Tell Me - Ashe Barker Page 0,34

people. Once they got their little scam set up, they’d have milked it for all they could get. He had much to thank her for. He would see to that. Later.

“Tony, what’s been happening?” Isabel had leaned forward in her chair, demanding answers. Tony sighed. Where to start?

“Remember Mrs Richmond? The woman I wanted to headhunt from Kershaw’s?”

Isabel had nodded. “The one you managed to scare off?” There was a derisory note in his PA’s tone. She had been less than impressed on first meeting Thea. Tony could understand why, but it had rankled even so.

“That was a misunderstanding, and entirely my fault. I ran into Mrs Richmond over the weekend. We talked, and I managed to convince her to give us—me—another chance.” It was sort of the truth. Near enough. As near as he was going.

“Right, And…”

“And I briefed her on the problem areas, as I saw them. Finance and human resources. She agreed to have an initial look at our financial management processes and something caught her eye. She spotted a serious fraud going on. It involves Janet Benson and Shirley Reece, and David Lister.”

“But when? When did Mrs Richmond do all this?”

“Yesterday, mostly. We were here all day, and all night.”

“You were here all last night? Working? Why didn’t you call me? I’d have come in.”

Why indeed? The truth was, it had never occurred to him but he didn’t think his loyal PA for the last ten years, his right-hand woman, needed to hear that.

“I know you would. But there was no need. We just went through everything—well, Mrs Richmond did—and isolated the three culprits.”

“I see.” She offered him a smile, but it had a brittle quality about it. Tony resolved not to exclude her again. He needed Thea’s special skills to set his ailing company in order, but Isabel was invaluable too. She continued, her expression softening to a more thoughtful look. “I know Mr Lister of course, but the other two…”

“Janet works in Purchasing, Shirley in Dispatch. Or they did. They’re suspended right now and likely to stay that way. I need to alert the police and pass on Mrs Richmond’s findings. Do you want to sit in on that?” His last question had been a concession to Isabel’s wounded pride and a deliberate, if belated, attempt to involve her.

“Too right I bloody do. Christ, I can't believe this. Where’s Mrs Richmond now? Shouldn’t she be here? With the police, I mean…?”

“She was up all night checking our systems and working out what had been going on. She’s at home. In bed.”

“She must be exhausted. I’ll give her a ring later, see if she’s alright. I think I have her home number in a file somewhere.”

Tony had offered a tactful cough. No point in trying to explain to his PA why the formidable Mrs Richmond was at his home, asleep in his bed and not her own. Maybe another time.

“Can you find me a number for the fraud squad, please? I want to get this ball rolling. The sooner we report it and hand over this file, the sooner I can get what’s left of my finance team back to work.”

“Are you sure we need to involve the police? Surely we could deal with this in house.”

“That’s not what Mrs Richmond is advising, and this is her area of expertise.”

“I see. Well if that’s what Mrs Richmond says…” She shook her head in apparent disbelief. “David Lister—shit. By the way, he’s tried four times so far this morning to call you. Should I put him through next time?”

“No. He’s been hanging around all weekend, ever since I phoned him to say his department was being investigated. He was even waiting for us when we left here at seven o’clock this morning. He was pretty agitated. I’ve said all I’m going to as far as he’s concerned. He can discuss it with the police.”

“Right. Talking of which, I’ll get you that number.”

Three hours later Tony leaned back in his chair and stretched.

Christ, what a day. The police had left, Thea’s file tucked under the inspector’s arm. Inspector Collywood seemed impressed though, and did at least understand the data she had printed off. So did Tony, after a fashion, but the fine detail escaped him as it always did. He lacked the patience to drill down into it, preferring to rely on Thea and now the police specialist fraud investigators. They intended to interview Thea, and following that they would talk to the three suspects. Inspector Collywood