‘Stan the Stapler.’
‘Ah,’ said Mrs Pargeter, another residual chance of thinking the best of someone shattered. ‘So he’s back. You’re sure he didn’t see you?’
‘Positive. But I thought it was too much of a risk to stay if he was wandering round the place, so I scarpered. One interesting thing, though…’
‘What?’
‘Stan was carrying a tray with covered dishes on it…’
‘Oh.’
‘Suggesting that there might be someone down there.’
‘Hiding?’
‘Possible, Mrs Pargeter. Though I think the other possibility is more likely.’
‘Being kept down there against their will, you mean?’
‘That’s exactly what I mean, yes.’ A new thought came to him. ‘Oh, just remembered — there’s one other important thing I found out, Mrs Pargeter.’
‘What?’
‘Lissum Laboratories.’
‘Yes?’
‘I spent this morning investigating Lissum Laboratories, finding out who owns them. It wasn’t easy. They’re held through a lot of different companies — in fact, I think there’s little doubt that an elaborate chain has been set up deliberately to obscure who the real owner is.’
‘But I assume you managed to work your way through that chain?’
He nodded modestly. ‘Yes.’
‘So who is the ultimate owner?’
‘Mind Over Fatty Matter. In other words, Sue Fisher.’
‘Ah,’ said Mrs Pargeter. ‘Now, that is interesting.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
‘I cannot think of anything I would enjoy more,’ said Ellie Fenchurch when Mrs Pargeter tentatively made the proposal. ‘I’d love to see that cow squirm.’
The journalist dropped everything the minute Mrs Pargeter’s call came through. She deferred the long-set- up telephone chat with Madonna and cancelled the interview with J. D. Salinger, who was at the time travelling incognito in England. Ellie Fenchurch had never had any doubt where her first loyalty lay. When she thought of all that the late Mr Pargeter had done for her…
Gary once again delivered them in front of the blanched Mind Over Fatty Matter headquarters. There was no delay; they were ushered immediately into the presence of the boss (no doubt known within the company as the ‘senior co-worker’). Whatever Ellie had said on the phone when arranging the encounter, it had worked. Sue Fisher looked defensive, a rare posture for her, and one that she clearly wasn’t enjoying.
She began with professional coolness, however, as if the meeting was nothing out of the ordinary. ‘I gather there were a few details you wanted to check up on for your profile, Ellie.’ She invested the name with poisonous gentility.
The journalist went straight for the throat. ‘I don’t think you’d want the details I’m after to appear on any profile, Sue.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Lissum Laboratories.’
They could see the name’s impact on Sue Fisher’s face in the split second before she covered up. ‘I’m afraid I still don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t bother with all that,’ Ellie Fenchurch snarled. ‘We’ve traced the ownership. There’s no question that you own Lissum Laboratories.’
‘Well, what if I do?’
‘There are things going on there that don’t fit in very well with the squeaky-clean image of Mind Over Fatty Matter. Certain experiments are conducted at Lissum Laboratories that don’t accord with the high-flown ethical principles you keep banging on about, Sue — or with those self-righteous little slogans which are plastered all over your products.’
‘I’m sure that’s not the case. I can guarantee that nothing being developed at Lissum Laboratories is tested on animals.’
‘No,’ Ellie agreed.
‘Well then, I don’t see-’
‘But some of it’s tested on humans.’ Sue Fisher seemed unable to think of an appropriate response to this, so Ellie went on, ‘Now, I know in this country, that’s very much a secondary consideration, way down in the scale of things. So long as beagles aren’t being forced to chain-smoke and little pussycats aren’t being injected with cancer cells, most people aren’t that fussed about what happens to mere human beings. Mind you, I think if details of what has gone on under the Lissum Laboratories umbrella were published, you still might get a bit of reaction.’
Sue Fisher remained silent. Mrs Pargeter watched her closely. The woman was under attack, but by no means defeated. The formidable will that had built up the Mind Over Fatty Matter empire was not easily broken.
‘I have very good lawyers,’ Sue Fisher announced eventually. ‘If you try to publish any such allegations, we’ll take your paper for millions.’
‘Even if I have detailed research to back up what I’m writing
…?’
Sue Fisher grinned, sensing a recovery of control. ‘I said they were very good lawyers. They’ll have injunctions out before your article hits the streets. And even if something did somehow creep out in print, they’d get you.’
‘Even if what I’m printing happens to be the truth?’
Sue Fisher, now considerably more relaxed, laughed out loud. ‘I didn’t think you were that naive, Ellie. We’re talking about a libel case here — the truth doesn’t come into it. My lawyers always get the results they’re paid to get.’
The journalist nodded, accepting the inevitability of this, and Sue Fisher pressed forward her advantage. ‘I would also like to point out that I serve on a government environmental committee with the owner of your newspaper, Lord Barsleigh. And that Mind Over Fatty Matter has put a great deal of money in the paper’s Save the Rainforest Initiative. As you know, it’s an issue about which Lord Barsleigh is particularly concerned — as anyone would be who is desperate to divert public attention from the number of trees which are cut down daily to provide the material on which his paper is printed.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying if I were you, I wouldn’t push my luck, Ellie.’ Again the name was infused with saccharine venom. ‘Lord Barsleigh might well be more willing to sacrifice one journalist than the Mind Over Fatty Matter investment.’
‘I take your point.’
Sue Fisher stretched out her perfect body preeningly in her chair. ‘So I don’t really think what you’re talking about poses that much of a threat to me or my company, do you?’
Ellie Fenchurch conceded the point. ‘No, publicity about a few dodgy experiments in some far-flung department of your empire is hardly going to bring the whole edifice tumbling down, is it?’
‘I’m so glad you understand that.’
‘Oh yes. I mean, after all, what could I do — if I was lucky, find a couple of women who’d had an allergic reaction to some cosmetic they tested for Lissum Laboratories…? And probably by the time I found them, the rash would have faded… Just be their word against yours, wouldn’t it? And who’s going to believe some disgruntled
