Faithfully: Chase & Halshaw #1 (3 page)

“Welcome to Skyline Place, Inspector,” said the trim, petite
young woman, her conservative navy shift dress contrasting oddly with her
vibrant plum-coloured hair. “Mr Lewis is expecting you. This way, please.”

Chase clipped on his visitor’s pass, thanked the Security
Guard, and followed the young woman through the turnstile. “Sorry, I’m afraid I
didn’t catch your name,” he said.

She turned and smiled. “Dinah
Rodway
,”
she replied. “I’m Mr Lewis’ PA. We spoke on the phone, remember?”

“Oh yes, of course. Nice to put a face to the name.”

Her smile didn’t waver. “Want some coffee before we go up?”

“Yes please.”

“No problem. This way.”

She led the way across the atrium, her heels clicking
briskly on the marble floor, towards a coffee shop hidden behind a screen of
olive trees. “What would you like?” she asked. “Cappuccino, espresso, latte?”

“Just a small cappuccino, please.”

“Coming right up.”

While she ordered, Chase looked around at the imposing
atrium, the marble-clad walls lined with vaguely familiar-looking artwork.
Watery sunlight seeped through the tinted glass ceiling. “Impressive place,
this,” he said. “Been here long?”

“About five years,” she replied. “Our headquarters used to
be at Stockley Park, out near Heathrow, but we kind of out-grew it. Then this
place became available.”

“Isn’t it purpose built?”

“No. It used to belong to a technology company,
myshopwindow.com.”

“Went bust in the dot-com crash, did they?”

“No, they didn’t. They were very successful for a while.
Then they decided to get into Social Networking in a really big way. Trouble
was, they were a few years too early. In the end, they just ran out of money.
Logistical bought the place from the administrators and moved in a year or so
later.” She thanked the dreadlocked barista and handed Chase an insulated
cardboard cup. “Milk, sugar, and chocolate sprinkles are over there.”

“Thanks.” Chase emptied two sticks of raw cane sugar into
the cup and stirred it carefully. “Have you worked here all that time?”

“No!” she laughed. “I’ve only been here a couple of years.
Ready?”

Chase nodded.

She led the way back across the atrium, towards a glassed-in
lift shaft, and pressed the call button. A few moments later the car arrived,
and Chase stepped aside as two attractive Asian girls emerged. Deep in
conversation, they paid him not the slightest heed.

Dinah
Rodway
held the lift door
for the detective, and then pressed the button for the fourth floor. As the
lift climbed, Chase looked out of the glazed walls and admired the view of the
lobby: the coffee shop, the entrance to the canteen, and a colourful display of
corporate publicity boards proclaiming the latest triumphs of The Logistical
Group.

“Is this just the group head office?” he asked.

“Yes and no,” she replied. “It’s the registered office for
the group and all the subsidiaries, bar two or three that are registered in
other countries. Group management are based here, along with all the central
group functions: payroll, human resources, finance, and so on. And IT, of
course.” She smiled. “But almost all the subsidiaries have some functions in
this building too.

The list stopped at the fourth floor, and Chase and
Rodway
stepped out. She led the way through a heavily
sprung fire door and ushered Chase into a small, glass-walled cubicle with a
circular pine table and four high-backed chairs.

“I’ll tell Bryn you’re here,” she said. “Won’t be long.”
With a cheery smile she went on her way, leaving the door ajar.

Chase looked around him. The cubicle was at one end of a
large, bright open plan office. He saw Dinah
Rodway
talking to a sleek, prosperous man at a window seat, a third of the way along.
She glanced up at Chase, and he looked away quickly. The two pretty Asian girls
passed the cubicle door, still deep in animated conversation. Chase sipped his
coffee and admired their long, glossy hair and brilliant smiles.

A few moments later, Amy Birkdale appeared at the door,
dressed in a mannish white shirt and black tailored trousers, her hair scooped
and plaited into an elaborate quiff.

“Morning, Inspector,” she smiled. “How’s it going?”

“Good morning, Ms Birkdale,” he replied. “How are you
today?”

“Good, thanks.” She sat in the chair opposite him and
crossed her long legs. “After we’d finished cleaning up at the flat, we went
back to Mum’s. She cooked me dinner and I slept round the clock.”

“How long are you going to be staying at your Mum’s?”

“Until next week sometime, I guess. Mum’s desperate to feed
me up and I’m in no hurry to go back to the flat.”

“Quite understandable,” smiled Chase, sympathetically. “Can
you give me the address and phone number there, please? Just in case?”

Amy hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged. “OK,” she
said, accepting his notebook and pen. She quickly jotted down the details and
handed the notebook and pen back to Chase. He glanced at what she had written,
struck by her improbably neat handwriting, and tucked his notebook back into
his pocket.

The plump man Chase had noticed earlier appeared at the
cubicle door. “Detective Inspector Chase?” he asked. “Sorry to keep you
waiting. I’m Bryn Lewis.”

Chase couldn’t help noticing the faint Welsh lilt in Lewis’s
voice. “Thank you for agreeing to see me so quickly,” he replied, as they shook
hands.

Amy sprang to her feet. “I’ll leave you to it, then,” she
said.

Lewis watched her leave, then shut the door behind her, settled
himself in the chair opposite Chase’s, and laid his Blackberry on the table. “I
have to admit, Inspector, I don’t really understand why you’re so keen to see
me.”

“OK. Let me try and explain. Amy has told you about the
break-in at her flat the other night, I take it?”

“Yes, of course.”

“We have reason to believe it was done to intimidate her. In
connection with her work here, we suspect.”

Lewis’ eyes opened wide, but his voice remained even. “I
don’t suppose you can tell me why, Inspector?”

“All in good time, Mr Lewis,” said Chase. “Can you tell me
what Amy’s working on, please?”

“How much do you know about Information Technology,
Inspector?”

“Not a lot. I rely on my Sergeant for that.” And how the
hell am I going to manage without him, he added silently.

“What about the Logistics industry?”

“Even less.”

Lewis nodded. “OK. Let me try and make this simple.
Logistical, or The Logistics Alliance as it was originally called, was formed
about twenty years ago when three logistics companies merged.”

“Logistics?”

“Shipping, airfreight, express deliveries, trucking. All
that kind of thing.”

“Sorry. Go on.”

“Over the years, the group has grown to seventeen
subsidiaries, by a mixture of organic growth and acquisition. All the
subsidiaries use the same systems to run their operations. All, that is, except
two. Portage and Bearing Straight. We’ve had some external consultants in, and
they’ve confirmed what I’ve suspected ever since I joined the Group, which is
that Portage and Bearings could share a common IT platform and save a shed-load
of money in doing so.”

“And the savings will come from job losses, I take it?”

“Not necessarily. It depends what we decide to do. But yes,
it’s a distinct possibility.”

“OK,” replied Chase, noncommittally. He thought for a
moment. Would your team do the work to put this new system in place?”

“No. Well, my team will manage the programme, but that’s
all. The subsidiaries will do the bulk of the work themselves. Together with
their outsourcing partners, of course.”

Chase nodded.

“I don’t have a large team, Inspector,” Lewis continued. “I
have a handful of Programme Managers, including Amy, of course. I have a very
small Enterprise Architecture practice. And I have a group responsible for
establishing and monitoring compliance with technical strategy, policies and
procedures.”

Chase thought for a moment. “But don’t the subsidiaries’ IT
departments work for you?”

“Yes, Inspector. That was something I insisted on when I
joined the group.” Lewis noticed Chase’s frown and continued. “I’m responsible
for Information Technology across the group, you see. So the six IT heads all
report to me. With a dotted line into their own management structures, of
course.”

“Six? I thought you said there were seventeen subsidiaries?”

“Quite right,” smiled Lewis. “But eleven have standardised
on the Group technology portfolio and disbanded their in-house teams. Most of
the other subsidiaries are heading the same way. Portage and Bearing Straight
are the two main holdouts.”

“Why is that?” Chase asked.

“Because they’re the two specialist companies in the group.
Portage deal with livestock. But not just any livestock. Breeding animals,
racehorses, pampered pets, zoo animals, if it’s got four legs, breathes, and
needs to be moved from A to B, that’s what they do.”

“And Bearing Straight?”

“They were one of the first express delivery companies. Big
in shipments to and from Japan, airfreighted over the pole in the sixties and
seventies.”

“Hence the name?”

“Hence the name. When the US big boys got in on the act, Bearings
decided to downsize and concentrate on their most profitable niche.”

“Which was?”

“Specialist cargo. Bullion, antiques, artworks, anything
that’s unique and irreplaceable. They do a lot of work for the National Gallery
and the British Museum, for instance.”

Chase made a note.

“Trouble is, the system the other group companies use
doesn’t fit their needs.”

“Why not?”

“Because every shipment is different.”

“You mean feeding the animals?”

“Yes, though it’s not just that. Imagine the amount of
documentation you have to produce if you want to move a zoo animal,
particularly if it’s an endangered species. Or if you’re shipping an old master
around, come to that.”

“I think I understand,” frowned Chase. “But the changeover
will cost a fortune, surely. What’s wrong with the systems they already have?”

“Good question, Inspector,” smiled Lewis. “OK. Bearing’s
system dates back to their trans-polar airfreight days. It’s incredibly
sophisticated, but it’s totally over-engineered and costs a fortune to run. It
still has the code to do weight and balance calculations for their old 707
freighter aircraft, for God’s sake! BRAHMS, it’s called.”

“Why?”

“It’s an acronym. Don’t ask me what it means. Les Salter is
probably the only person left who would.”

“Who’s he?”

“He’s Bearing’s Technology Strategy Manager. He joined as a
graduate trainee, back in the seventies, and he’s been there ever since. He
wrote some of the main algorithms of BRAHMS in his programming days, too.”

“OK. What about Portage?”

“They use a package from a company called
LogiSoft
, who are about to be taken over by one of their
major competitors. And shut down, we suspect.”

“So where does Amy fit into this?”

“She’s leading the programme to implement a replacement for
BRAHMS, and Portage’s
LogiSoft
system. We’ve decided
to go for a product called Logistics Unlimited. It’s a great fit, and it’s got
extensions to produce all the specialist documentation that Bearings and
Portage need. Even better, it’s cloud-based and open source, so...”

“If you say so,” Chase interjected. “Amy said she was at
some big meeting or other, yesterday morning. What was that all about?”

“It was the programme kick-off meeting. Justin Hargreaves
from Sandersons presented their findings...”

“Are Sandersons the external consultants you mentioned?”

“That’s right. After Justin had finished, Amy gave a
presentation about how she intends to structure the change programme. You know,
governance and suchlike.”

“Who else was at the meeting?”

“Two other consultants from Sandersons. I can’t remember
their names, I’m afraid. Frank Usher and Paul McKinley from Portage, Lorna
Hilton and Les Salter from Bearing Straight...”

“The same Les Salter?”

“Just so,” replied Lewis.

“Is that everyone?”

“I think so, yes.” He frowned. “No. There was one other
person there. Dave Kelmarsh.”

“Who’s he?”

“He’s my Head of Policies and Procedures.”

Chase nodded. “I’ll need to talk to all of them, Mr Lewis.
I’m sure you understand.”

“That’s absolutely fine, Inspector. Di will gladly help with
the arrangements, I’m sure. Any problems, please let me know.”

“Thank you, Mr Lewis. Moving on, what do you make of Amy
Birkdale?”

“Very good. Strong-willed, capable, intelligent. A rising
star.”

“Do the two of you get on well?”

Lewis permitted himself a smile. “Yes, we do, Inspector.
We’ve got a great deal in common.”

“She told us that the two of you were working late on Monday
evening.”

“That’s right. We were reviewing the material she was going
to present the following morning.”

“What time did you finish?”

“About quarter to nine, I think.”

“Who left first?”

“We left the office together. No. Hold on.” He stroked his
chin thoughtfully. “That’s right. We did leave the office together, it’s true,
but Amy stopped off at the Ladies. So I would have left the building before she
did.”

“So you didn’t see her leave?”

“No. But I went straight down to the underground car park,
so I couldn’t have done.”

“OK. Who does she report to?”

“Nominally, she works for a woman called Claire Parks, who
runs my Programme Management team. But Claire’s on maternity leave at the
moment so Amy’s reporting directly to me. Just as well, given the sensitivity
of this project.”