Back at Eden House, Kelly held a late afternoon briefing. It was five o’clock already and they didn’t have a distinct lead or a suspect yet. Apart from Mercedes man, Kevin Streeting, who was, as yet, off limits thanks to the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the USA.
It stank.
‘I followed the money trail,’ Kate explained. ‘Dan got me going on a software program Rob developed.’
Rob Shawcross had been their numbers man. Dan had big shoes to fill, and they all felt Rob’s absence keenly when they had a fraud case or a money trail like this to follow. Rob crunched numbers for breakfast, and they missed him dreadfully. His legacy was sitting inside the office and his software program, which they’d affectionately named the Shawcross Redemption, and it had helped to crack several cases since Rob’s untimely death.
They sat around the incident room table and even with all the windows open and a couple of old fans whirring, they were melting in the heatwave.
‘Hampton-Dent have been involved in a few very public and messy takeover moves,’ Kate said.
She’d been digging into the VIPs at Hampton-Dent all day.
It had been a long one and Kelly was looking forward to seeing her daughter and her father. Ted grounded her after work pulled her in every direction and she lost herself to the grim realities of the horrible things humans did to one another. Lizzie distracted her like only babies can, with mindless chatter that soothed the soul. Her sudden haze of sentimentality caught her off guard and reminded her of when she was pregnant with Lizzie. Maybeit was the proximity to Emma and her growing bump that was having an effect on her. Or the loss of Angelina’s child.
‘There was one in particular that stood out. The CEO of Dent-Whalley bid to take over the Hampton corporation back in 2015 for – get this – seven billion dollars.’
‘Holy shit,’ Emma said.
‘Who was the CEO of Dent-Whalley back then?’
‘Tilda Dent.’
‘Shit, she’d only have been thirty?’
‘And the company being taken over, who was that run by? Who were the negotiations with?’
‘Hank Hampton, what a name,’ Kate said.
‘Yeah, he’s all-American, for sure. They were both at the conference with their entourage of bodyguards. They’re staying at Dow Bank House not far from Grasmere, as if nothing has happened,’ Kelly said.
‘Wow, I know that place; I thought it was private?’ Kate asked.
‘It is; it’s owned by Hampton-Dent. They use it for meetings when they’re in the UK. Aren’t we lucky? So, there’s bad blood between them?’
‘I’ll say. Hank Hampton lost his family fortune. His family lost virtually everything and even though the takeover saved his name, it can’t have been easy to go and work for the company that waltzed in to pick up the pieces.’
‘Right, so Hampton is beholden to Dent. So what?’ Dan asked.
‘I’m coming to that. Part of the takeover was FairGro. It was purchased the year previously and it was the biggest point of contention between the two. It’s their main pharmaceutical arm and negotiations took six months.’
‘Wait a minute, I’m sure I read FairGro was taken over a couple of years ago, and it was owned by Jamie Robbins; that’s why he was so wedded to the company.’
‘No, my information is that it was taken over ten years ago. I have the documents here in front of me,’ Kate said.
Kelly was confused. ‘So, according to your information, FairGro was owned by Hank Hampton?’
‘Yes.’
‘So back in 2015, Jamie Robbins was nineteen years old. He had nothing to do with FairGro or Hank Hampton. OK, so why is this important?’ Kelly asked.
‘Well, this is where it got me stumped, so I dragged Dan in to help. Dan found eleven different companies, all separate, all called FairGro.’
Dan mimicked a seated bow.
‘So, every time they redevelop, they do it under the same name, but they are really different companies?’ Kelly asked.
‘Yes,’ Dan said.
