Mickey was relieved that he and Anni hadn’t had sex in the office.
They had both been seriously tempted, but common sense had eventually prevailed. They had kept working on the task before them, just giving occasional suggestive hints, quick, surreptitious strokes of arms and thighs, tantalising little promises of what they could expect from each other later.
They had focused, gone to work. Pulled out everything they could find about Michael and Dee Sloane, their company and their lives.
‘Right,’ said Mickey, leaning back from the screen and rubbing his eyes, putting together what they had found out so far. ‘Graham Watts … ’
‘The dead guy from the house in Jaywick,’ said Anni, sitting on the edge of the desk, swinging her legs back and forth and eating a packet of vending machine crisps. ‘First on the scene to find the bodies that Stuart Sloane was supposed to have killed.’
‘Yep. Now. Jeffrey Hibbert.’
‘The victim in the murder case Calamity Jane’s working on.’
‘Very funny. Hibbert and Watts used to work together. For the Sloanes.’
Anni kept listening. Mickey checked the screen, his notes on the desk. ‘They were both high up,’ he said. ‘Started as workers, went on to be gangmasters on the farms, did their own recruitment, hiring and firing, all that.’
‘Farms,’ said Anni through a mouthful of crisps.
‘What?’
‘You said farms. Plural.’
Mickey leaned forward, helped himself to a crisp.
‘Oi!’
‘Thanks.’ He continued. ‘Salt and vinegar. Not my favourite.’
‘I’ll remember that in future. Always get them. Stop you from nicking them.’
‘Anyway, yes. Farms plural. After the death of their parents, the Sloane siblings diversified the portfolio, you might say. It was like they were just waiting for their father’s death to take over the family business and get it going. They started speculating. Bought up shares in the industrial farms that were emerging in Europe at the time. Worked those shares up to controlling interests in most cases.’
‘Industrial farming? Lovely.’
Mickey nodded. ‘Saw a documentary on it once. Horrible. Almost put me off eating meat.’
‘Almost. Carry on.’
‘Right. The Sloanes diversified. Import–export, taking control of the supply chain. The works. Eventually they sold their farm, set up an umbrella company, Sloane Holdings.’
‘So where do Hibbert and Watts come into this?’ asked Anni.
‘Glad you asked. Apparently, according to the official version put out by the Sloanes, Graham Watts didn’t like the direction the company was taking and voiced his displeasure. As a result, he was kicked out. And since Hibbert was a close friend, he got the chop too.’ Mickey stole another crisp.
‘Stop it!’
‘Not bad, actually. Could get used to them. Anyway, they were both kicked out. But they made a fuss. Started mouthing off: they knew where the bodies were buried, were going to ruin the Sloanes, yada yada, blah blah.’
‘The usual stuff.’
‘Yep. But the thing was, their version contradicted the Sloanes’. Watts and Hibbert said it wasn’t about the expansion of the business. They were more than happy with that, it made them more money.’
‘What then?’
‘The Sloanes themselves.’
‘In what way?’
‘Well … ’ Mickey looked at the screen once more. ‘Michael Sloane made a full recovery after the shooting. His wounds weren’t that serious. But Dee Sloane, the sister, wasn’t so lucky. She had to keep going abroad for treatment. Expensive treatment. Word was she wasn’t quite right in the head. Needed mental as well as physical treatment.’
‘Not surprised after what she’d been through.’
‘No. And apparently she was never the same afterwards. Had to live as a recluse. But I’ve found something else, too. Some kind of weird sex parties.’
Anni smiled. ‘How weird?’
‘Get your mind out of the gutter, Hepburn. I don’t know. But Watts and Hibbert alluded to them. In fact they were supposed to have been part of them. Rumour was that Watts and Dee Sloane had something going and the brother didn’t like it. Then something else happened. Remember that case a few years ago? Dead cockle pickers at Wrabness?’
‘Yeah. Migrant workers. Left out when the tide came in. Big court case.’
‘Yeah, huge. And it was the Sloanes. It could have broken them. But they got away with it.’
‘Witnesses retracted their stories, a couple even disappeared. No evidence of negligence. Death by misadventure. The Sloanes got off as lightly as possible. They started to diversify their business interests shortly after that.’
Anni screwed up her crisp packet, threw it in the bin. ‘Not people to mess with.’
‘Nope. And apparently a few of their business rivals have disappeared after dealing with them too.’
‘You mean gone out of business?’
‘No. I mean disappeared. Without a trace. Investigations took place … ’ He shrugged. ‘Nothing. Like they’d vanished off the face of the earth. Sloanes completely untouchable.’
‘Jesus. So where does Stuart Sloane fit in? Is he after revenge too?’
‘God knows.’ Mickey took his phone out. ‘I’ll give Jessie a call. She might have discovered something. She’s been working this case too.’
‘Don’t you think she would have contacted us if she had?’
‘Maybe.’ Mickey smiled. ‘Maybe she’s scared of you. Doesn’t want to call in case you answer.’
‘Maybe she fancies me,’ said Anni.
‘Maybe.’
‘And you can take that look off your face as well, Philips,’ she said, laughing.
Mickey dialled the number.