Майкл Ридпат - Fatal Error

I drank three-quarters of a bottle of wine and went to bed. Some time in the small hours of the morning I went to sleep.

I managed to get into work early the next morning. I told the team. There was shock but also relief. Although Ninetyminutes’ future was uncertain, things looked better than they had twenty-four hours earlier.

Ingrid didn’t come in. Neither did Owen or Guy. I tried their home numbers but without success. But in the middle of the morning the police arrived in the form of Detective Sergeant Spedding.

‘Is there anywhere we can talk?’ he asked.

I showed him into the boardroom, the room that had been the scene of that acrimonious meeting only three days before. He sat opposite me and pulled out a notebook. He was about my age, with red hair, scattered freckles and an open, friendly face.

‘So this is one of those dot-com companies I’ve been reading about?’ he said, looking through the glass wall of the boardroom at the jumble of computers and young men and women.

‘Doesn’t look like much, does it?’

‘A mate of mine at the station said he’s had a look at your website. Says it’s very good.’

‘Thank you. Do you follow football?’

‘Bristol Rovers.’ I thought I’d detected a slight West Country burr. ‘I’ve been thinking about hooking up to the Internet at home, now you can sign up for free. Do you cover Rovers?’

‘Not yet. We just do the Premier League at the moment. But we hope to get on to the other divisions by the end of this season.’

‘Well, when I do sign up I’ll take a look myself.’ He glanced out at the office again. There was some bustle, but it was more lethargic than usual. ‘Must be a difficult day for you.’

With the Chairman killed and the Chief Executive gone missing he could say that again. ‘Do you think Tony Jourdan was run down deliberately?’ I asked.

‘It’s a possibility we have to consider. I know you gave a statement to my colleagues last night, but I’d like to ask you some more questions.’

‘Fire away.’

‘I understand that there was some conflict between Tony Jourdan and his son relating to this company?’

‘Yes. Although Guy founded Ninetyminutes, Tony was the biggest shareholder. There was a board meeting on Monday and they had a major disagreement over strategy. Tony wanted us to go into the pornography business and Guy refused. So Guy resigned.’

The policeman asked me plenty more questions about Guy, his father and Ninetyminutes, all of which I answered as honestly as possible. Then he asked me to go over my conversation with Tony at his flat the night before. He took careful notes.

‘In your statement last night you mentioned seeing a car waiting outside Mr Jourdan’s flat,’ he said. ‘Can you tell me a bit more about it?’

‘I don’t know. I’ll try.’

‘Do you remember what model it was?’

‘No,’ I replied immediately.

‘Are you quite sure? Think.’

Spedding was sitting back in his chair calmly, confident that I would be able to come up with something. So I closed my eyes, trying to picture the street sign and the vehicle in front of it.

‘Wait a minute. Yeah. It was some kind of hatchback. Oldish. A Golf. Something like that.’

‘Colour?’

‘Don’t know. Darkish. Black? Blue, maybe. No, it was black.’

‘I know you said you couldn’t remember the number plate. But can you remember part of the registration? The year prefix, perhaps?’

‘Yes. Yes, I can. N. It was N.’

‘Well done. What about the driver? Can you give even a vague description?’

‘I don’t know. I couldn’t see him clearly and I really wasn’t focusing on him.’

‘But he was male? White? Black? Young? Old?’

‘I see. Yeah, he was male. White. Wearing some kind of jacket. But no tie. Dark hair thinning a bit. Over thirty. Under fifty. That’s about the best I can do.’

‘Would you recognize him again if you saw him?’

‘Maybe. Maybe not.’

‘Could it have been anyone you know?’

‘No. Definitely not. At least, not anyone I know well.’

‘Are you quite sure you can’t remember anything more about him?’

The policeman’s friendly face encouraged me to be helpful. But there was not much more I could say. ‘I’m sorry. I know this is important and I wish I’d been more observant, but I had other things on my mind. Frankly, if the car hadn’t been obscuring the street name I wouldn’t have seen the man at all.’

Spedding nodded. He pulled out a sheet of paper, which was a diagram of the street. ‘Can you show me where the vehicle was parked?’

I placed an ‘X’ on the spot.

‘You say you heard the car start up. When was that?’

‘It was when Ingrid and I were walking round this corner here ,’ I pointed to the diagram. ‘And Tony was coming out of his house here .’

‘Did you see it pull off?’

‘No. But once we were round the corner, I heard the engine rev up and then the thud and the scream. But by the time I’d run back to the street the car had gone.’

‘Well, we’re looking for it now. Our best hope is if we can find another witness.’

‘So you think it was intentional?’

‘I suppose there’s a chance it could have been an accident and the driver drove off — a hit and run. But on such a quiet narrow street it seems unlikely. I have one more thing to ask you. Do you mind if we examine your own vehicle?’

‘What for? It was outside my flat in Notting Hill at the time. Ingrid and I went by tube straight from work.’

‘Of course. But it will be useful to eliminate it from our enquiries. I’m sure you understand.’ I handed him the keys, told him where it was parked, and he left.

Very little work was done by anyone that day. Ingrid arrived about lunch-time, looking pale. And in the afternoon Mel rang.

‘Have you heard what’s happened?’ I asked her.

‘Guy called me an hour ago. He’s in Savile Row police station. He asked me to get him a lawyer.’

‘Christ! Do the police think he killed Tony?’

‘It’s not clear yet. But he’s obviously a suspect. He decided to do the smart thing and not talk to them without a lawyer. I’ve got hold of a good one who should be with him now.’

‘A detective came round here this morning. He was asking about Guy’s relationship with Tony. I’m afraid I told him.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Mel said. ‘They’d have found out soon enough. That’s not the kind of thing you can hide. If you had tried it would just have made them suspicious.’

‘Will he be OK?’

‘I’m sure he will. Unless they’ve got convincing evidence against him they’ll have to release him.’

‘Isn’t it terrible?’ I said. ‘About Tony.’

‘Yes,’ said Mel. ‘Although quite frankly I never really liked that man, as you well know.’

There was an awkward silence as I searched for a response to Mel’s honesty. I couldn’t quite admit out loud that I agreed with her. ‘Well, let me know if I can be of any help,’ I said eventually. ‘And tell Guy to call me when he gets out.’

‘All right.’

He did get out. He came straight to the office. It was eight o’clock and most people had gone home. He looked a wreck. Pale face, dark circles around his unsteady eyes.

‘So they let you go?’ I said.

‘Yes. Mel got me a good lawyer. The police were getting quite aggressive with me about my relationship with Dad. I just thought it made sense to ask for one. They don’t have any evidence against me, but they sure as hell are suspicious.’

‘Did you put them off?’

‘Yeah. They asked me where I was last night. Fortunately I was out drinking with Owen in a pub in Camden. I think they’ll be able to check up on that, so I should be OK.’