"Repton." "Minister." "I don't often drop in, as you know." "You're always very welcome, Minister." "If only to admire your always tidy desk." "Look, about this file." "I'm not happy about Temple-Blake Ltd." "being retained on our list of nominated contractors." "They stand to make close on fifty million pounds in government work this year." "As they did last year." "All right." "You all right?" "You all right, son?" "Get up." "Nice." "Not a mark." "You'd never know our friend had a fall." "Just a fortnight's bellyache, eh." "I've got some nice medicine for that." "A week's wages, and a ticket back to where you came from." "Mr Cowley is in reception." "Would you ask him to come in, please." "There's no shoddy workmanship around here." "Understand?" "No hand-outs to council members; no." "Things like that don't happen on sites I manage, do they." "Well, you know that, don'tcha?" "Now get lost... and shut your mouth!" "I'm not quite with you, Minister." "As you know, I'm not answerable to you or this department." "Or to Mr Repton here, largely known as the Cardinal Wolsey of this nation's spending in the building industry." "Not a very civil civil servant, are you?" "No." "Mostly we don't have to be." "So, first, why us?" "Why not the Fraud Squad?" "Special Branch?" "Reasons of policy, Mr Cowley." "The usual phrase for two coats of political whitewash." "You're to hold a watching brief in the corruption case due to take place against Temple-Blake Ltd." ""We build for Britain. "" "Here is my specific authority from your own minister to involve CI5 in this affair." "I don't know what you mean by "watching brief"." "Well, precisely that." "See that justice is done and blame apportioned accordingly." "If you mean that I'm to see that none of it gets shovelled anywhere near you or your department, you've picked the wrong labourer." "Because the minute my department gets packed in any politician's do-it-yourself image kit, I get very angry indeed." "And I know my way around the same corridors as you do." "I can see the need for political insurance, Minister." "But Cowley's hardly the insurance broker I'd have gone to." "I know these opening ceremonies can be a bore, Michael." "What's the use of having dukes for friends if you can't use them to impress the top table?" "I think I can promise you a splendid night out afterwards." "And ear plugs, for the mayor's speech." "Hallo?" "Thank you." "Yours, Tony." "Well, I think that wraps that lot up, darling." "We should have enough luminaries to keep the tiny councillors happy." "Whiz them round by hand, will you." "With the usual "Private" and "Confidential" blather on them." "Evening, Henry." "Without your false beard?" "And what is the grey eminence of British bureaucracy doing in the house of an unprincipled capitalist like me?" "You know where everything is;" "help yourself." "And, uh, Monica, keep onto Renshaw at the Fairgate site." "You know, where they're squawking about sticky fingers." "I've got our lawyers going over in the morning, and, at about fifty quid a comma, I don't want them kept waiting." "Well, Henry." "What can I do for you?" "What can I do for you?" "For a price, as usual." "Your Swiss bank must be having to build an extension." "Or is it Liechtenstein?" "No, our normal arrangements are quite healthy." "I thought you'd like to know you're well in line for the new health centres." "And I've already had some enquiries from oil money as to where they should look for builders and contractors." "They've been put your way." "Then, congratulations and whoopee." "Not yet." "Your firm is in the middle of a corruption case." "Petty cash?" "New cars for councillors?" "Doesn't everybody?" "Perhaps." "But you've been getting a little obtrusive about it." "And I have a slippery minister." "This time, he's gone beyond the Fraud Squad and the Special Branch." "He's pulled in CI5." "The others are good policemen, but CI5 is special." "If you want Temple-Blake Ltd." "to stay in business, you'd better make very very sure that this current piece of bribery and corruption has a Not Guilty verdict handed down." "A two-fifty unit council estate." "That's not Buckingham Palace." "No, Tony." "But you know, and I know, that the tip of this lucrative iceberg has been floating nicely for some years now." "If anyone can sink it, CI5 can." "Touché." "That'll do for today." "Like dancing the tango with my granny." "I'm a disco man meself, sir." "It's his army training." "He's quite good with a bayonet." "And you weren't much better." "Now, the two of you read the briefing of this Temple-Blake rubbish?" "Yeah, a watching brief." "Whatever that means." "It means you two get your best suits out of pawn, have them cleaned and pressed, and if you don't own any velvet gloves, buy some." "Watch, listen and learn." "Oh, and Bodie." "There are ways of asking people questions without removing their teeth." "For one thing, it makes for clearer diction." "I'll see you both up at Fairgate." "Knowing the way you two drive, you'll probably get there first." "When I find Cowley's physiotherapist, I'll tie his toes in a reef knot." "Cowley's good." "Admit it." "Yeah, Cowley didn't get out of a strange bed at five in the morning with a hangover." "D'you wanna play?" "Couldn't take you on with chopsticks." "Fill you up?" "Of course not." "We're on whisky." "Sir James." "Good afternoon, Robert." "Sir James, have you had a chance to read my memo?" "Robert, you're the firm's accountant, so stick to that." "Handle the figures;" "let me worry about buying the legal brains." "You didn't authorise the payments at Fairgate, Sir James." "I did." "Well, naturally." "You always do as you're told." "Which is why I'll be standing in the dock." "You'll have Renshaw and Bradford there with you." "The site foreman and the manager." "You were deceived." "You'll express regret, naturally." "You can plead pressure of work." "If I'm found guilty, Tony, I know enough to plead a lot more than that." "There's a conspiracy charge as well." "I'm not doing seven years in prison." "If we don't get you off, you shop us?" "I didn't say that." "It's what you mean." "Robert, we've been through a couple of these things before." "We've paid some fines, a couple of minor employees have gone to prison and we've looked after them when they've got out." "Building's always been a grab bag where palms get greased." "You were unlucky to be involved in this one." "I've been involved in all of them." "Oh, Robert." "Robert." "One conscientious detective sergeant plodding away?" "He got through the outer defences;" "bad luck." "That's all." "Have a few days off." "Come on, I'll get Buchan to drive you home." "You're too upset and shaky to drive that big Jag of yours." "Ah, good." "Our Robert has turned into a nervous old woman." "Oh, he always has been." "It started with the Gulf job." "Half a million siphoned out of that one." "The size frightened him." "It's when he started to drink." "He'll crack, you know." "He wants to: the full confession." "I know." "And he's the one to worry about." "He's kept count of all the private skeletons." "If he goes down, we all go down." "And that, that would be a pity." "Uhm, I think it would." "And so would friend Repton." "He's getting used to the privileges of a tax-free fortune." "We wove the web, cousin, and now we have CI5 as the spider in the middle." "I don't think we can play the usual rules on this one." "Do you, cousin?" "I expect you've already taken care of that." "Temple-Blake Ltd. should say prayers for the British taxpayer." "He's done them proud over the years." "And the same with other building firms." "People forget it's the country's biggest industry." "Who introduced this nominated contractor scheme?" "You?" "I wish I could take the credit." "No, it evolved." "Could I have a breakdown of Temple-Blake's work, say over the last five years?" "Certainly." "You'd probably get a better picture from Tony Logan-Blake, if you want a complete breakdown." "His would include all the private work." "Past, present and future?" "Well, he'd probably be a bit cagey about the future, but if you kept it confidential..." "commercially, I mean..." "I don't see why not." "Shall I ring him?" "I'd appreciate that." "Tomorrow?" "That'll be fine." "Not quite as interesting as your usual line of work, I'm afraid." "But every time a minister feels a draught, he thinks it's the political wind of change, and we're the ones who do the long hours." "You look healthy enough on it." "I was looking you up in Personnel, by the way." "You put in for retirement about five years ago, and then changed your mind." "Why?" "Caution, I suppose." "The pension's index-linked, but I'd have felt the pinch." "And, then, I suppose, the divorce showed on the file." "Yes." "I wondered about that." "Nothing to worry about." "My wife decided on a second springtime, and I suppose I was a bit staid." "We still talk to each other..." "by cheque." "You've got this mews in Hampstead now." "Quite a conversion." "The original luxury bachelor pad, they tell me." "They'll also have told you that Temple-Blake Ltd. did the work." "I might have got a bit of a discount for it, but only in terms of better work done." "I paid the going rate for it." "Yes, I checked that, too." "And the Endowment Policy that paid for it?" "Naturally." "You've been most helpful, Mr Repton." "Well, if we functionaries can't stick together, nobody can." "Hardly your class of cocktail bar, old man." "I always like a place where I can spit on the floor." "You'd miss." "Sure this is the place where we're supposed to meet him?" "Yeah." "Right down to the betting shop opposite and the knock-three-times- for-Fifi next door." "What's he look like?" "Don't you know?" "Look who's here." "Your friend with the bellyache." "You were supposed to have gone by now." "Perhaps he's waiting for his nice policeman friend." "So's he can stir up a bit more dirt about the building business." "You were supposed to have gone home, son." "I enjoyed that." "You're Halloran." "I'm Doyle." "Bodie." "You've got a strange way of introducing yourself, haven't you?" "Yeah, I just wanted to make sure whose side you were on." "Too many of you fellows are bent." "Want a drink?" "May I have a clean glass?" "Can't believe it." "All I'm trying to do is me good citizen's act." "You know, see a bit of graft, say this won't do." "So I get meself down to the local cop shop." "Then I find I'm really in it." "Worse than going through a maze in a thunder storm." "I go and see the big boy, the local big chief." "He says there's not much in it, not worth bothering about." "You know, just rumour." "So then it gets to somebody higher up..." "Yes, please?" "Two plaice and chips, and one chips, love." "Somebody they haven't paid." "He wasn't getting his share, so he gets a bit uptight about being left out, I suppose." "What about the other two?" "You just done over?" " He's right." " Thank you." "Small fry." "Rubbish." "In for a few bob." "Skimp on the materials, being light on the concrete mix." "So they make a few thousand quid." "We're talking about millions." "Spread over years, going to the top." "Thank you." "What about the other one they talked to, the councillor, uh, Webb?" "Right, thank you." "Well, he's another one." "Chairman of the local housing committee." "He was caught with his hand in the till." "Bet that surprised him." "But they won't prove anything." "They're all tiddlers, like me." "Caught up in a big pool." "Do a bit of scratch my back under the old pals act and they're free." "Nothing changes much, does it." "Ex-copper?" "Can't you tell?" "Expert." "In graft." "You'll have to excuse his manners:" "he hasn't got any." "What I don't understand is how they blew the gaff on the whole thing, though." "What, how they got the big nobs?" "Right." "Ah, suppose somebody put the bite on." "Asked to see the accounts." "They went for Gillam, Temple-View chief accountant." "They thought, here's a brick we can prise loose." "You reckon this Gillam's worth seeing, then?" "Yeh, yeh, you ought." "I mean, get yourself a pair of wings and, uh, a harp." "I mean, don't you read?" "They found him last night with his toes turned up." "Have a good round, then?" "Not bad." "Not very sociable today, are we, Harry?" "How about one with me?" "No, not now, George." "Well, least you can do." "After all, you are my Deputy Chairman." "Acting Chairman now." "Never credit it, would you, Barney?" "A bit of trouble and no one wants to know you." "I used to be able to come in here any time, you know that, and it would be, "Hallo, George!" "What are you having, George?"" "Half the Council in here." "They were abrupt, I'll say that." " Why don't you have one with me?" " Oh, no, no." "No." "No, come on, a chaser." "A large malt for the gentleman." "It's always the same, Barney." "It takes a stranger to show some civility when your friends have turned their backs." " I'm George Webb." " How do." "And I'm still Chairman of the housing committee, never mind what that crawling Harry Braithwaite says." "A responsible job." "Oh, it is, it is." "The biggest." "Ensuring decent dwelling units for the citizens of this community." "Linda." "Linda!" "Oh, all right." "Four years old and the roof leaks like a bloody colander." "Oh, Burt, I know you're on night shift, but it's not his fault you can't get no sleep." "Well, I just wish the botchers who put this hole up had to live in it." " Would you live in it?" " I am living in it!" "Don't remind me." "Responsibility." "That's what the new fellows don't understand: the personal touch." "Get to know your contractor." "Is that the trouble you mentioned?" "Look where it got me." "Chairman of Housing; been on the Council twenty years." "And there's this estate, and they reckon there's been some fixing, corruption, whatever they call it." "Oh, I've yet to know public service get the appreciation it deserves, Mr Webb." "I remember when they lived in whippet kennels." "We used to have trams on the High Street." "Lucky if they had the price of a ticket to get on." "Think they're grateful?" "I spend most of my free time at it and I should know." "Pennies for expenses;" "precious little thanks." "Oh, you know what I have, Tobias." "Prawn cocktail and a medium steak." "I can, uh, recommend that." "And they see me right here." "Just tell the chef it's for Councillor Webb." "He knows who I am." "Very good, sir." "Don't worry about it being after closing time." "They're used to me, you know." "A couple more brandies, young man." "Thank you." "I was telling you about Jim Renshaw." "Good site manager." "He appreciated me taking an interest in the job." "And if he's got a pal in the travel business who can get me and my missus a couple of weeks in the sun and I'm paying... cut price, but, I'm paying." "And if he shows enough consideration for his work force to have them do a few bits of jobs around my house when they're idle, instead of laying them off," "I don't see anything wrong with that." "Oh, nasty minds everywhere." "Nasty enough to get me took to court." "Some building inspector run snivelling to some interfering detective sergeant just because I won't uphold his complaint about the state of Renshaw's job." "Oh, you meet a lot of them." "If only people would mind their own business." "Ah, good news, cousin, on the Coroner's verdict." "Felo de se, while the balance of his mind was disturbed." "Henry Repton called." "Reminding me that the full verdict of Not Guilty is still essential." "And telling me that a man called Cowley might be around, to ask some awkward questions." "Ah, well, your ball." "You were always good at answering those, cousin." "Come in, Mr Webb." "May I get you something?" "Oh, no, thank you very much." "I've had to take the whole day off as it is." "Oh, I'm sure we can compensate you for that." "Oh, I'm not worried about that." "Nice view you've got here." "And I don't mind helping." "I should think you don't." "You'll be in the dock." "And I hope you'll be out front listening." "Or if not you, one of your colleagues." "The clerk of the court's an old friend... and he knows it." "And that's the only reason I was able to get a list of the jury members that will be allocated to our case." "What are old friends for, if not to help each other?" "Twelve good men and true." "With names and occupations and addresses." " That's all we need." " What is it?" "I've been called for jury service." "Just when we need the wages." "Does it say what case you're on?" "No, they're too cagey for that." "In case you cop out with a doctor's certificate." "This could drag on for weeks." "Ah." "Hallo." "I say, Cowley, did you sign him in?" "Yes, Colonel, he works for me..." "if you use the term loosely." "I can remember when this used to be a military club." "He was military once." "Oh, one of those rag-and-bone regiments." "Crawling about behind the enemy lines." "Yeah, he looks the type." "I couldn't find a bowler hat to fit me, you know." "Colonel, I want to pick your brains." "First, this Temple-Blake case." "Ah, that'll blow over." "Storm in a concrete mixer." "Well, they're always buying these fat little councillors or giving motor cars to the sub-contractors." "If a contract's worth a million or two, it's worth greasing a few palms." "What about Temple-Blake itself?" "Well, they've only done a couple of contracts with us at the Ministry of Defence, both shoddy." "I won't have them on parade any more." "Not that that's stopped them doing well." "A bloke called Logan-Blake;" "he's the sharpie." "Would you say they were crooked?" "Oh, yes." "In a big way." "Mind, it's not all their fault." "I mean, when people have got a lot of work to offer, they expect something in return." "What do people offer you, Colonel?" "Courtesy and civility, young man." "And that is all." "They'd get the back of my hand if they offered me a farthing." "My advice to you, Cowley, is to find the figures and a good cost accountant." "I think you'll find that the skimmed milk went into the contract and the cream went into Logan-Blake's pocket." "Well, there's the list of the jury." "And I want them all to sing in harmony." "To the tune of Not Guilty." "Any particular method?" "No, that's up to you." "Everyone has their own pressure points." "Greed, envy, resentment." "Fear." "Don't tap all of the people." "Pick two or three of the more persuasive ones and make the incentives high enough." "Or low enough?" "Yes." " There you are, sir." " Thank you." "Thank you very much indeed." "Bye." "Bye." "What makes you so sure I'll be on that jury?" "Because it's all a political fix." "People trying to get at George Webb and the others." "Get their own back." "I know something about that." "I've just seen the report my manager put in on me." "Oh, you know what I'm talking about, then." "You'll be seeing innocent men in the dock." "You take my word for it." "I'll listen to the evidence, my friend." "Justice is justice." "I'm glad you called me friend, because we're great believers in friendship." "But we know that nothing's for nothing." "Five hundred." "Now." "And five hundred after the verdict." "It's not robbery with violence they're up for." "Just... helping people out." "Is that a crime?" "Can I have a word, Mr Singleton?" "Who are you?" "D'you mind giving that back!" "I just heard the end of your lecture." "Lovely piece of hot air balloon." "More big words than a Sunday paper." "With all that style, they're bound to make you jury foreman." "Make sure they do." "Because you're going to be on the Temple-Blake case." "What?" "You can't possibly know that." "Ah, but we do." "It's what's called, Having friends at court." "And we want a verdict of Not Guilty." "That's ridiculous." "And as soon as I get home," "I shall phone the police and tell them about you and this conversation." "I wouldn't do that, pal." "First, I could walk you over the park and give you a ten-out-of-ten thumping as easy as demonstrate a vacuum cleaner." "That would get you in even more trouble." "No." "Because even if I was picked up, we all know what fellows like you are after in parks." "And besides, you're being selfish." "You've got four kids." "I know the roads they cross on their way to school and I know what they look like." "And I can be a very dangerous driver." "I know the supermarket your wife shops at." "So, what I do is, I put a few things in her bag," "I call the detective and she's down the road for shop-lifting." "You think about it." "Perhaps I could arrange both." "You do it." "And, you never know, you might get a few quid through your door one night and you can buy yourself a new suit." "Thank you." "Well, I must say I don't understand your interest, Mr Cowley, but you're very welcome to take these away with you." "Point of fact, we're quite proud of them." "Not many firms in our business share the same growth rate." "And the profits to match?" "In this day and age?" "My dear fellow." "Profits aren't merely down to the bone, they're down to its marrow." "We've never cut margins so fine." "You seem to get a fair share of government work." "Ah, they're the hardest of all." "In and out with a tooth-comb all of the time." "Still, I've mixed it in with a few plump Arab jobs;" "I can't complain." "Well, thank you for your time, Mr Blake." "I may see you again." "What department did you say you were with?" "I didn't." "But it's CI5." "Sorry." "I've never heard of it." "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached your verdict?" "We have, Your Honour." "And what is that verdict?" "Not Guilty." "Is that the verdict of you all?" "The verdict of a majority of us, Your Honour." "First, ladies and gentlemen, may I thank you for the obvious time you have taken over your deliberations, which I consider commensurate with a case of corruption which involves taxpayers' money." "I must confess a little surprise at the verdict of Not Guilty, albeit on a majority decision." "And I could wish that you had paid less attention to learned counsel's emphasis on the wholly hypothetical ringleader activities of the defendant who committed suicide." "I must, however, bow to your decision and let the verdict be so entered." "The defendants may step down." "Would the court rise, please." "Come on." "Smells worse than his socks." "When are we going to get back to some real work, sir?" "When I say, Bodie." "You sent for me, Minister." "I asked if you could spare a moment;" "there's a difference." "Purely to thank you for your efforts on behalf of the Department in the Temple-Blake corruption case." "I think the Not Guilty verdict settles it, don't you?" "No." "But of course it does." "Entirely satisfactory." "No scandal, no fuss, no repercussions." "And not a single scratch on your shiny armour, Minister." "Well, thank you again." "And kindly convey my appreciation to your colleagues." "When I'm assigned a case at CI5, it gets closed only under my personal signature." "I didn't want this assignment." "I regarded it as a trivial matter of image protection." "Since then, a man has died." "The verdict was suicide." "And, in my opinion, a jury has now been suborned." "It now takes on all the aspects of a case in which my Department cannot relinquish interest." "You can be forced to do so, Cowley." "Not by you, Mr Repton." "Nor by your minister." "I'm allowed a certain degree of latitude." "And I've already put on record my distaste that the Department I run should be used for ministerial public relations protection rather than its proper work." "We can now begin that work." "This is it, Mr Cowley." "What're we doing here?" "Ah, you know Cowley." "This is where it all started." "He likes to tickle his itch." "So, tickle his itch." "Yeh." "You want to build a house or two while we wait?" "Not in these shoes, thank you." "Yeah, I'll bet your mother's feet are cold." "Hallo, runt." "Thought we'd seen the last of you." "Did you, Mr Renshaw?" "Who are you?" "Official call?" "Not really." "Well, then, this is not a public park." "This is a private building site." "All visitors got to have passes and state their business." "Or they get beaten up, Mr Renshaw?" "Is he still on about that, little Joey there?" "He didn't get beaten up." "He got drunk!" "I had to hold him down." "You ask the foreman there." "You ask any of the boys." "Now, if you're not official, and you're certainly not here with my permission, we get a lot of pilfering, so we don't like strangers on the site, right?" "Really?" "We'll see that the local constabulary look into that." "Make sure that your affairs are properly looked after in future." "Isn't that so, Mr Halloran?" "Now, we'd better let Mr Renshaw get back to his drawing boards." "Lucky it's not mailbags." "Oh, I wouldn't be certain of anyone's luck." "Would you?" "What's he after?" "We've got the verdict behind us." "Councillor Webb?" "Bodie, Doyle." "You will now mingle with the twelve good men and true of the Temple-Blake jury." "And you, sir?" "I'll remember the advice of my retired friend who wanted to blow up a bridge." "A lot of material going into that site." "A lot of material, a lot of paperwork." "Some of it papering over the cracks." "And one of these, very close to an accountant, supposedly deceased of a self-administered weed-killer." "Not a very typical way for an accountant to die." "Or would you say so, Bodie?" "Henry is here." "He says we have problems." "Yeah, well, they must be his as well." "Nothing else could drag him out of the financial canyons into the country." " Good morning, Henry." " Morning, Sir James." "Glad you could come down." "Hm?" "No, thank you." "Perhaps you could join us for a few holes after lunch." "No, thank you, Sir James." "A little fresh air will do you good, Henry." "Fresh air is something we might all be short of, Sir James, for a very long time." "Unless you've swept up after the Temple-Blake affair as well as your gardeners have swept up here." "Carefully." "Oh, indeed." "Isn't that so, cousin?" "Oh, clear consciences all around." "Man in the wig said Not Guilty." "He had to." "Thanks to the jury." "Cowley doesn't believe him." "He's taking it very personally." "He thinks he was gulled." "He was." "Well, it's very bright of him." "Sorry you're not staying, Henry." "Tony, see him to the car." "Oh, no, no, Harry, now it's my shout." "Large ones, Barney, wherever you are!" " Councillor Webb?" " Yes?" "Telephone call for you." "Oh." "Treat 'em all round, Barney, with chasers." "And put it on the bill and don't let it get cold, now." "See you later, fellows, see you later." "Councillor Webb." "Aye." "Aye?" "Who the hell are they?" "Does young Tony know?" "Logan-Blake, does he know?" "Aye, you do that." "You can find me at home, later." "He can leave a message with my good lady." "Good day to you, Councillor." "Oh, good day." "Back up in our little town, are we, eh?" "Some unfinished business." "Is that so?" "Well, you'd better come and join us for a drink." "Some unfinished business connected with you." "Were you waiting for someone?" "Can I help?" "Mr Singleton." "Yes, you can help." "Or rather, I can help you." "Stop you going to jail, Aubrey." "I can call you Aubrey, can't I, Aubrey?" "You having trouble there, sir?" "Yeah." "These any good for whitewash?" "Yes, sir." "Snow jobs, cover ups." "Turning the proverbial blind eye." "What do you mean..." "How much did they pay you?" "Or did they put the frighteners on?" "Who are you?" ""Perverting the course of justice"" "Have you heard that expression?" "Yeah, well, of course you have." "Have you got a nice quiet office where we can talk?" "I've been talking to your wife, you know." "Just off to Majorca, eh?" "Had a bit of a windfall." "Or have you been going to the dogs?" "Yes, well, haven't we all." "Of course I know the clerk!" "And the superintendent." "A man's been on the Council the best part of his life, damn, he's entitled to know a few people, he has a few friends." "And a few of the big'uns who know when to help." "D'you mind, Vera?" "That's right, love, give us a bit of peace and quiet." "Thank you, sweetheart." "You come up here, winding me up with your damn graces and bonhomie." "Spill a little grape juice." "But you don't get me to say anything I shouldn't." "Nothing incriminating." "Because Councillor Webb has done nothing to incriminate himself, has he!" "Hey?" "A man's been tried." "He's entitled to say that that is that." "You had your little game, but the better man has won." "You don't try a man twice, I mean, not in the democratic society where I come from." "How long have you been associated with Tony Logan-Blake?" "Tony who?" "Another of your bloody double-barrelled aristos?" "You don't know him?" " Well, of course I know him." " I didn't say you did." "Now, don't you start twisting things I say." "I know who he is and that's all." "His friends are on the other side of the Council, not mine!" "Oh, and before you say anything else, let me say something." "The judge said we could go." "That means that Councillor Webb is innocent, and his friends out there who are buying him a drink, they say so, too." "So, if you want to say anything more, you'd better start thinking." "Because I've got my lawyers, too." "Good." "Perhaps you'd better bring them with you." "Oh, did no one tell you?" "The Director of Public Prosecutions is considering an enquiry into this question of suborning jurors." "Oh, purely a formality in your case, but I'm sure we'll find someone who's guilty." "You can tell Vera she can lay the tables now." "Right." "Thank you, Garrett." "That was our friendly police Super." "The one with the all too young and expensive wife?" "Uhmm." "He did sound a little weary." "Enviable." "The word has come down that CI5 are investigating the jury on the Temple-Blake case." "Headed by our human mole, Cowley." "So, we are sure, cousin?" "Very." "Confident." "And if any of the jurors do talk, what will they find?" "A frightened schoolteacher, a greedy store manager." "You know who they are?" "No, never heard of them." "Exactly." "And what's more important, coz, they've never heard of you." "Or me." "So we can say no loose ends?" "You're confident." "Do you remember how careful Bobby Gillam was?" "Oh, yes." "Not one but two spare pairs of shoe-laces in his briefcase." "And an extra stiff collar." "I spent the entire day going through the executive offices." "The private accounts?" "Well, I told you where they were:" "the boardroom safe." "I checked them myself." "And you've been through Gillam's papers?" "Yes." "I wish I had his secretary." "Mine does the filing like a combine harvester." "And you didn't find this?" "A requisition for three hundred sheets of photocopying paper." "I see it means nothing to you." "Poor dear Bobby." "A tidy mind, meticulous to the last, accounting for everything." "Tips to cloakroom attendants... and three hundred sheets of photocopying paper." "The private accounts." "He copied them before he caught bellyache." "Dear, sweet, cautious Robert." "What pointed you at that?" "You, coz." "Because you're the sharp one, the one who we take out insurance against." "Every private paper that has gone through that boardroom safe has been photocopied also by me." "I'm not as bright as you, or Gillam was." "I simply have the same regard for insuring my own skin and my overseas bank accounts." "Loose end?" "I hope not." "Hope is for the under-privileged and they're rather overcrowded." "Why add us?" "I'm sorry you've got to rush back to town." "There you are." "You don't have to walk round it;" "you can see where it's been skimped." "Stands out like a rash on a baby's bum." "Look, I know the contract price and" "I know the money didn't go in the building." "But the other jury members didn't agree with you?" "Did you see 'em?" "I don't think half of them know what a house like this looks like." "He was a schoolteacher, the foreman." "Frightened out of his life." "One bloke kept patting his inside pocket." "Four of them didn't say anything." "Just kept nodding like Follow Your Leader." "Did anyone try to get to you?" "With a Temple-Blake address?" "They wouldn't have been that stupid." "You paint a very clear picture." "Have you been on many juries?" "No." "But I've been a works convenor, and I've been on enough committees where the votes got settled up front and favours got paid off." "Somebody got into enough people on that jury to make them do something and they did it, believe me." "And if we ever got near making a case of this, would you talk?" "I doubt it." "Well, I'm a council tenant, aren't I?" "It may not be much, but it is my home." "Sorry." "What've you got?" "Nothing, except a pair of flannelette bloomers, moving a light south-westerly direction." "On a clothesline, of course." "Life and times in suburbia." "Enjoy the view." "D'you know what they'll be looking for?" "Yeah, a colonel who was at the Relief of Mafeking told me." "Vanish!" "There's movement on Mars." "Recognise them?" "Yeah, one, and the other's no powder-puff." "Soft as marshmallow." "Papers." "Papers." "Don't go away; might need you." "He did himself proud." "We do the labouring and they own the race horses." "Perhaps if we find them, we might win ourselves a race horse each." "We keep 'em till they hand over." "Don't think about finding them, friend." "You just worry about what's going to happen to you if we don't find them." "Nothing." "These intellectual nobs:" "everything in its place." "'cept what you're looking for." "Do you know where he topped himself?" "Had that last one for the road?" "Where a man goes to drink, and die." "A careful man." "Greenhouse." "On our way." "See, it's about being hurt or wounded in rough country." "An instinct tells you where to hole up." "Animal." "Refuge." "He'd want to keep his papers dry." "Where would we find the heating system in this funeral parlour?" "This what you're looking for?" "It doesn't look worth very much." "Not even a racehorse each?" "Keep an eye on the plants, will you." "You couldn't stop a fat lady in a thin alley." "Yeah, I know." "He's on his way." "Come on, get in." "Filly worries me." "Wins nothing." "Have to sell her." "Visitors." "Perhaps you could make your own discreet way out." "I don't think you need receipts." "Impressive." "We're in the wrong trade." "I'll take the parcel, Sir James." "We have a warrant, do we?" "No, but we do know where that comes from and what it contains." "Ashes to ashes and do what we must." "Yours." "Thank you." "Hang about." "All right, Bodie, let it burn." "The real parcel with the copy accounts is already on its way to the Fraud Squad." "We only had to prove who needed them, what lengths he'd go to to get them, and where they'd send them to." "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." "I look forward to meeting your lawyers in court, Sir James." "And young Mr Logan-Blake." "Oh, we'll be glad to do battle with you, Mr Cowley." "Just an old-fashioned pirate." "If you want to take a romantic view of it." "I've been instructed by my own minister to convey to you the contents of a report which he will lay before Cabinet." "The Fraud Squad analysis has disclosed that one of your senior civil servants has been actively engaged in corruption for some years." "He might wish to resign before going to court." "The trivial case, which was the cause of our being brought into this affair, will be re-tried." "And with it, a separate murder charge." "Are you suggesting that I knew about this before I called you in?" "I'm saying only that you sought to use my Department for personal and political ends, and I will not tolerate that." "All the arrogance there is." "Hound, judge, then jury." "No, Minister, rule of law." "I'm not here in this office of my own volition." "I'm playing your rules of what passes for courtesy in the corridors of power." "And what do you suggest I do?" "Resign." "But we live in a world without much honour where politicians hang onto office like dirty glue, so I don't suppose you will." "Blame is for others." "Minister..." "Oh, I hear you've been spending a lot of time talking to this Fraud Squad man." "Riordan, is it?" "Yeah, he's good." "Says the deadliest crossfire's between two balance sheets, and the fingers on the pens are crooked." "And the most efficient blunt instrument is a cheque book." "Providing you got money in the bank behind it." "You two are really branching out, but don't try putting the drinks on your expenses, though." "Why?" "It's work." "Sounds more like education." "And education's never free." "Come on."