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Barry phoned Shirley from his mobile. ‘We’ll be another half an hour. No, stop fretting, we’re OK. You get to bed. Leave the french window in the lounge unlocked. We’ll hide the Land Rover and take a short cut over Sir Maurice’s kitchen garden to the woods. If the police are still watching they won’t see us come in that way.’

Barry decided he needed a few hours’ sleep before Alan told him exactly what he’d discovered. ‘I’ll try and make sense of everything. At the moment it’s pure speculation. I need to go through both sets of files. Those we’ve just got and Brown’s. I’ll tell you what I find in the morning. It’ll be easier to explain the whole thing instead of parts of it.’

Only the repeated stimulation of more coffee kept Marshall and Lisa awake, reading the file documents over and over, whilst Marshall made copious notes. He suggested they listen to Brown’s taped confession again.

‘It was someone called Jones, it was part of the code, Smith or Jones. I never knew their names.’

‘That’s not good enough, Mr Brown. Jones tells us nothing. Tell us who paid you to kill Anna Marshall.’ Silence.

‘Tell us who paid you to kill Stuart Moran.’ Silence.

‘Tell us who paid you to kill Councillor Jeffries.’ Still silence.

‘If you want to be a tough guy I’ll have to do it the hard way.’

‘No, no, don’t do that, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you,’ the voice was close to screaming.

‘Go on then. Who paid you?’

‘His name’s Harry, Harry Rourke.’

‘How do you know?’

‘He told me.’ Now the voice was agitated.

‘He told you his name was Harry Rourke?’

‘As good as.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘When I asked him, he told me. ‘“Just think of me as Harry,”’ that’s what he said.’

‘I thought you told me that when you talked with customers
you used Smith and Jones?’

‘That’s just our code. I always insist on another name as well, one that will help me identify them. I have more than one customer, you know.’ Now there was a little bravado returning.

‘How do you know this “Harry” is Harry Rourke?’

‘Because he’s careless. Most customers use withheld numbers, but he didn’t bother. I used 1571 and ring-back. When the
receptionist
answered she said, “Broadwood Construction”. I looked them up and found out their managing director’s name is Harry Rourke.’

Lisa switched the tape off. ‘Was he right? Is it Harry who’s been paying for the murders?’

‘Oh yes, it’s Harry all right.’ Marshall started to laugh.

Lisa stared at him curiously as the Dickinsons entered the kitchen. Shirley headed for the stove. ‘I’ll get some breakfast started. You two must be starving.’

When they’d eaten Lisa demanded, ‘Now, would you mind explaining?’

Marshall looked at his notes. ‘OK, I’ll tell you as much as I’ve been able to piece together.’ He tapped the papers. ‘A lot of it is gleaned from these. The rest is informed guesswork. There are still a few gaps.

‘A long time ago two men served together in the RAF. They became friends and when they left the service they kept in touch. One of them took over the running of the family business. A small building company, doing original works and some renovation. The other went to work for a much bigger concern. Somewhere along the line the two old comrades got together and hatched a plot that involved a huge risk, but would yield massive rewards.’

‘What sort of plot?’ Barry asked.

‘A fraud of gigantic proportions. If it had been discovered they would both have got long prison sentences. Set against that, the fraud must have earned them millions over the years. The small family business, which was called Corps Building Corporation, grew and prospered. It took on larger, more valuable contracts and began to tender for public works. As
it got bigger, the company name was changed to Coningsby Developments. The managing director, Julian Corps, became a well-known and respected figure in the industry.

‘Eventually Corps was approached to stand for parliament. He was offered the candidature of a safe seat that was coming up at a by-election.’ Marshall paused. ‘I gleaned the next bit of information when I was picking up at a shoot last month. Apparently, Corps has made such a good impression within his party that he’s already being talked of as a future leader.

‘All very laudable: except for one thing. What no one knew was that Corps hadn’t succeeded on his own merits. He succeeded because his company tendered for, and got, contracts due to influence exerted by the chairman of the local planning committee. Councillor Bob Jeffries. Who was, I have no doubt, well rewarded for his services.’

Marshall paused, ‘I remember Corps from my own time in the construction industry. He was a nonentity without much business ability. I actually convinced myself I’d got the wrong man. Either I’d got the name wrong or it was another bloke called Corps.’

‘So Corps wasn’t the leading light in the fraud?’ Lisa asked. ‘Shame about that, I was going to make a feeble joke about Corps producing corpses, but maybe I’d better not.’

Marshall groaned. ‘Definitely better not. In fact Corps was a non-starter compared to the man I’d worked for. Harry Rourke had more business acumen in his little finger than Corps had in his whole body. It just didn’t make sense that he could compete successfully with Rourke.

‘When I realized Corps was indeed the same man, my first thought was, how did he manage to find out which contracts were up for grabs? Let alone win them against such stiff
opposition
. Now I know the full story, winning them was easy. Councillor Jeffries saw to that. Finding them was just as easy, because Corps didn’t find them. He simply stole them. Or to be precise, his secret partner did. That alone wouldn’t have been enough. Corps needed somebody behind him, because he couldn’t think his way out of a paper bag, not in a business
sense that is. So there had to be another figure guiding him, a sleeping partner. But one who would have been ruined if his identity became known.

‘The need for secrecy was essential, but Corps’s benefactor also needed security. He needed paperwork that would ensure he could claim his just deserts. However, that agreement also had to be kept totally secret.’

Marshall stood up and began pacing round the room. ‘So they approached Stuart Moran, a junior partner in Hobbs and Hirst, and asked him to draw up an agreement to satisfy both needs. Moran came up with a deal that would ensure the eventual sale of Corps Building Corporation, later known as Coningsby Developments to a further company, Leconfield Holdings. Leconfield had two shareholders, each with a fifty per cent stake in the company. Because of the need for secrecy, Leconfield had to remain a dormant company until the time was right. That way the shareholders’ names never appeared. It didn’t have to file accounts. It just lay on the shelf gathering dust.’

Marshall’s pacing, Lisa noticed had become somewhat more agitated and she thought she knew why.

‘Unfortunately, Moran’s security wasn’t as tight as it should have been. Somehow, Anna got to know of the conspiracy and the name of the man behind it.’ Marshall paused again. ‘You’ll understand, I’m speculating here. Anna was a no-nonsense and confrontational sort of person. She also had a strict code of ethics. If I hadn’t been fed a load of lies about her, I might have guessed she would never have countenanced such wrongdoing.’

Marshall paused in his walking tour and rested his hands on the chair back. He leaned forward. ‘The irony is, that if anyone else in Hobbs and Hirst had seen that name it would have meant nothing to them, but because Anna was married to me she recognized it immediately. My bet is, she told Moran that unless the scam was finished and the agreement torn up, she’d tell me. They couldn’t risk that, and they certainly weren’t prepared to drop their lucrative scheme.’

He straightened up and began to wander again. ‘Killing Anna wasn’t enough. They needed to frame me for her murder, for two reasons. One was to get me out of the way so I wouldn’t ask awkward questions. Also, if the police were satisfied I’d killed her, they wouldn’t look for anyone else. From that moment the ground rules were laid. If anyone got in their way, they were disposed of. Originally, they were doing quite nicely stealing contracts from Broadwood, but that wasn’t enough. They weren’t getting the success their greed demanded. So they got Brown to organize a road accident involving the chairman of the planning committee. Once he was out of the way, they waited to see who was elected in his place. Step forward, Councillor Robert ‘Call me Bob’ Jeffries, long-time political hack, well and truly on their payroll. Once they had the chairman of the planning committee in their pocket, Coningsby Developments never looked back.

‘You might think they’d be satisfied with that, but their ambition was growing all the time, or was it their greed? They wanted the lot. The only way was to get rid of the opposition. That meant buying out Broadwood Construction. The only problem was that Broadwood is a very wealthy company. Going by what I’ve been reading in the press recently, my guess is they arranged a series of very expensive accidents to equipment they knew would be uninsured. The result was to reduce the value of Broadwood. Again I’m guessing, but I reckon that was only the first phase of their final push to get control.’

Marshall ceased his walkabout and sat down at the table. He took a mouthful of fresh coffee. ‘The vandalism was working well, but they needed more to push Rourke into selling. They launched a bid based on a ridiculously low offer price. A copy of the offer document is in the Coningsby Developments file at Hobbs and Hirst and I’d love to have heard Harry Rourke’s language when it landed on his desk.’ Marshall held the photocopied document up. ‘They wanted to push Harry into a position where he’d be forced to sell, even at their price. They were certain he’d reject the bid unless they could put him into a position where he’d no alternative.

‘The whole focus of the bid was based on an old tactic; one that had worked well before. They would remove Rourke by having him framed for murder. They had some murders to commit, they had Brown to commit them and they had the means to set Harry up for the role of fall guy. If you were able to trace the money back from Brown’s bank accounts my bet is you would find Brown was paid by Valley Services, a subsidiary of Coningsby, and by all appearances a company which has no obvious
raison
d’être
. My guess is that Valley Services invoiced Broadwood Construction for the amount of Brown’s fee. Their next step would have been to blow the whistle on Brown. When he was arrested, he’d tell everything he knew. As we’ve heard, that someone called Harry from Broadwood Construction had paid him to commit the murders. Harry Rourke would be arrested, Broadwood Construction would collapse and Coningsby Developments would buy it at their own price.’

‘If they decided to frame Rourke for the murders, why involve you?’ Shirley asked.

‘That was quite clever. They thought they could pin Moran’s murder on me. Make it look like revenge. Then have me killed and make it look like suicide. I might have saved them the trouble if I’d caught up with Moran before Lisa stopped me. Once Brown had served his purpose they’d throw him to the wolves. They were sure he’d confess and implicate Harry.

‘As I say, they already had a precedent to work from, it was the same as they used on me. Once Harry was out of the way they’d have a clear field, with a power base to tender for national contracts the like of which they’d only dreamed of. They’d be able to rely on influence from Westminster too; Julian Corps, MP, would see to that.’

‘But why kill Moran and Jeffries?’ Shirley asked.

‘Difficult to be sure, but I can guess. Moran had already had twinges of conscience. He funded my appeal. My guess would be that Councillor Jeffries was getting too greedy.’

‘I asked you if Harry was behind all this. I take it that isn’t true?’ Lisa asked.

‘Oh yes it is. Perfectly true.’ Marshall lifted some papers
from out of the file. ‘This is an agreement for the purchase of Coningsby Developments and all its subsidiaries by Leconfield Holdings.’ Marshall pointed to one of the documents. ‘And these, are the Memorandum and Articles of Association of Leconfield Holdings.

‘Leconfield Holdings has only got two shareholders, each with a fifty per cent stake in the company. One of the
shareholders
is Julian Corps and the other is his old RAF comrade, Frederick John Harrison. Harry Rourke’s trusted right hand man: Deputy managing director of Broadwood Construction. When he left the RAF and joined Broadwood he had to drop his old nickname because it was causing too much confusion: Freddie Harrison, previously known to one and all, as Harry.

‘He has to be the architect of the whole scheme. Left to his own devices Corps would have failed. He’s too lightweight. Freddie, by comparison, is the ideal candidate. A man in a
privileged
position able to pass tenders to Corps almost before the ink was dry. The man who is able to sign off invoices to Valley Services and probably even sign the cheques for, and on behalf of, Broadwood Construction. The man who will emerge from the shadows, as a fifty per cent shareholder in Leconfield Holdings, which would by then own both Coningsby Developments and Broadwood Construction. With Harrison running the group, and Corps using his Westminster influence, the rewards they’d previously achieved would pale into insignificance by
comparison
with what lies ahead.’

The silence was broken only by the ticking of the kitchen clock. Eventually Barry spoke. ‘Now you know. What will you do?’

Marshall shrugged. ‘I’m still thinking it over.’

‘Why not just take this evidence to the police?’ Barry asked. ‘Surely that’s the most sensible thing to do?’

‘It would be under normal circumstances. The problem is we don’t know how widespread the corruption is. For all we know they might have police officers on their payroll. So who do we trust?’ Marshall smiled. ‘Apart from Lisa.’

‘And DI Nash,’ Lisa reminded him.

Marshall looked at her for a second. ‘Yes, but how much would his word count for?’

‘Quite a lot I think. Why not ask him?’

‘I’ll think about it. Otherwise we’ll have to consider other ways of getting at the truth.’

Barry looked puzzled. ‘How can you be sure about Nash?’

Lisa explained, ‘Because he read something in Alan’s file, the one relating to the original conviction for murder. It was in a transcript of Alan’s first interview, just after his wife’s car had been found. During the course of questioning, Dundas accused Alan of slitting his wife’s throat and dumping her body in the North Sea.’