Constance returned to see Diana on Friday morning. Today the office smelled of gingerbread, which Constance was determined to disregard, by doing her utmost to inhale through her mouth as shallowly as she could possibly manage, even though privately she thought the scent rather pleasant. One thing in life she understood was the importance of sticking to one’s principles.
Diana saw her in the same meeting room as before, but this time she poured herself a coffee and didn’t offer one to Constance.
‘I want you to know that I agreed to see you only as a professional courtesy,’ Diana said. ‘Apart from the fact that I genuinely believe your client is guilty, I also want to put this behind me and move on with my life. I have carved out twenty minutes from my day for our conversation, but that’s all I can spare. And I won’t see you again, afterwards.’ Diana had delivered those words almost without drawing breath and with a forcefulness that made it clear her terms were non-negotiable.
Constance nodded. She was surprised she had been granted this audience at all, in the circumstances.
‘I completely understand and I’m grateful,’ she began. ‘But there are two new pieces of evidence I need to ask you about. And they should both be quick.’
‘All right.’
‘The first is about Mark Sumner and why he wanted to talk to Brett.’
Diana’s face creased up. Evidently, reliving Brett’s last moments was painful. ‘Go on,’ she said.
‘We think it was about changes to the rules on the packaging of beef, to include more information. That Mark was anxious about how it might impact sales, but he denied that when he gave his evidence in court. Said he just wanted general support from Brett for British beef. Do you know anything about that?’
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what they discussed and I’ve no reason to believe that Mark would lie to you.’
Constance was disappointed that Diana was sticking to that line, but she wouldn’t give up yet. ‘You said that Mark was desperate to speak to Brett. You also said that you knew every part of the Heart Food business. You must know what it was about?’
‘I don’t have any knowledge of what you just mentioned; labelling of beef in our shops,’ Diana said, but Constance sensed she was choosing her words carefully.
‘Maybe if we knew who Brett called when he was outside, that would help. The police released to me the numbers he rang that day. There’s only a few. If I send them to you, would you see if you can match them to Brett’s contacts?’
‘I told you. I’m very busy.’
‘Don’t you want to find out how Brett died?’
Diana stared at her then. ‘If it’s the only way to satisfy you, I will see what I can do, but can I ask you why you are so interested in Mark suddenly?’
‘We can see from material we’ve reviewed that food labelling was a big issue. We wondered if, well, if someone might have deliberately targeted Brett.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ Diana said, but even as the words came from her mouth, Constance could see her already beginning to mull it over, weighing it up, re-winding to that fateful day to see if it might fit what she had seen and heard. ‘No,’ she said, after a few seconds. ‘I’m not saying it’s impossible but if it was Mark, how did he do it and why didn’t Brett say anything to me? I saw him just after the two of them spoke.’
‘And you said Brett looked ill, leaned against the wall?’
‘And he insisted he was fine. No. I don’t believe it. If you knew…it doesn’t make sense.’
Diana sat back in her chair and stretched her long legs out in front of her.
Constance took a deep breath. If she didn’t say something now about what she had overheard at the farm, there may well not be another chance.
‘What produce does Mark grow?’ she asked, ‘and why is it secret?’
Diana shuffled forward and tucked her legs back in underneath her seat. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘There are other things going on at Mark’s farm that I haven’t mentioned before. I don’t want to say anything more, because it’s not my place. But I can absolutely reassure you that it’s all things Brett knew about and supported. Mark would never harm Brett.’
Constance nodded. Diana was still not budging. She decided she had gone as far as she could on that line of questioning. Perhaps Mark himself would tell her about the ‘other things’ with a gentle nudge, like Judith hoped. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Here’s my second question. What’s “Ambrosia”?’
Diana lay her spoon down on her saucer. ‘What?’
‘There was a big payment, more than £4 million, in the company accounts, titled Ambrosia, and the company didn’t want to tell shareholders what it was for.’
‘I’m not sure that’s…’
‘And there was a board meeting where Mr Ingram…Brett, made it clear that he wanted to take on some of the fast food giants. Some of that £4 million was used to pay people to take a stand against junk food, wasn’t it?’
Diana’s jaw slackened. ‘You have been busy, haven’t you?’ she drawled. ‘Perhaps your energy would be better spent trying to get your client off the very serious charges levelled against him.’
‘I can carry on digging.’
‘Not for much longer you can’t. Look. You’re barking up the wrong tree. You really are. The Ambrosia Project was something special – Brett’s gift to the world. It had a number of different strands to it. That’s why there was such a big spend. And one of them was, I accept, about opposing junk food – we can all see the enormous cost of obesity in health terms – but it’s not just that. Brett commissioned research which found that processed food affects our brains. It rewires them so that they crave more and more of the food which is going to harm them. We make fun of obese people, blame them for their condition, reel off all these figures illustrating how much the NHS spends on them, threaten to withdraw their access to healthcare if they can’t lose weight, but it’s not their fault. We tell them to control themselves when they truly can’t. The only way to treat the problem is to remove the cause, and that was something Brett was passionate about.’
‘And he wanted celebrities to help? Is that why you had Rosa and Dr Edge there?’
‘Heart Foods is a successful company, but it’s dwarfed by the junk food giants. Brett knew about the power of social media and influencers. If we’d found someone really big to support us, that could have made a real difference – not someone like Rosa. His hope was to find a famous sportsman who would speak out; Anthony Joshua, Lewis Hamilton – someone people really look up to. It sickened him that these companies would seek legitimacy by sponsoring the biggest sporting tournaments.’
So Greg had been on the right lines after all. Constance thought for a moment. ‘If Brett wanted to attract attention from superstars, why did he hold the event in Tanners’ Hall in the middle of the day, and why not be up front about it all?’
‘What they kept out of the board minutes you saw, deliberately, was that they asked Brett to share his findings with the government first instead, quietly, and to lobby for change that way, rather than making big enemies. To push for government-imposed restrictions on advertising, rules on lower salt and sugar content in foods, removal of the worst additives. And they wanted Brett to get feedback from “ordinary people” to evidence the need. That’s why we chose that venue.’
‘That doesn’t sound like enough.’
‘It was a start. Every initiative starts somewhere.’
‘But it can all continue now, can’t it, the Ambrosia Project?’
Diana stared out of the window and said nothing.
‘Is that why you’re leaving?’ Constance asked. ‘Because it’s being shelved?’
‘You’re very astute, aren’t you?’ Diana said. ‘I suppose it’s all those years of legal training. I may not be leaving now, not straightaway, anyway. The board have asked me to stay on, just for a while, and I thought about it and I’ve agreed. Even so, they will need a lot of persuasion to support novel projects without Brett to power things forward. That was your second question wasn’t it?’
‘Dr Edge?’ Constance said.
‘This sounds like a third.’
‘Were he and Brett really so close?’
Diana stared out of the window before replying.
‘I don’t like Adrian,’ she said. ‘I should tell you that, as it may colour my views. I couldn’t understand how they remained friends for so long; they were so very different. And I couldn’t see any good reason for him to be at that meeting, although I suppose it came in handy, when Brett’s heart stopped.’ Her nose quivered her discomfort.
‘You didn’t like the fact he and Brett were so close?’
‘In my experience, some people in life are content with their lot or, if they’re not, they take sensible steps to change things and are thankful when that happens. Others are simply never satisfied, even when they achieve success they probably don’t deserve and they use every opportunity to try to make others feel guilty.’
That was a fairly comprehensive assassination of Adrian’s character, Constance thought, although she had to remember that Judith didn’t trust Diana either. ‘Was Dr Edge part of the Ambrosia project?’ she asked.
‘No. He certainly wasn’t. Was there anything else? If not, I’m afraid your time is up.’