icebreaker with the Syrian President. He’s a very new boy. Let’s wait and see for a few days. Thank you again.’
There was a buzz as the line was disconnected.
‘You weren’t really taping that call were you?’ Martin examined the conference telephone for an extra wire.
‘Course not. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.’
61
It was almost 4.00 p.m. next day before Henry Wills called Martin.
‘Chief Inspector, about your request. I’m sorry to have taken so long, but one doesn’t want to arouse unnecessary suspicions, when one makes casual enquiries about an individual. I’ve got something for you now on Mr Andrew Harvey. It seems that he has turned into a very respectable citizen, an entrepreneur, no less. I gather that he established and runs a very specialised computer software design company in a place called Cumbernauld. He calls himself Harvand Systems Limited. Now there’s original for you!
‘Your assessment was very perceptive. He is indeed a member of our Graduates’ Association. He donates about one hundred pounds every year, and he’s spoken at a few careers seminars for final year maths and science students. He goes down very well, from what I’m told. Does that help?’
Wills sounded pleased, like a man expecting praise. Martin did not disappoint him.
‘Very much, Mr Wills. Thank you.’ As an afterthought he added, ‘Any news on that other matter you mentioned?’
‘Only that I heard that the Zionists have invited the Prime Minister of Israel to speak in opposition to the Syrian. He turned them down flat, apparently, and won’t even allow his ambassador to represent him.’
‘That might encourage the Syrian to accept, if he was in doubt.’
‘Let’s hope not! Dear God, imagine it!’ Martin could picture Wills eyes rolling towards the heavens.
‘Thank you again for yesterday’s information by the way. Securicor’s shareholders can look forward to a healthy dividend. It seems that universities and colleges all over the country are hiring extra people for the week in question. I can only guess at your source.’
Martin laughed. ‘That’s right, Mr Wills, you can only guess!’
He went straight to Skinner’s office to report Wills’ information on Harvey. ‘Will I check him out?’
‘It sounds as if he’s one rebel who’s been tamed, but talk to him anyway, to eliminate him from the inquiry if nothing else. Go in with a good cover story. I want him to forget the conversation as soon as it’s over, if he has nothing to do with this business.’
62
Martin found Harvand Systems Ltd in a refurbished factory unit in Wardpark, one of Cumbernauld’s older industrial estates. He located the building after a few wrong turns.
He announced himself in the neat, well-furnished reception area; the girl behind the reception desk was very young. ‘YTS,’ Martin thought to himself.
The woman who appeared within a minute was a complete contrast. She flowed through a security door with hand outstretched. For a second he was unsure whether it was meant to be shaken or kissed.
‘Hello, I’m Joy Harvey, Andrew’s wife. I’m a sort of director cum general manager. I’ll take you through to Andrew. He’s just finishing a telephone call.’
She keyed a code into the panel beside the door and led him through into a narrow poorly-lit corridor. She walked ahead of him, tall, slim, elegant and lightly tanned. Her auburn hair shone with vitality, even under the poor neon lighting, and her body language shouted confidence. As she walked, she explained her role.
‘My job in Harvand is to make it run profitably, allowing Andrew and his people to concentrate on creative work without the hassle of day-today domestic things like accounting, paperclips and all that.’
At the end of the corridor was a door, half-glazed with an opaque panel. Joy opened it without knocking and held it ajar for Martin.
Andrew Harvey was short, fat and bald. His gold-rimmed spectacles, with their round lenses, gave him an owlish look. As he moved from behind a huge desk to shake Martin’s hand, he seemed to radiate diffidence, but then he looked directly at the policeman, who found that first impression contradicted by the strange intensity of the grey eyes.
‘Take a seat, please, Chief Inspector.’ The complexity of the man was compounded by a high-pitched, slightly highly strung voice, and a muted Lanarkshire accent. He led them to a conference table, just as his wife reappeared with a tray, bearing a cafetiere and three mugs, each with the company logo emblazoned upon it. Martin kept his eyes on the little man at the head of the table.
‘First of all, Mr Harvey, thank you for seeing me on what’s really a personal matter. I belong to Glasgow University Graduates’ Association. I’ve been asked to run a seminar on police work at a careers conference which the Uni. is running during this term. I don’t know how I was talked into it, but I was. Having agreed to do it, I want to get it right.
‘Henry Wills, at Edinburgh University, is a friend of mine. I asked him for ideas. He suggested that I should talk to someone who had run one of these things, and he said you do it better than anyone else he knows. Sorry to be so mysterious over the telephone, but to tell you the truth, I’m a bit overawed by the thing. It isn’t exactly my line of country.’
The ingenuousness of the admission seemed to relax the little man. From the comer of his eye Martin thought that he also detected his wife’s body posture relax.
Harvey, assured now, smiled in Joy’s direction. ‘Just as well my wife’s here. She can tell you a lot more than I can. She’s a business psychologist by training. She plans my seminars, writes my script, designs the visual aid package, coaches me in delivery and all that.’
‘Visual aids! God, does it get that sophisticated?’
Joy replied for her husband. ‘No, it needn’t. It really all depends upon the ability of the lecturer and in his level of confidence. Now Andrew is, by nature, a shy man. It takes a lot of personal courage for him to stand up in front of an audience. The package I put together for him is a sort of crutch to help him stay up there.
‘On the other hand, you are a very assertive man by nature, for all your expression of diffidence here.’
For a second, Martin froze. Had he blown it? But he was reassured as Joy went on.
‘It isn’t insecurity that has brought you here. It’s a desire for perfection; even if you don’t know it.’
Martin smiled at her. ‘Maybe I do.’
Suddenly a fragment of memory from the past tugged at him. ‘You know, Mrs Harvey, it occurs to me that we must all be about the same age. I knew quite a few Edinburgh people when I was at Glasgow. Which university were you at? You weren’t at Gilmorehill too were you?’
‘No. I was at Strathclyde, from 1979 to 1983.’
‘We overlapped, then. Did you socialise much when you were there?
‘Union dances. Daft Friday, that sort of thing. You do remember Daft Friday, don’t you.’ A tone of laughter crept into her honeyed voice.
‘Sure do. A collection of kids in evening dress taking a long time to get plastered.’
‘That’s just how it was!’
‘We’ll all have changed a bit since then. I remember two girls called Joy. What was your maiden name?’
‘Granger. What was your first name, again?’
‘Same as your husband. May I be indelicate and ask, were you a blonde then?’ It was an inspired guess. In fact, Martin’s student vanity had been incompatible with the spectacles which he had needed then for close range vision. The faces of the girls with whom he had danced had always been blurred.
Joy beamed. ‘I have to admit it. I’m sure I remember you too. You played rugby didn’t you? Always bumped or bruised.’
Martin nodded, surprised.
