Page 50 of The Truth Will Out
“Me? How would I know?”
“Can you tell me if he was due to meet anyone at the location last night?”
“No. We rarely visit the locations once the planning application has been successful. What stage is the development in? Can you tell me?”
“The builders are on site. It’s at the industrial unit on the other side of town.”
“If it’s the one I’m thinking about, there should be no reason he would have been there. I can check for you if you’ll give me a moment.”
“If you wouldn’t mind, thank you.”
She booted up the computer, which thankfully didn’t take long to come to life, and typed in the information. “Here it is. Yes, it was all signed off on our part, and that should have been the end of our involvement. Oh my, I wonder what he was doing there.”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out. Can you tell us when you last saw him?”
“He was still in the office when the rest of us left at five-thirty last night. I dropped in here to ask him if he was going to be long. He assured me he had some paperwork to finish and that he’d be leaving within the next fifteen minutes. My colleagues and I left him to it. Gone are the days I offer to stay behind and help out.”
Sam frowned. “What makes you say that?”
“Because I’ve offered to assist him several times in the past, only to be told that he didn’t need my help. I’m the same with everyone, eager to assist them if it makes their lives easier. That’s what people do when they’re part of a team, isn’t it?”
“Yes, you’re right. But he always turned down your offer to lend a hand. Did he say why?”
“Just that he preferred to do things on his own.”
“Did he stay behind a lot?”
Mrs Kilner nodded slowly. “Now that you mention it, yes, he did, more so than anyone else in the department.”
“Isn’t that what bosses tend to do in general, though?”
“They might do elsewhere, but not around here, not in my experience. Damn, I still can’t believe he’s dead and that this could be work-related.”
“Sorry if I gave you that impression. As yet, we don’t know if that’s a fact or not. Our investigation is still in the preliminary stages. One thing that has come to our attention is a possible link to Pendle House.”
“Wow, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I believe Stephen was the officer who assisted the developer in obtaining the correct planning permission, back in the day.”
“I don’t suppose you can let us have a look at the file, can you?”
“I’m sorry, not without a warrant. As you can appreciate, the files are treated as confidential.”
Sam smiled. “It was worth a try. Maybe you can tell us what time Stephen left last night, then? I’m assuming you have an alarm system here that is set every night.”
Mrs Kilner lifted a finger and nodded. “Of course. I can get that information for you.” She pounded the keyboard and turned the screen to face Sam and Bob. “This is the information for this week, and for last night in particular. He left at precisely six forty-three and set the alarm behind him.”
“Perhaps you can tell us if he had any meetings planned for after work?”
“I don’t think so. He had quite a busy schedule yesterday as it was.”
“Can you check for us?”
She opened another file, and Sam watched her eyebrows shoot up into her fringe.
“This is interesting.”
Sam shuffled forward to the edge of her seat and squinted at the screen. “What am I looking at?”
“Here.” Mrs Kilner pointed at the relevant information. “It states that he had a meeting with ‘I’ at seven-thirty.”
