"Hmm... yes. Also true," Hansell said, screwing up his face. "But we are confident the inspectorate will uphold our approval."
"So, she had success then, delaying your construction?" Eric asked, glancing at Tom, looking fearful for stepping in. Tom didn't mind. He watched Hansell for his reaction.
"Her pressure group hasn't delayed construction, not really," Hansell said, frowning. "Contracts are ready to be signed with manufacturers as soon as the permission is sealed. The wind farm itself is not in dispute, merely where we bring the power to land." He shook his head emphatically. "No, no. There's not an issue. As soon as the approval is rubber stamped, we are off and running."
"And what of Mary Beckett herself. How did you get on with her personally?" Tom asked.
Hansell put his hands together before him, making a tent with his fingers. "She was a… prickly character, but passionate. I think that's fair to say. She really was the driving force behind the campaign. She was very dedicated to the natural world. We have that in common."
Tom raised an eyebrow. Hansell waved away his scepticism. "That's why I work in renewables! We need to shift away from carbon-based energy to something more sustainable. We might have disagreed on site locations, but Mary and I were on the same page with almost everything else."
"Fair point," Tom said. "And regarding the proposed site for the switching station. Where are you with that?"
"Good to go. The lawyers have done their bit, we are just waiting on that final confirmation."
"And Daniel Crowe, has he been applying pressure as far as you're aware? We know he had quite a public falling out with Mary Beckett at a planning meeting."
"The consultation?" Hansell asked. Tom nodded and Hansell mirrored the action. "Yes, I was there that night. The whole idea was for me to reassure the locals and to promote the positives to the area for the proposal. To get everyone on side, so to speak. It… didn't really go to plan. Mary didn’t seem like the type to change her mind."
"Excuse me," Eric said, "but what exactly is it that the group are upset about?"
Hansell exhaled heavily. "There is a stretch of land the cables will need to pass through to reach the switching station. They'll be buried, so they won't be seen but in order to lay them we will need to excavate the area. These are habitats for nesting wild birds."
"That doesn't sound too bad," Eric said, looking from Hansell to Tom.
Hansell angled his head to one side, spreading his palms wide as he spoke. "Sadly, the heavy plant will create a trench thirty metres wide, shifting thousands of tonnes of soil and ripping out all the surface vegetation. To be fair, there won't be much left afterwards, even though we would work to reinstate what we… destroy."
Eric frowned. "Okay, that sounds worse."
"I'm afraid it is collateral damage… but what's needed in the name of progress."
"We heard similar from someone else recently," Tom said. Hansell looked at him, trying to read more into the comment, but Tom remained impassive. "So, aside from Daniel Crowe obviously, who else stands to gain from Mary Beckett's death? Presuming of course that the effectiveness of the pressure group recedes after her death."
Hansell looked visibly shocked. "No one, Inspector." Tom fixed him with a stare. "Honestly. Even if, and I see this as very unlikely, the site for the switching station is relocated, the wind farm itself is still viable. We will just relocate. We have nothing to gain from Mary's death. There might be an administration headache, but we're used to that. This is what we do. NIMBY-ism has been around forever and we have plans to deal with it. It's built into the model."
"Okay, thank you," Tom said, indicating to Eric they should leave. Standing up, Tom walked to the door. Hansell got there first and opened it for them. Tom paused as he went through, looking back at him. "By the way, where is home?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said you went home last week. Where is that?"
"Copenhagen. My partner and I live there."
"That explains the accent," Tom said. "I couldn't place it."
Hansell smiled, keeping one hand on the edge of the door. "Fourteen years I've lived out there now. So, yes, that's how I've developed this slightly odd twist to my accent. I'm one of those who adopts things wherever I go."
Tom thanked him again, and he and Eric headed downstairs. He acknowledged the receptionist with a brief wave as they passed out into the street. Once clear of the building, Tom nudged Eric with his elbow.
"Take a deeper look into the company would you."
Eric bobbed his head. "You think he's keeping something from us? It all sounded plausible."
"Yes it did, and he might be on the level, but there's something about him that bothers me."
"What's that?"
Tom stopped, looking back at the building. A panel was fixed to the wall listing the names and logos of each of the businesses located in the premises. The newest name written in white on a blue background was at the bottom, Prometheus Energy Limited. "He was… amiable, but at the same time nervous and, to my mind, evasive. I don't know, he just unsettled me. For someone so confident, supposed to be the man for liaising with people… I don't know. Just take a look. Put my mind at rest."
"Will do," Eric said.
"I also think we should go back to Janet Beckett, and perhaps her son Justin, and run a few things past them. See if any of the names we're looking at came up in conversation with Mary recently. Come on, let's head back to the station. I need to speak with Tamara about something."
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cassie Knight muttered a curse as she rounded the corner and her coffee spilled over the lip of the cup, scolding her fingers.
"Sorry, DS Knight. I didn't catch that."
"Oh, sorry. Doesn't matter," she said,
