‘He’s right,’ Jaden said.
Karen Majors was not without compassion for Jim Breslaw, a man who had dealt with programming for twenty-three years, through the halcyon period when viewer numbers increased each year, and advertising revenue rose exponentially. Then, the drop as social media, streaming video and fake news took off.
‘We lay the blame on him, tell the world that Jim had done everything to protect his job, not concerned for anyone’s safety, only his generous salary, willing to take down the station, to sack who he could, to place the blame wherever.’
‘And we sacked him once we found out, only to discover that he had approved Simmons climbing that building, Tricia Warburton believing that we agreed to it,’ Jaden said.
‘Jerome, you’re right. As I said, crucify Jim Breslaw, a press conference, reveal that Tricia Warburton is coming back on board, a revamped format, guest stars, and travelling the world. Beef her up, a tight skirt, low-cut top.’
‘She’ll not go for it,’ Karen Majors said. ‘She’s not that stupid, nor is she a tart.’
‘I never said she was. And besides, that was always the plan. I’m just saying to up the rhetoric, to lay it on thicker, to push harder. Pay her what she wants, put it in her contract that she’s to act accordingly, get the male viewers excited, the women envious, press releases about her past life, her lovers, current romances, make up a few.’
‘How much is this going to cost?’ Jaden asked.
‘Plenty. Get Helen on the job, run the numbers. It’s either make or break.’
‘Don’t forget that someone killed Simmons,’ Babbage said. ‘The police will still be sniffing around.’
‘Let them. Denigrate Breslaw whenever possible. Any good with a gun, Breslaw?’
‘An amateur shot,’ Jaden said.
‘All the better.’
‘And how do you expect to lay the blame on Jim?’ Karen Majors asked.
‘Social media. If you can’t beat it, use it. There must be companies out there that will post anything anywhere.’
‘In this country?’
‘No idea. It’s social media; they can be anywhere. Feed them what we want, let them run with it, and you, Karen, work your arse off, grab all the revenue we want, screw the other stations.’
‘Can this work?’ Babbage asked.
‘It can and will,’ Jaden said. ‘Tom, you can take control of this. Is that okay with you?’
‘It is if I can have Alison to help.’
‘You can have Alison any way you like,’ Jaden said, the smiling Alison blushing.
***
A flaming head of red hair, a bushy beard, a moustache covering his upper lip, Justin Skinner looked every part a mountain man.
Taller than Isaac, broad-shouldered and muscular, Skinner shook Isaac’s hand firmly, a bear-like grip, and then Larry, patting him on the chest. ‘Could do with a bit of exercise,’ he said. ‘Your chief inspector, he’s looking fit, fit enough for rock climbing. How about it, DCI Cook, interested?’
‘Not now, I’m not,’ Isaac said. Skinner’s repartee wasn’t unexpected. After all, they were standing in a draughty barn in Snowdonia in northern Wales, the headquarters of Skinner’s training centre for budding rock climbers and mountaineers.
‘You should. Good for the spirit; make a man out of you or a woman if you’re female. You’re here about Angus, I suppose.’
‘We are,’ Larry said. ‘A few questions.’
‘If I was sleeping with the lovely Kate Hampton?’
‘That’s one,’ Isaac said.
A young woman in climbing boots, wearing an overlarge woollen jumper and a pair of faded jeans, passed over three mugs. ‘Hot chocolate, just the thing for a day like this,’ she said.
‘Thanks, Rachel,’ Justin said. ‘I was telling the chief inspector he’d make a good climber.’
‘A good something else as well,’ the woman said, winking at Isaac as she left.
‘Good sort is Rachel. She climbed Everest, first attempt. Not many do, makes the rest of us look like amateurs.’
‘She’s only a slip of a girl,’ Larry said.
‘Tougher than she looks. We’ve got a thing going, not sure how long it’ll last. Rachel’s a free spirit, takes her climbing seriously, not much else.’
‘There’s a style about you, not what we associate with climbers,’ Isaac said.
‘You mean my easy-going nature?’
‘Angus Simmons was a serious-minded individual, although Mike Hampton, we couldn’t form an opinion about.’
‘Hampton was always that way, a glass half empty outlook on life, although Kate reckoned, he had another side to him, not that I ever saw it. Angus was a serious individual, ambitious and determined, but me, I’m a natural showman, a big mouth.’
‘When you’re climbing?’
‘A singular focus, getting up to the top, staying safe, getting down again.’
‘Hampton didn’t?’
‘Accidents happen, mistakes are made. You can’t be that precise, and if you waited until the risk was negated to zero, you’d never go. If you go up Mount Everest, you must be prepared to die, to let loose if you make it back, to party on once you get back to Kathmandu. Have you been there?’
‘Neither of us have,’ Isaac said.
‘You should go; a great place.’
Isaac and Larry hadn’t driven since four in the morning just to chat with Justin Skinner, no matter how interesting and entertaining the man was. It was still a murder investigation, and Skinner had become a suspect due to Gwyneth Simmons’s statement.
‘Kate Hampton?’ Isaac said, reminding Skinner that he had brought up the woman’s name.
‘It can’t be much fun for her, stuck with Mike,’ Skinner said.
‘According to information we received, she’s finding her fun somewhere else.’
‘Not from me, not unless I’m down south.’
‘And if you are?’
‘There’s no harm done. What’s good for one is good for the other.’
‘Mike Hampton?’
‘Not sure if he’s capable, not after that fall, stuck in that wheelchair all day. If it was me…’
‘A high
