‘Maud has a certain idea, Leo,’ Harpur replied.
‘That’s another kind of item they’re interested in - ideas,’ Leo said. ‘An idea can lead to a trend, and the other way about.’
‘Maud believes that one of the drugs outfits had a business arrangement with some police, and that’s why Mallen and the journalist probably got it - they’d started looking for evidence of this alliance, perhaps discovered some early fragments,’ Harpur said.
‘That’s an idea, but a terrible, evil idea,’ Leo said. ‘This would probably mean police corruption.’
‘Yes, most probably it would,’ Iles replied.
‘People who should be looking after the law would be rubbishing it,’ Leo said.
‘That exactly,’ Iles said.
‘We wondered, Leo, if you’d heard anything around the business community of this kind of abuse,’ Harpur said.
Emily put down her cup with a hard smack on the wood floor. ‘How would Leo hear something of that sort?’ she asked. ‘You’re talking about drug-dealing businesses, aren’t you? What would Leo have to do with them?’
Although it was said in an attack-defence voice, Harpur thought it sounded again, not like someone trying to kill off the topic with a question that suggested what he’d said was too ridiculous to need an answer, but a wife asking for real insights about her husband’s business - though at the same time scared of those possible insights, and wanting to correct them, bury them.
‘There are often ripples of gossip, rumour, speculation about these criminal firms which reach out even as far as eminently straight businesses such as, for instance, Leo’s,’ Iles said.
‘Rumours of what kind?’ she said. ‘And I thought the police didn’t deal in gossip, rumour and speculation. I understood you wanted hard evidence.’
‘One reason it’s called hard evidence is it’s sometimes hard to find,’ Iles replied. ‘Gossip, rumour, speculation can offer a starting point.’
‘None of this - the rumour and so on - has reached any of my companies,’ Leo said. ‘I’m sure such material would have been passed on to me if it had come to them.’
‘Maud has a detailed scenario of how this corrupt scheme would be organized,’ Iles said.
‘But, obviously, this is only what we been discussing just now - one of them ideas. Yes? A scenario would be like an idea, wouldn’t it?’ Leo said. ‘Scenarios are Hollywood. This is not fact or the arrests would already of been made. This is imagination. It might be clever imagination, which is what we’d expect from people in London doing that kind of flashy desk job. But it’s still only imagination.’
‘Maud sees it this way,’ Iles replied. ‘The management board of one of these criminal firms takes a decision to recruit some officers from the local force on to the staff in a “facilitator” role. The facilitating would be to do mainly with making things easier and safer for the firm’s pushers. The board’s street people, or disco or rave people, should be able to advise which officers looked likely and could be approached and talked terms with. Maybe some had already been taking sweeteners as payment for blind-eyeing. That would be on a small scale, though. This new arrangement would be more substantial and solid. Officers might be offered a salaried position, possibly pensionable, or be paid on a fee-per-task basis, non-pensionable. The choice would be theirs. An officer with dependants might prefer the long-term benefits of settled salary and pension. Their pension from the firm would, of course, be in addition to the fine police pension and lump-sum upon retirement after thirty years’ good service, so Maud says some would regard this as an excellent double career path, and double income after ceasing work. But other officers might prefer the alternative of large, ad hoc fees as and when, and eventually rely on the police pension only.
‘Anyway, whichever form their appointment takes, once they have received any part of it they’re caught. They have to continue. They’ve become elements in a system, and the system can function properly only if all its elements are in place and operating efficiently. If they try to get out they’re in danger of execution because the firm, and the officers who stay on, will fear the renegade might blow the whistle. He or she must be silenced. The renegade’s family would also be in peril. There are very powerful pressures and, on the other hand, inducements to stay with a firm.
‘Inducements? Yes, some very positive aspects exist. For instance, Maud says most firms of any size hold substantial reserve and contingency funds. These would cover such expenditure as (one) private health and anti-addiction treatment in the Betty Ford-style clinic for any member of the firm who becomes an uncontrolled user of company products. This is particularly relevant to police members because symptoms of junkiedom in an officer could lead to very prejudicial inquiries as to commodity source, and, therefore, a possible link to the firm.
‘(Two) Organizations will keep a comparatively large amount of cash ready to subsidize families when someone on company business is arrested and jailed, leaving the household potentially destitute. All worthwhile firms recognize a responsibility in such cases and are ready to cough up: “Sustenance Subsidies”, as this support is known. The convicted member of the firm will be aware, naturally, that such support terminates if he/she talks to the police. And there might be other reprisals, including, possibly, against children.’
‘Monstrous,’ Emily said.
‘Disgusting,’ Leo said.
‘Thus, the Jaminel buttoned lips,’ Iles replied. ‘He could tell us so much. But the risk for him is too severe. Others, similar.’
‘My God, it’s awful,’ Emily said.
‘Terrible,’ Leo said.
‘So, what duties for the firm would the bought officers be expected to provide?’ Iles replied. ‘Maud proposes (one) to forewarn of any planned special anti-drugs drive by the police, and its locality - city district or club or pub; (two) to allow trading by the firm without interference in those areas where the officers supposedly represent law and order; (three) to move heavily and often against competing drugs firms through prosecutions, with tactfully planted material if required; (four) to act sometimes as secure couriers, taking supplies to nominated pushers.’
As far as Harpur knew, Maud had never spoken in such precise, exhaustive terms about that kind of crooked career scene. This would be a commercial profile created entirely by Iles himself and, as would be expected from him, brilliantly thorough and probable. But to present it as his own thinking could scare Leo too much and make him clam up. Iles must be hoping that, as long as Leo stayed sociable and wordy he might - just might - accidentally reveal something which could be followed up, worked on, developed. By attributing the ideas to Maud he allowed Leo to regard them as just that - London ideas, a scenario, imagination, part of Whitehall’s obsessive, high-falutin’, woolly search for trends. He could remain reasonably relaxed and devious.
‘I expect you find all this a trifle out of proportion, Mrs Young,’ Iles said.
‘What out of proportion?’ she said.
‘One bad moment at a house on the Elms, and then all this subsequent activity and turmoil. There’s a danger the house might take on a kind of symbolic status,’ Iles said.
‘That’s absurd,’ she replied. ‘It’s a house, a part-finished house, I gather. Nothing more.’
‘Yes, you’re right, I expect,’ Iles said. ‘I’ve been there myself. It’s as you say - a stalled bit of building. I imagine the same depressing symptoms are on view all over the country.’
‘Emily’s not at all interested in that kind of grim spot,’ Leo said.
‘I’m sure she’s not,’ Iles said.
‘Museums - that’s Em,’ Young said with a terrific pride-throb. ‘Ancient caves and cottages, not half-done modern villas. Her colleagues, who are themselves much qualified in the historic and really historic stuff, think so high of Em that she’s the chairperson, meaning she has knowledge of all sorts - spinning jennies, crossbows, flints, millstones. You show her a millstone and she’ll tell you the centu
ry straight off, by looking at it, not Googling. It’s in her head. Same with ink and paper. She can tell their age. She would never of been fooled by them Hitler diaries, so called, conning top editors here and in Germany. Em would of said right at the beginning, “Them notebooks are not the sort of notebooks that was around in Adolf’s time.”’
‘How do you get on with the car, Mrs Young?’ Iles replied.
‘Car?’ she said.
Iles pointed through the window at the Mini Cooper. ‘I think that’s yours, isn’t it?’ Iles said.
‘It’s fine. What’s that to do with anything?’ she said.
‘Good,’ Iles said. ‘Maud sees a pattern in these corruption schemes,’ Iles said. ‘The basic organizational and financial factors are constant from case to case. (One) Obviously, all payments to officers, whether as salary or fees, are in cash with twenties the highest denomination. No fifties: they draw attention. Also there is an acute forgery risk. If a fifty was identified as dud there’d be no knowing where the inquiries might go. (Two) Sales in a notorious drug-dealing street, disco, club or rave must take place with maximum speed and discretion. Pushers from other firms might be nearby and spot such transactions. They’d possibly do some of that anonymous broadcasting of hostile information you spoke of, Leo, aimed at hurting, even dismantling, the competition. (Three) Payments should not be banked or placed in a building society, or share-invested, or used to upgrade housing in this country. All such displays of wealth could excite curiosity. Private schooling expenses are reasonably OK. Likewise university. Properties abroad in slump countries - Greece, Spain, Portugal - might also escape notice, and, incidentally, should be cheap.
‘Maud thinks new car purchase has to be allowed, because it would probably take place even if forbidden. People are sort of conditioned: a windfall equals a better model. But the need for some moderation would be stressed - no Porsche, no Bentley. The money probably wouldn’t run to that level anyway. (Four) Bonus provision: officers on a salary and pension from the firm could be granted an extra one-off payment for some especially useful piece of cooperation, say, getting another firm’s chief executive sent down for at least ten years. Officers enjoying the other reward system - fees as and when - could receive an especially raised extra in the same circumstances, possibly doubling or trebling the customary amount.’
‘But why are you telling us this?’ Emily said.
Once more, Harpur reckoned it not a reproach but a request for guidance on how it could affect her and Leo.
‘I thought it might interest you to know the kind of sophisticated operation Harpur and I - and, of course, Maud Clatworthy - are up against,’ Iles said.
‘I think I see what Mr Iles is getting at. He’s talking about a very tricky task, Em,’ Young said. ‘He would appreciate help with it - help from you and me as responsible, alert citizens, committed to aiding the community in every way possible. All citizens have such a responsibility, it’s true, but us maybe more than most, owing to distinction in that community, such as the museum committee and the property here. This help will definitely not be easy, but I have already said we would provide all of it that we can. I stand by this, Mr Iles, Mr Harpur.’
‘Thanks, Leo,’ Iles replied.
‘Are you saying the Maud woman is responsible on her own for this grand survey of corrupt forces?’ Emily asked.
‘Who else?’ Iles said.
‘Well, yes,’ she replied.
As Harpur had suspected all along, Emily Young’s acumen didn’t stop at putting a date on old millstones. She and Leo came to the front door with Iles and Harpur when they left. Iles went and had a close-up look at the Mini Cooper. ‘Lovely little vehicle,’ he said. He peered at the windscreen. ‘And it’s all right, Col, you needn’t fret. It’s licensed until March.’ He turned with a kindly chuckle towards Emily and Leo. ‘Show Col a vehicle he’s not familiar with and he has to check the road tax disc. It’s a sort of twitch picked up when he was in the Traffic Division.’
TWENTY-FOUR
When Harpur and Iles had gone, Emily did what she termed ‘a bit of mulling’ over things said in the drawing room get-together just now. Or, to use another term, she tried to ‘deconstruct’ some of the talk. She’d heard this word used a couple of times by a local, undiffident Eng Lit prof on the museum committee. As far as she could make out, it involved searching for all the possible meanings hidden in what had seemed at first sight a simple, clear statement, spoken or written. Most likely you always had to do that for anything said by the police.
She returned to the drawing room and squeezed another half cup of tea from the pot. Leo went to look at repairs being done on one of the outhouses. She felt he wanted to salvage some of his aura and calm. He must have exhausted himself concocting so much likeability for Iles and Harpur. Inspecting the stonework he’d be reminded he was Leo Young of Midhurst, a property with grounds and outhouses, one of them converted to take an indoor heated swimming pool; another stabling the family’s horses. He was all backbone and reliability, wasn’t he? Well, wasn’t he one of those responsible, alert citizens keen to aid the community, whom he’d mentioned with a true boom to his voice when promising help to those dangerous visitors?
She’d asked Iles why he said so many of the ideas and analyses came from Maud - ‘Maud says this’, ‘Maud says that’. He hadn’t really explained though. Nowhere near explained. But she thought she could possibly see an answer. He wanted to keep Leo relaxed and ready to chat. If Iles had said, ‘This is what I believe, Leo,’ or ‘This is what Harpur believes,’ it would show they’d been really doing a hard scrutiny of Leo’s companies and that could scare him, make him super-cautious. She felt Iles wanted plenty of friendly discussion so he and Harpur could fix on some of it and find what they wanted to find there. If Iles successfully pretended it was London Maud who’d been doing the thinking, she’d get blamed for all the long-distance nosiness and dirty hints, and Iles and Harpur could go on being chummy, encouraging the wordy word flow, not always grammatical, but that wouldn’t bother Leo. God, all the chunter about ‘trends’ and ‘scenario’ and ‘appropriate’!
And there were dirty hints, weren’t there? What was it Maud said about the corrupt get-together of police and dealers - according to Iles? Something like, ‘She thinks one of the drugs firms has a business alliance with police officers, and that’s why Mallen and the journalist had to die. They’d been poking about and had started to get somewhere.’
Why tell Leo about this supposed theory of Maud’s? That’s what Emily meant by dirty hints. But maybe ‘hints’ was a feeble word for these tactics, though ‘dirty’ would do. Emily felt a disgustingly blatant suggestion had been made - that the firm Maud and/or Iles and Harpur meant was Leo’s firm. Iles had spoken of Jaminel’s silence, enforced by the need to keep the family support cash coming from its shady source while he remained locked up; and by terror of what might happen to him even in jail, if he coughed all to detectives. Was Iles saying, without actually saying, that he thought Leo provided the hush handouts, and the terror? Did Harpur and Iles want to see how Leo reacted to difficult parts of the signal from Maud; allegedly from Maud?
Might they even have wanted to see how Emily reacted? Well, she’d asked for more information, hadn’t she? That had been her main response. She’d questioned how Leo, the eternally straight businessman, could possibly have heard about a crooked pact between a drugs baron and some police. She’d wondered aloud why Iles was telling them about all this organizational stuff. And, of course, she’d let them know that the tricky way Iles had presented all this material hadn’t worked. Her last query had been along the lines of: ‘Are you really telling us that Maud of Whitehall produced this great slab of analysis on her own?’ Iles had replied, ‘Who else?’ And she’d said: ‘Well, yes.’ Enigmatic Em! Ironic Em! But he’d pick up, wouldn’t he, that she thought the frank answer to his ‘Who else?’ was ‘Iles’ or ‘Iles and Harpur’. They weren’t the only ones able to get subtle and obliq
ue.
But, yes, those two, Iles and Harpur, could also do some. They’d wonder what lurked behind her questions and occasional bits of near enmity. Emily knew what lurked behind, naturally. It was the half-belief, the fear, the dread, that the firm Maud suspected of a crooked partnership with police officers really was Leo’s firm. Or, to put it more accurately, Harpur and Iles suspected this, but for tact and trap reasons, and to lull Leo, they spoke as if they were only messengers from Maud, bringing her ‘ideas’ and ‘imaginings’.
Now and then during the meeting with those two she’d allowed some of her deeper anxieties to show themselves. She’d accused Iles of talking ‘bullshit’ when he claimed that placing an undercover officer in a firm - in Leo’s firm - was a neutral ploy, with no presumption of guilt. She’d called it ‘a judgemental act’, and she believed she had that right. Police put someone in undercover, with all the risks and rigmarole that meant, only when they felt sure the undercover officer, by persistence, clever duplicity, crafty integration, luck, would find something criminal that could be brought to trial.
Despite such moments of aggression from her, though, would they have sensed she was agonizingly uncertain about Leo’s business life and that the uncertainty had begun to deepen? It had shaken her when Iles spoke about the possible symbolic status of the house on Elms. She’d dismissed that notion as flimflam, but, of course, it was exactly the notion that had taken her there the other night. She’d wanted reassurance that it was just a part-finished house, nothing mystical or fantastic. And she’d wanted the reassurance because at times she had stupidly, childishly, come to regard the house as something more than itself: something radiating an evil, lingering, perilous influence which might one day bring Leo down - Leo and therefore herself. Today, the appalling suspicion had come that Iles somehow knew she had been down to Elms and the house, and was teasing her. Could he even have guessed Emily’s motive - the acute longing to dispel her doubts about Leo? But that had to be impossible, didn’t it? Didn’t it? Iles might be brilliant, but he wasn’t psychic.