Brothers' Tears by J. M. Gregson Page A

good employer to me. He never treated me any way but fairly. I wouldn’t trust some of the people I’ve seen in here at times, but it wasn’t my business to pronounce upon them. When I think about it, I can accept your view that my employer “played it close to his chest”. I know quite a lot about some of his work and nothing at all about large chunks of it.’
    â€˜It is those sections which interest us, for obvious reasons. We need every scrap of information you can give us. We’re not Fraud Squad or Drug Squad; we’re interested only in solving a murder case.’
    â€˜You’ve already taken away my files and my computer. I fear you won’t find much of interest.’
    â€˜In that case, what you are able to tell us now will be even more important. We know that he was heavily involved in casinos and betting shops. These are lucrative enterprises in their own right; they are also often used as means of laundering money brought in by illegal trafficking.’
    â€˜Drugs?’
    â€˜Principally drugs, yes. We have learned since James O’Connor died that he was moving to take over a large portion of the illegal drugs market in north-west England. It is a lucrative trade as well as a highly dangerous one. When people move into new areas, powerful interests are affected. He chose to make enemies of some very nasty people. People who may have decided it was time to be rid of him.’
    â€˜You shock me. I have to accept what you say, but I had no idea that Mr O’Connor was involved in anything like this.’
    Despite what she said, she didn’t look very shocked. The death had plainly upset her, but Peach was pretty sure that she had at least suspected the nature of James O’Connor’s interests. Jan Derkson was far too intelligent not to have wondered exactly where all this money was coming from. She was measuring this interview, trying to find how much they knew, how much she could safely conceal. He said abruptly, ‘You know more than you’re telling us. If you obstruct our enquiries, we shall take whatever action is appropriate.’
    This time she was shaken. His sudden loss of patience and change of tack disturbed her, despite her attempt to remain calm. ‘I’m sorry that you feel I’m being obstructive. I’ll answer whatever questions you care to put to me as honestly as I can.’
    The snag with that was that he didn’t feel he knew enough yet to ask the penetrating questions he needed. He’d never felt so little in touch with an investigation he was supposed to be directing. There was a huge field of suspects and Tommy Bloody Tucker had cocked up the vital first stage of the enquiry. He looked hard at the white-faced, watchful woman in front of him. ‘Did you compile the invitation list for Monday night’s function?’
    â€˜I suppose I did, under Mr O’Connor’s direction. The family guest list was pretty obvious from previous occasions; I merely duplicated that, with one or two small changes. My employer gave me the names of the business people he wanted to see there.’
    â€˜I’m in your hands here, Mrs Derkson. My team is doing routine checks on everyone who attended on Monday night. I want to see the most significant ones myself. Business rivals of the host perhaps. Anyone outside the family whom you were surprised to see included on your list.’
    He wondered if she would insist on going into the outer office to retrieve the full list of those to whom she’d sent letters of invitation. It would have given her time to think, to decide just what information she was prepared to volunteer. But she obviously had that information already in her mind; the difficulty for him was going to be in deciding exactly how frank she was being. Her fingers flicked briefly to her lips, but otherwise she was quite still. Percy wondered if she was a former smoker who had given up the awful