CODE TO MURDER, page 6
Alan Millar, the chief financial officer entered the boardroom. Ben noticed he was a bit more formally dressed than others he had seen around the office, wearing a suit and tie. ‘Smart casual’ seemed to be the order of the day for everyone else – sometimes veering more towards the casual as in Williams’s case.
Ben introduced himself and Julie then said, “I’m sorry about the death of your colleague, Mr Millar.”
“Thank you,” replied Millar, “James was a nice guy and there are a lot of people here still quite emotional today.”
Ben saw Julie glance at him. They hadn’t seen much evidence of that so far.
Millar continued, “My heart goes out to Diane and Kayleigh. It must be devastating for them. What I am struggling to get my head around is that I understand you now believe it wasn’t an accident?”
“How do you know that, Mr Millar?” asked Julie.
“I had a meeting earlier with Richard. James was a major part of this business and we have a lot to do, both in terms of supporting and reassuring the staff as well as covering James’s work and letting customers know. Many of them worked closely with James and will be upset about what has happened.”
“How well did you know Mr Anderson?” asked Ben.
“I have worked in the business for five years and got to know James reasonably well. I have worked with him on a number of projects.”
“What was he like?” asked Ben.
“He was an ordinary, down-to-earth guy. Lived for his family, but sometimes struggled to achieve a work-life balance given his responsibilities at Trade-IT. He put an awful lot of hours into the business. To my mind he was key to our success: he was a smart software and IT guy, but also his knowledge and understanding of the commodity-trading sector and his ability to translate customer requirements into creative and workable software solutions was second to none.”
“How did he get on with others in the business and also customers?” asked Ben.
“James was always a fair and reasonable guy in his dealings with both employees and customers. He was genuinely liked and respected by most people. However, if there was a tough decision to be made he would not shy away from it.”
“Yes, Mr Pettigrew told us about William Platt,” said Julie.
“We’ve also heard Mr Anderson was ‘possessive’ when it came to the software,” said Julie.
“I am guessing you heard that from Mike?” said Millar with a smile. “James was passionate about the software and thanks to him it was top quality, and he wanted it to remain that way. With James, you sometimes had to earn his trust and prove your worth. That could be in terms of your skillset, effort, professionalism and so on. I am not sure Mike had cleared all those hurdles just yet.”
“Is it likely Mr Williams will take over from Mr Anderson as the next CTO?” asked Ben.
“He would like to. He is extremely ambitious and lets everyone know it. He values his worth highly, which I know, having had many salary negotiations with him in the relatively short period of time he has been here.”
“I get the sense you don’t think he should take over from Mr Anderson.”
Millar shrugged his shoulders and said, “Mike has a role to play. However, sometimes you need to walk before you can run, and you need to take the team with you if you are a leader. Mike is a smart guy, but at this stage in his career he is no James Anderson. Could he get to that level over time? We’ll see.”
“Mr Anderson and Mr Pettigrew are the only shareholders in the business, is that correct?” asked Ben.
“Yes, they each own fifty percent of the shares,” answered Millar.
“That must be a tricky balance sometimes, especially if there are any disagreements?” suggested Ben.
“It can be,” replied Millar.
“And was it?” asked Ben.
“Look, Chief Inspector, Richard and James are two very different characters, but they have known each other for a long time, which often helps in these situations. Richard is upfront and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. He says what he wants and expects to get it. His mission is to drive the company forward year on year, and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of that, doesn’t get on board or who frankly messes up.
“James on the other hand is . . . was, a more fair and reasonable character. His passion was the software, which he was equally as passionate about as Richard is about growing the business. James was all about the quality and integrity of the software.”
“It strikes me that different personalities like that could lead to conflict?” suggested Julie.
“Not necessarily. Richard and James are in their right roles within the business. Richard has a skillset and personality more suited to being a CEO, and in addition he has an IT background so understands the technology. James, on the other hand, is ideally suited to being a CTO. He has a passion for software and technology, always keeping up to date with the latest trends. They have skillsets and personalities that complement each other and both have been instrumental in taking this business to where it is now from a standing start, and for which they both deserve a lot of credit.
“Now, I am not saying there were never any conflicts or disagreements. That is always the case within any management team. In my experience, when disagreements arose regarding the business, James would ultimately yield to Richard, but when it came to the software and customer service, James had definite red lines and I think Richard knew he would never get James to move on them,” answered Millar.
“Okay, Mr Millar, you have been very helpful. One final thing: are you aware of any incident, however small, in Mr Anderson’s business or personal life that could have resulted in some kind of disagreement leading to what happened to him at The Heartlands Hotel? Maybe even something unusual you noticed when you were all at the hotel?” asked Ben.
“No, nothing I’m afraid.”
“Right, Mr Millar, that’s all for now. However, before you go, did Mr Anderson have his own office?” asked Ben.
“Yes, he did. Would you like me to show it to you?”
“I would, thanks.”
Millar led the way along the corridor, past Richard Pettigrew’s office and unlocked the door to James Anderson’s office and let them in.
“A bit different in size to Mr Pettigrew’s office,” commented Julie.
Millar smiled but didn’t say anything.
Ben said, “I note you have a key to open Mr Anderson’s office – who else has similar access?”
“Only Richard and me. All three of us have a key to each other’s offices in case we need to access anything from them in the event one or other of us isn’t here. Nobody else.”
“Okay, Mr Millar, thanks. We will have a look in here and Julie will let you know when we are done so you can lock up,” said Ben.
“Okay, Julie, let’s have a good look around and see if there is anything in here that might be a red flag,” said Ben.
After ten minutes or so of looking, Julie said, “Not much to see over this side, sir, mainly customer folders with nothing that seems untoward in them. Nice photo of his family on his desk, I notice. Lots of past copies of different technology and AI magazines, and a couple of magazines with headline articles on bitcoin. Being an IT guy, I guess James Anderson might be more inclined to do things online rather than work with paper copies.”
“Probably true,” replied Ben, “but there is something interesting in one of the trays on his desk. Have a look at this – it’s an employee appraisal of Mike Williams. It looks like Anderson did the review on the Friday before the offsite.”
“Wow, that doesn’t make for good reading!” said Julie.
“Arrogant, poor quality coding, always thinks he knows more than he does . . .” said Ben, reading from the appraisal.
“Given what we know about Mike Williams, I bet he was still seething when they were at the hotel. It certainly would be a big dent to his ambitions . . .” said Julie.
“I’m sure,” replied Ben, “and he doesn’t have an alibi for the time he went back to his room on Monday afternoon. We need to try and find out if he did go straight to his room as he said.”
“Absolutely. Maybe we are starting to get somewhere,” said Julie.
CHAPTER 12
Ben arrived home around six-thirty. It had been a frustrating end to the day. Meetings with the chief superintendent often seemed to be like that these days. Ben talked to him about current cases and resources needed, and the chief superintendent talked about nothing but budgets. Ben used to get on well with the chief super, but these days felt he had forgotten what real police work was about.
Ben decided to quickly get changed and head out for a short walk to clear his head. He drove over to Dollar, parked his car at Burnside and took the path between the Dollar Museum and the burn to head up towards Dollar Glen and Castle Campbell. This was a walk Ben had done many times before, yet it always had something new to see depending on the time of day and the season of the year. The fresh air, the sounds of the birds and the sound of waterfalls all helped him to switch off from the pressures of the day.
He continued through the little park, which had some picnic tables. It was early evening and there were still a few people around. It wouldn’t be dark for another couple of hours yet. Ben continued along the path, eventually entering the woodland. It was here the path started to climb steeply up a series of steps through the mixed woodland, with a high proportion of oak trees. Gradually, the path became a little less steep and Ben continued along the side of a wood. He headed to the right and sat on a bench, which gave him a good view of Castle Campbell.
It was so quiet and peaceful. All you could hear was the birds.
What would it have been like back in the fifteenth century, to which Castle Campbell dates? Not so peaceful and quiet then, he thought.
Ben decided he would sit there for a while, enjoying the view, and not head up the rest of the walk. He was unusually tired. He was conscious as well that he wasn’t too far from where Diane Anderson and her young daughter Kayleigh lived and couldn’t help but wonder how they would be able to cope going forward; how the death of James would change their lives completely.
He really had to find out what had happened to James Anderson.
After a short while, Ben decided he had better head for home. He was starting to get a bit hungry now as well.
He headed back along the same route he had come up, passed the museum and walked along the pavement towards his car. Without warning, his knees gave way from under him and he fell forward. He put his hands out to save himself, but still fell heavily, grazing one of his hands and his forehead along the pavement.
He got up quickly, mainly due to embarrassment, and looked around to see if there was anything he had slipped on.
There wasn’t.
A young couple on the other side of the road came over to see if he was okay. Ben thanked them and said he was fine and got into his car. He sat in the car, looked in the mirror and saw a little bit of blood on his forehead and noticed a cut on his hand. He felt silly. He’d climbed all the way up the steep path and back down again, only to fall over on a flat bit of pavement. Careless or what.
He started the car and drove the few miles along the road back home.
As he went in, Clare was just putting dinner out. “What on earth has happened to you?” she cried.
“I had a slight fall, nothing serious, I’m alright. Let’s get some dinner and I’ll tell you what happened after that.”
“Okay, if you say so,” said Clare.
She cleaned up Ben’s hand and forehead, put a sticky plaster on each and then put the dinner out, saving her questions for later. Not that she was convinced she would get much more out of Ben, given his state of mind recently.
CHAPTER 13
Next morning, Ben stopped by the doctor’s surgery on his way to the station. He was relieved to hear that the blood tests had come back clear, other than for high cholesterol, for which he was given medication to lower it and an instruction to return in four weeks for more blood tests.
A good result, thought Ben, who had been fearing something worse. Clare would be relieved too.
On arriving back at the station, Ben was eager to make some progress.
Julie, Kevin and the rest of the team were waiting for the case conference. Ben had been considering the possibility Manson was working with someone else, who he could have passed the laptop and phone to, and who had perhaps even moved the body. He shared this thought with the team.
“That would certainly cover off the time issue,” said Julie.
“What about the cloned key card – did we get any more information on that, Julie?” asked Ben.
“It turns out it wasn’t cloned. The security manager has confirmed one of the housekeeping staff reported a missing card the morning after Mr Anderson was found, and the card found on Manson was in fact that one.”
“So, he has either stolen it, found it or been passed it. Emma, can you check out any connections between Manson and the staff member who reported the lost card? Do the same with other staff members in case Manson had an accomplice within the hotel. Check social media and all the usual links. Similarly, check if Manson has, in the past, worked with anyone else in his criminal activities.”
“Okay, sir, will do,” replied Emma.
“This is unlikely, but can you also do some checks to see if there’s any connection between Michael Manson and either James Anderson or Trade-IT? We need to get these checks done quickly so we know whether to add murder to his charge sheet, along with the list of other charges.”
Next, Julie updated the team on the background of Trade-IT and Anderson’s role. She confirmed that financial checks had showed nothing untoward and Anderson was making a good living from Trade-IT. She also indicated she was going to visit the sacked employee at his new place of work that afternoon.
The only other potential suspect they had was Mike Williams. He claimed he had gone up to his room that afternoon for a time out, but that he never saw James Anderson or anyone else while he was upstairs. CCTV showed him, and indeed Pettigrew, separately going upstairs and then back down again at the times they had each said. They had alibis in terms of being in meetings with the rest of the team for the remainder of the time.
“Where was Mike Williams’s room?” asked Ben.
“Just along the corridor from James Anderson’s – room 206,” replied Kevin.
“As you know, sir,” said Julie, “Mr Williams did not show an awful lot of emotion given his boss had just been killed. We also know he is extremely ambitious and wants James Anderson’s job as CTO. He clearly resented Anderson for keeping him at arm’s length when it came to the software, and given the employee appraisal Anderson had completed about Williams the Friday before he was killed, there seemed little chance of progression for him within Trade-IT. Williams would have been raging about it – a possible motive.”
“People don’t usually kill because they get a poor appraisal though,” suggested Emma, who always looked to give people the benefit of the doubt.
“No, I agree,” said Julie, “but having met Williams I could see how he would take it, given the size of his ego, which could have led to an argument . . . which could potentially have got out of hand.”
“And given he was on the same floor as James Anderson, and knowing James was in his room, he probably wouldn’t have been able to leave it alone. Williams isn’t a popular character within Trade–IT. He’s had a few arguments with different people and has been described as arrogant and overbearing,” said Kevin.
“How do you know?” asked Ben.
“Used my charm and got the inside track from Jenny who covers reception and is the PA to the directors of Trade-IT. According to her, it is a widely held view. She was surmising what would happen if Williams took over as CTO.”
“Interesting,” said Ben.
“What, that Kevin has charm?” asked Julie, smiling.
They all laughed.
Ben had also noted that neither of the two remaining directors, the CEO or the CFO, had mentioned the bad appraisal, yet they had both mentioned the relationship between Mike Williams and James Anderson. They had both implied Williams might not be ready to step up, but if the appraisal they’d seen was anything to go by, he might be lucky to still have a job there going forward. It led Ben to think they didn’t know about it, which would be further motivation for Williams to do something about it before they could find out.
“Kevin, can you do full checks on Mike Williams, including financial. I note Alan Millar mentioned multiple salary negotiations with him. He’s either very financially driven or is in financial difficulty – I want to know which,” said Ben.
“We also have toxicology reports back, sir,” said Julie. “I know the CEO suggested James Anderson was unwell while he was at the hotel. Results show nothing in his system by way of medicine or anything untoward.”
Ben said, “The key things I took from our meetings with Richard Pettigrew and Alan Millar were regarding the relationship between Pettigrew and Anderson. They both had fifty percent of the shares of the business, but Pettigrew described how he had to force Anderson to go to the offsite. He also described how, if they had a disagreement, he sometimes had to tell James how it was to be and what was to be done. That is different to how Alan Millar described the relationship. He mentioned there were some red lines Anderson would not move back from. What if Pettigrew was trying to force the issue on these? Anderson went to the hotel under pressure – even his wife said he didn’t want to go. Maybe the pressure continued at the hotel when they met in the afternoon and things got out of hand? I want to dig into this relationship a bit further.”
“We also have the fact that Richard Pettigrew will shortly own one hundred percent of the business and didn’t have to pay anything out for it, given the insurance policy in place. Mrs Anderson also gets a good payout for the shares and a nice life assurance payout too,” added Julie.
“Indeed, Julie – certainly a financial motive, though if James Anderson was as good as everyone said he was, then Richard Pettigrew might not find it as easy taking the business forward without him.”
