘But then why didn’t Ed Stonax go public with it?’
‘Because he didn’t have all the information,’ Emily said. ‘Or the proof. And he couldn’t go public without the whole dossier – the one, presumably, poor Danny Masseter was preparing for him. He must have asked too many questions and made someone suspicious.’
‘So Tyler contacts his old friend and co-conspirator Trevor Bates, and says I’ll help you get out of jail free, if you’ll get rid of the problem for us,’ Atherton concluded. ‘Silence Masseter and Stonax before it all gets out, and make sure you get all the documents.’ Out of sight of the others, Emily pressed his hand in thanks for using the word ‘silence’ instead of ‘murder’, something she still found hard to say, even in her head.
‘And Bates thought he’d take the opportunity to get back at me,’ Slider said. ‘He thought he was invulnerable. He was too smart to get caught for the jobs he was doing privately for himself and Tyler. Dave Borthwick and a hit-and-run driver would stand up for those. And I was to go in a gas explosion – nobody’s fault at all.’
‘For God’s sake,’ Joanna muttered.
McLaren spoke up from the back through the last mouthful of Mars Bar. ‘Yeah, well, it’s all very nice but it’s just Goldilocks and the Three Bears, innit, unless we get some evidence.’
Swilley looked at him, impressed. ‘Blimey, Maurice, you come out quite sensible sometimes.’
‘It’s maybe not as bad as it looks,’ Slider said. ‘We’ve got Mark on evidence, as soon as we can catch him, and if the damage on the car matches the damage on the motorbike, we’ve got him for Masseter’s murder. Mark is Bates’s right-hand man, and if that’s not enough, we now know Bates gave him shares in Ring 4, so that ties him in with Bates. It was Tyler who gave Bates the government IT contract, so that ties them. And if Vollman Whatnot confirm that it’s Tyler who owns the BriTech shares, it gets them both tied in with the Waverley B development.’
‘But we’ve still got nothing on the pollution, and without that, there’s no motive for Stonax’s death,’ Mackay said.
‘Well, the evidence is out there, and if Danny Masseter managed to find it, we can,’ Slider said, though he didn’t sound happy about it. It could take for ever – and there was always the risk that tracks would start to be covered and documents shredded. Worse still, people who had answered questions might get shredded in the process. ‘We just have to hope Jimmy Pak can get into the encrypted files somehow. I’m willing to bet that’s where the evidence is. Meanwhile – ’ he hoisted himself off the desk – ‘we have to concentrate on finding Bates, which means finding Mark. No luck on the relatives, I suppose, Norma?’
‘No, sir. I can’t find any at all, never mind in the area. Could be he was an only child.’
‘So Bates is the only friend he has. And Tyler’s the only friend Bates has,’ Slider said. ‘Well, I think I’ve had about enough. We’ll call it a day and start again tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow’s Sunday, boss,’ Swilley said. ‘Do you want us in?’
‘Sunday’s a good day for legwork. People are at home, you can catch them there. Tomorrow is Find Bates and Mark Day. We’re going to visit every place they’ve ever been, every person they’ve ever spoken to, and find them if
