He’d stared at her, incredulous that the arm of hidden violence from an unknown source could reach as far as the peaceful Lake District.
She stopped short of telling him her true theory, thinking it’d be too much for him. Sometimes being awake to something awful wasn’t designed to be shared with everyone. She must choose her moments carefully to announce what she suspected. But that provided her with another problem, because she was unsure exactly where the threat originated. She had no doubt it was connected to the warning she’d had from HQ, but exactly who she was dealing with was a mystery, and she hated surprises. But there was no doubt in her mind that whoever it was would lead back to Hampton-Dent.
Emma had been stalked back to her home and pushed over. Ted had been badly hurt and could have been killed. And shehad been invaded. None of it was coincidence. Serendipity and policework did not get along. Chance was a children’s game. Providence wasn’t on hand to intervene in a murder case to make it fit neatly with a whole other agenda, which just so happened to be primarily about financial profit.
And Emma and her baby had been put in danger. Dan had almost gone out of his mind with rage, and their joy, along with the euphoria surrounding it, had been ruined by thugs. Kelly was mad.
There was nothing quite like injustice to get Kelly’s back up and her mind wandered to when she’d first worked in London as a newly qualified detective in Bethnal Green CID. Her dream had been to work in a murder squad, thinking it noble and virtuous. If she’d known then what she knew now, after too many respectable people had let her down from within the service, would she have seen it through? Would she still choose the same career path?
She didn’t know.
After some routine treatment for shock, Ted had marched out of the hospital with his head high, and his arm in a temporary cast, thanking all the staff and insisting they treat people who were seriously in need of their help.
In the car, he’d been silent, and she’d allowed him to disappear inside his thoughts. Until they reached her house. Johnny had greeted him with open arms, and Ted had snuck upstairs to give his granddaughter a kiss.
Lizzie had slept through the whole thing.
They’d stayed up all night, the three of them, drinking strong coffee – and Ted and Johnny something a little stronger – trying to figure out who’d sent the heavies.
They kept coming back to the money trail. Her original plan of keeping Ted out of it had hit the wayside straight away and he was ahead of her the whole time.
‘People only protect one thing like that,’ Johnny said. He’d experienced corruption on a biblical scale in Africa and inside the Pentagon during a stint there on an MOD secondment. And it all led back to money, every single time.
‘Tax dollars pay for foreign aid from the USA and Europe, and it’s funnelled through non-government organisations and industry contracts, then the top is skimmed off and cleaned and sent back to handlers in the origin country. Politicians, CEOs of Big Pharma and civil servants looking the other way all get rich. You disturb this gravy train at your peril,’ Johhny announced. ‘Hampton-Dent are not to be messed with.’
Ted and Kelly had stared at each other. All they were trying to do was solve a few murders in one of the quietest and loveliest parts of the national park. They didn’t ask to take on the world; the world had come to them, suddenly, brazenly, and unannounced.
‘It all seems very dramatic,’ Ted said.
‘Which is why nobody ever believes it’s what goes on, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes, Ted. I know people who’ve been hurt trying to spill industry secrets, but the media is in on it too, because they’re owned by the same people.’
‘My head hurts,’ Ted said.
‘You need to rest, Dad, you’ve had a nasty bang, and the lady said you hit the ground hard. You should have stayed in hospital.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I mean my head hurts because of what Johnny said, not because I banged my head. It hurts because of the badness in the world, going on out there, all the time while good people just try to do the right thing.’
It was a grand statement and one that neither Johnny nor Kelly could disagree with.
They’d watched the sun come up behind Pooley Bridge and the orange welcome kiss the lake. Only then had Kelly become tired as her adrenaline dipped.
Then she’d taken a nap, but now it was time to get to work and rally the team.
The thing was, she didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t want to alarm anyone further.
But equally she didn’t want to go back to HQ and tell Del Booker what she knew. He’d clearly been warned by somebody higher up, so he already had an inkling of corruption, but would he believe the extent of it? Perhaps she was being naïve and he knew more than she did all along.
She must figure this out on her own. Her priority was keeping her team and her family safe, and she’d already arranged for squad cars to sit outside the addresses of her team.
Johnny would stay the weekend in her house, and Ted had agreed to stay there too.
A quick shower had freshened her up and woken her sleepy brain, but a weariness sat on her shoulders. She had an overwhelming desire to speak to Joe Folly and she wished she’d arrested him on Thursday when she had the chance. But what crime had he committed?
This was just the type of thing he warned about. His lack of social footprint, his vigilance, and his wild theories all seemed to be coming to fruition right here in the tiny Lake District.
Which led her to her original question. Why here? Why had a huge multinational billion-dollar company chosen the shores of Rydal Water to hold a conference that stood to make them crazy profits?
