‘Christ, what a bloody mess.’ Stuart Jennings was sitting behind his desk, slowly rubbing his temples as though to soothe a headache. Annie guessed that the headache was largely metaphorical.
‘It could have been a lot worse,’ she pointed out. ‘You could have a dead MP on your watch.’
He nodded, wearily. ‘Sorry. I realise how traumatic it must have been. How is she?’
‘She’s okay. Was in shock at first, I think, but she’s getting through it. There’ll be nightmares and flashbacks, I don’t doubt, but we’ll organise counselling. We need to think about what we do next. But she’ll carry on. That’s who she is.’
‘I can see that. Speaking of nightmares and flashbacks, how’s Zoe?’
‘I spoke to her last night. She seems okay.’
‘You think she’ll be all right to continue?’
Annie looked up at him in surprise. ‘In the job, you mean? I don’t see why not.’
‘What was it, anyway? I mean, what happened to her?’
‘Seems to have been some kind of panic attack. But I’ve no idea what triggered it at that moment. She still doesn’t really want to talk about it, but Gary’s finally persuaded her to seek some help. Apparently she went through a phase of similar attacks when she was younger, but she thought she’d put it behind her. Gary reckons it’s something to do with her upbringing, but says she won’t talk about it. But I think it was probably at least partly work-related, maybe prompted by finding that first body on the moor. It was after that I first noticed a change.’
‘If it’s work-related, we have a duty of care. We can organise counselling for her.’
Annie had known that, whatever his other faults, Jennings was a stickler for following HR protocols, if only to ensure his own back was covered. One of her objectives in meeting him today was to secure support for Zoe. Much better if he thought it had been his idea. ‘That would be good, as long as we can coordinate it with whatever she organises for herself.’
‘And you think she’s up to the job?’
‘She always been a highly effective officer. I don’t see why that should change.’
‘Her panic attack could have resulted in more deaths. Including her own. Not to mention yours and Sheena Pearson’s.’
Annie took a breath. ‘Stuart, the only reason Sheena’s still alive is because of Zoe’s courage and quick thinking. If she needs some help now, we owe her the support.’
‘I’m not disagreeing, Annie. But there’s bound to be an enquiry into all this. We need to make sure we’re squeaky clean. If you’ve any doubts about Zoe, I need to know.’
‘I understand that, Stuart. I’ve every confidence in her. She just needs some time and support.’
He nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll trust your judgement. But keep an eye on her.’
‘That’s my job, Stuart. Or part of it.’
‘And mine. Along with sorting out all this. The only small consolation is that with Kennedy and Wiseman out of the picture, we’re not going to have the nightmare of trying to bring them to trial. It’s going to take a hell of a lot of disentangling as it is.’
‘Sounds like Kennedy had his finger in a lot of pies.’
‘Hell of a lot. He had a huge empire, and I don’t think we’ll get near a lot of it. Seems to have been cleverly set up so a lot of the lower links don’t directly connect to Kennedy or Werneth Holdings. The “left-hand” religious stuff seems to have been essentially a scam, a tool for recruitment and a front for some of their dubious activities. But there’s enough material in Kennedy’s house to suggest he was serious about it, and certainly his inner circle believed it. His technique seems to have been to persuade people to implicate themselves by committing relatively small misdemeanours for him, then gradually pull them in. With the kids it mainly started with drug dealing. But he operated at all levels, when it suited. This guy Gregory Wardle, for example, got suckered into taking backhanders for leaking planning information. It’s not even clear that the information had much value, but it meant Wardle found himself pulled further and further in.’
‘Until he was in too deep.’
‘And Kennedy was generally ruthless with the ones who couldn’t cope or who tried to double-cross him.’
‘Like Garfield, Parkin and Francis.’
‘That’s scary. The lesson is never try to scam the scammers.’
‘And we really do think that Wiseman was Parkin’s mother?’
‘Looks like it. She was the one who got him involved in the first place.’
‘Christ. And she had no compunction about him and the others being killed.’
‘Not once they’d tried to rip the operation off. But that’s how it worked. Everyone involved. Everyone implicated. Henley’s confessed to being directly involved in the killings, along with this guy Eric Nolan. But it was an “all for one” deal, he reckons.’
‘Utterly merciless.’
‘Exactly. Even that farmer, Tom Miller. He’d been drawn into Kennedy’s orbit early on but had the sense to get out when he got a glimmer of what Kennedy was up to. No doubt Kennedy was less ruthless in those days. But he still took the opportunity to send Miller the occasional reminder in case he was ever tempted to expose Kennedy. Like dumping a body in his back garden. To encourage the others.’
‘Kennedy had lost the plot somewhere, though, surely. I still can’t believe his grand scheme would have worked,’ Annie said. ‘I mean, trying to pin theirs and Sheena’s killings on this guy Bamford. We’d have seen through it, surely.’
‘Would we?’ Jennings asked. ‘I reckon one of Kennedy’s talents was to tell you what you wanted to hear, give you what you wanted to believe. That’s how his whole scam worked, religion and everything. I mean, some of us would have had an uneasy feeling about it. But if you get the solution handed to you gift-wrapped, it’s very tempting just to accept it. We’ve got more than enough on our plate without opening up cases that have apparently been resolved unless there’s a good reason. No one was ever likely to stand up to plead Bamford’s posthumous case. He doesn’t seem to have anything much in the way of family or friends, and he does appear to be something of an obsessive, albeit a harmless one.’ Jennings shook his head. ‘So who knows? But I do feel as if, professionally, I might have just dodged a bullet.’
‘You and Sheena both, then.’
It took Jennings a moment to realise she was joking. ‘Yes, I suppose so. Sorry.’
She smiled. ‘Stop apologising. I’m not that sensitive. Speaking of professionals, what’s the position on Andy Dwyer?’
‘Suspended pending the investigation. He’s denying everything, and I don’t know if we’ll prove anything either way. But he’s exactly the type Kennedy would have got his claws into, and my guess is there’ll be enough skeletons in Dwyer’s cupboards for something to emerge. We’ll see.’
‘Never neat, any of this, is it? Only straightforward bit of good news is Mo Henley heading for trial. I won’t be sorry to see him behind bars.’
‘Even that’ll be a PR nightmare,’ Jennings said, gloomily. ‘I can just see his supporters trying to present him as a political prisoner.’
‘He was involved in the kidnap and attempted murder of an MP.’
‘Like I say, political. You just wait.’
She pushed herself to her feet. ‘Chin up, Stuart. After all, there is one other piece of good news.’
‘Go on.’
‘My mother. At least with Bulldog Henley out of the picture, they’ve abandoned the idea of her big TV break.’
Jennings laughed. ‘Small mercies, eh?’
‘Exactly, Stuart. Small mercies. Let’s make the most of them.’