Page 33 of The Dead Come to Stay
“Certainly. I know Ava is a celebrated concert pianist. I don’thave to know the difference between a B-flat and an F-sharp. I respect her work, she respects mine. Separate spheres.”
“So I see.” MacAdams did not see, but all the same. “Back to Foley, then. His last email to you called for apartners’meeting. On Friday, the day he was killed. Can you elaborate?”
Burnhope nodded, then backed toward the farther glass wall. “Would you step into my office? I have something to show you.”
MacAdams obliged, taking a seat in the chair opposite Burnhope’s credenza. “You aren’t from Newcastle yourself, I take it.”
“Is it so obvious?”
“You don’t have the accent. Your wife does, but we know she’s local.” MacAdams watched his smile reappear.
“Daughter to city CEO Thompson, yes, Newcastle born and bred. I come from London.”
“Not Ireland?” MacAdams asked, referring to his very slight brogue. Honest surprise dawned on Burnhope’s face.
“I’m not, but well spotted, Detective. Are you a linguist?”
“Detective Chief Inspector. And I’m not, but I’m familiar with the Irish accent. Yours is faint, but I can hear it.” In all honesty, he’d guessed—and only because Burnhope pronounced the wordcannotthe same way Tula Byrne did:cannae. Burnhope rested his hands upon his desk.
“You’ll be surprised to know I only spent a year there, but it was a formative one. I was three. Do you have children?”
“I don’t.”
“Well, you would be shocked what a toddler picks up and can’t let go. I learned to speak there, and retain a bit of those linguistic leanings.” Burnhope turned on his laptop and appeared to be scrolling. “I did receive that email from Foley, as you said, and we met up. I don’t know why he called it a partners’ meeting,except that he had been angling for a promotion. Been asking for at least six months.”
The half year seemed to be increasingly important.
“You weren’t keen on the idea?” MacAdams asked.
Burnhope’s eyes had returned to their usual demure hoods, and he frowned slightly.
“I’m afraid not, no. Don’t mistake me—Foley had a certain set of very important skills. But he wasn’t right for partnership.”
MacAdams tapped his pencil against the notepad. He wanted to talk about the meeting on Friday, but this seemed important.
“Whatdoesit take, Mr. Burnhope? Why wasn’t he the right sort?”
Burnhope looked out the window and away from MacAdams before he replied.
“I started this company in 1993,” he said. “Now we’re international. We employ thousands of people; we do a build from design to finish. It’s better for Newcastle, better for everyone. We have a public face and a debt to the community.”
“I believe youarethe public face,” MacAdams countered. “The golden boy of industry, or so says theChronicle.”
Burnhope laughed. “I wouldn’t put it that way myself. I’m a businessman, and we all want fiscal success; I’m not denying it. I justalsowant something good to come of it. It sounds cliché, but I want the world to be a better place for my children. Sophie Wagner wants that—Ava wants that. It’s our focus.”
“You haven’t really answered the question,” MacAdams reminded him.
“What I’m saying is that it takes different personalities to run a company. Foley had single-minded focus. He was aggressive; he wasn’t afraid to push. I used to call him the bulldog.” Burnhope’s expression grew serious. “Foley could shout down a contractor; he could bully the toughest supervisors, he wouldn’t be crossed, denied or made a fool of. But you can’t treat financers and governing bodies that way. I gave him his six months to turn it around with a property in York. It took him half that time to gravely irritate the Lord Mayor, in a way that gets the project shut down. I’d made up my mind before the meeting that he simply wasn’t partner material.”
And with that, they had circled back to Friday.
“Start from his arrival at four thirty,” MacAdams said. “Don’t leave anything out.”
Burnhope sighed and laced his fingers. “There isn’t much to tell. He arrived; we had a coffee. It started cordially enough, but when I told him it wasn’t in our vision for him to make partner, he became angry.”
“And did things escalate?”
“He shouted a bit, then said he didn’t need Hammersmith.”
