So maybe were dealing with a complete nutter, he said bitterly. Great.
Or maybe its someone who wants to destroy you rather than blackmail you, I said simply.
Kerr took his cigar out of his mouth, which remained in a perfect 0. Finally, he said, Youve got to be kidding.
Its something you should consider. In relation to both your professional and your personal life. He was having a lot of trouble getting his head round the idea, I could see. If hed been a bit nicer to me, Id have been gentler. But I figure you shouldnt dish it out unless you can take it. What about business rivals? Is anybody snapping at your heels? Is anybody going under because youve brought out new products or developed new sales strategies?
You dont murder people in business, he protested. Not in my line of business, you dont.
Murder might not have been what was planned, I told him flatly. If they wanted to sabotage you and stay at arms length, they might have hired someone to do the dirty. And they in turn might have hired someone else. And somewhere along the line, the Chinese whispers took over. So is there any other firm that might have a particular reason for wanting Kerrchem to go down the tubes?
He frowned. The last few years have been tough, theres no denying that. Firms go bust, so theres not as much industrial cleaning to be done. Businesses cut their cleaners down from five days to three, so the commercial cleaners cut back on their purchases. Weve kept our heads above water, but its been a struggle. Weve had a couple of rounds of redundancies, weve been a bit slower bringing in some new processes, and weve had to market ourselves more aggressively, but thats the story across the industry. One of our main competitors went bust about nine months ago, but that wasnt because we were squeezing them. It was more because they were based in Basingstoke and they had higher labor costs than us. I havent heard that anybody else is on the edge, and its a small world. To be honest, were one of the smaller fishes. Most of our rivals are big multinationals. If they wanted to take us out, theyd come to the family and make us an offer we couldnt refuse.
That disposed of the easy option. Time to move on. Has anybody left under a cloud? Any unfair-dismissal claims pending?
He shook his head. Not that I know of. As far as I know, and believe me, I would know, the only people who have gone are the ones we cleared out under the redundancy deals. I suppose some of them might have been a bit disgruntled, but if any of them had made any threats, I would have heard about it. Like I said, we pride ourselves on being a family firm, and the department heads and production foremen all know not to keep problems to themselves.
We were going nowhere fast, which only left the sticky bit. Okay, I said. I dont want you to take this the wrong way, Mr. Kerr, but I have to ask these things. Youve said that Kerrchem is a family firm. Is there any possibility that another member of the family wants to discredit you? To make it look like the companys not safe in your hands?
Suddenly I was looking at Trevor Kerrs future. Written all over his scarlet face was the not-so-distant early warning of the heart attack that was lurking in his silted arteries. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, then he roared, Bollocks. Pure, absolute bollocks.
Think about it, I said, smiling sweetly. Thatll teach him to deprive me of a caffeine fix. The other thing is more personal, Im afraid. Are you married, Mr. Kerr?
Course I am. Three children. He jerked his thumb toward a photograph frame on the desk. I leaned forward and turned it round. Standard studio shot of a woman groomed to within an inch of her life, two sulky-looking boys with their fathers features, and a girl whod had the dental work but still looked disturbingly like a rabbit. Been married to the same woman for sixteen years.
So theres no ex-wives or ex-girlfriends lurking around with an ax to grind? I said sweetly.
His eyes drifted away from mine to a point somewhere on the far wall. Dont be ridiculous, he said abruptly. Then, in an effort to win me round, he gave a bark of laughter and said, Bloody hell, Kate, its me that hired you, not the wife.
So now I knew he had, or had had, a mistress. That was the long shot Id have to keep in the back of my mind. Before I could explore this avenue further, the intercom on his desk buzzed. He pressed a button and said, What is it, Sheila?
Reg Unsworth is here, Mr. Kerr. He says he needs to talk to you.
Im in a meeting, Sheila, he said irritably.
There were muffled sounds of conversation, then Sheila said, He says its urgent, Mr. Kerr. He says youll want to know immediately. Its to do with the recalled product, he says.
There were muffled sounds of conversation, then Sheila said, He says its urgent, Mr. Kerr. He says youll want to know immediately. Its to do with the recalled product, he says.
Why didnt you say so? Send him in.
A burly man in a brown warehousemans coat with a head bald as a boiled egg and approximately the same shape walked in. Sorry to bother you, Mr. Kerr. Its about the KerrSter recall.
Well, Reg, spit it out, Kerr said impatiently. Unsworth gave me a worried look. Its a bit confidential-like.
Its all right. Miss Brannigan heres from the Health and Safety Executive. Shes here to help us sort this mess out.
Unsworth still looked uncertain. I checked the records before the returns started coming in. We sent out a total of four hundred and eighty-three gallon containers with the same batch number as the one that there was the problem with. Only so far, weve had six hundred and twenty-seven back.
5
kerr looked astonished. You must have made a mistake, he blustered.
I double-checked, Unsworth said. He jaw set in a line as obstinate as his bosss. Then I went back down to production and checked again. Theres no doubt about it. Weve had back one hundred and forty-four containers more than we sent out. And thats not even taking into account the one that the dead man opened, or ones that have already been used, or people who havent even heard about the recall yet.
Theres got to be some mistake, Kerr repeated. What about the batch-coding machine? Has anybody checked that its working okay?
I checked with the line foreman myself, Unsworth said. Theyve had no problems with it, and Ive seen quality controls sheets. Theres no two ways about it. We only sent out four hundred and eighty-three. Theres a gross of gallon drums of KerrSter that we cant account for sitting in the loading bay. Come and see for yourself if you dont believe me, he added in an aggrieved tone.
Lets do just that, Kerr said, heaving himself to his feet.
Come on, Miss Brannigan. Come and see how the workers earn a living.
I followed Kerr out of the room, Unsworth hung back, holding the door open and falling in beside me as we strode down the covered walkway that linked the administration offices to the factory. Its a real mystery, he offered.
I had my own ideas about what was going on, but for the time being, I decided to keep them to myself. The drams that have been returned, I said, are they all sealed, or have some of them already been opened?
Some of them have been started on, he said. The batch went out into the warehouse the Tuesday before last. Theyll probably have started taking it out on that Thursday or Friday, going by our normal stockpile levels, so theres been plenty time for people to use them.
And no one else has reported any adverse effect?
Unsworth looked uncomfortable. Not as such, he said.
Kerr half turned to catch my reply. But? I asked.
Unsworth glanced at Kerr, who nodded impatiently. Well, a couple of the wholesalers and one or two of the reps had already had containers from that batch returned, Unsworth admitted.
Do you know why that was? I asked.
Customers complained the goods werent up to our usual standard, he said grudgingly.
What sort of complaints? Kerr demanded indignantly. Why wasnt I told about this?
Its only just come to light, Mr. Kerr. They said the KerrSter wasnt right. One of them claimed it had stripped the finish off the flooring in his office toilets.
Kerr snorted. He should tell his bloody workforce to stick with Boddingtons. Theyll have been pissing that foreign lager all over the bloody tiles.
Have you had the chance to analyze any of the containers that have come back? I butted in.
Unsworth nodded. The lads in the lab worked through the night on samples from some of the drums. There wasnt a trace of cyanide in any of them.
Kerr shouldered open a pair of double doors. As I caught one on the backswing, the smell hit me. It was a curious amalgam of pine, lemon and soapsuds, but pervaded throughout with sharp chemical smells that bit my nose and throat. It was a bit like driving past the chemical works at Ellesmere Port with one of those ersatz air fresheners in the car. The ones that make you feel that a rotting polecat under the drivers seat would be preferable. Bight after the smell came the noise of machinery, overlaid with the bubbling and gurgling of liquid. Kerr climbed a flight of narrow iron stairs and I followed him along a high-level walkway that traveled the length of the factory floor. It was unpleasantly humid. I felt like a damp wash thats just been dumped in the tumble dryer.
Beneath us, vats seethed, nozzles squirted liquid into plastic containers and surprisingly few people moved around. Not many bodies, I said loudly over my shoulder to Unsworth.
Computer controlled, he said succinctly.
Another avenue to pursue. If the sabotage was internal, perhaps the culprit was simply sending the wrong instructions to the plant. Id thought this was going to be a straightforward case of industrial sabotage, but my head was beginning to hurt with the permutations it was throwing up.
A couple of hundred yards along the walkway, we descended and cut through a heavy door into a warehouse. Now I know how the Finns feel when they walk into the snow from the sauna. I could feel my pores snapping shut in shock. Here, the air smelled of oil and diesel. The only sound came from fork-lift trucks shunting pallets on and off shelves. This is the warehouse, Kerr said. Id never have worked that one out all by myself. The full containers go through from the factory to packing, where the machines label them, stamp them with batch numbers and seal-wrap them in dozens. Then they come through here on conveyor belts and theyre shelved or loaded. He turned to Unsworth. Where have you stacked the recalls?