Murder... Now and Then Read Online Free PDF

noun, do you think?’ mused Lloyd. ‘A snap of photographers?’
    â€˜An exposure of photographers,’ she said.
    Nice, he thought and gave her an interested glance, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was almost on tiptoe, anxiously watching progress as the ministerial party was met by Holyoak and Max Scott, the man who was so remarkably uninterested in his wife’s health. Lloyd amused himself for a moment or two by playing Spot the Special Branch, as the minister began his speech. His remarks were short and to the point, time having become ever more pressing, and soon Lloyd and the girl were clapping with the others as the ribbon fell to the ground and the air shuddered to fifty cameras clicking at once and a small electrical storm of flash-bulbs.
    A photo opportunity. That’s what they called this sort of thing these days. A piece of stage-managed bonhomie to show the electorate what great guys they all were. Sometimes they patted puppies, sometimes they visited old people’s homes, and sometimes, especially in a marginal constituency with rising unemployment, they opened factories. Since the election had been announced, Stansfield had been invaded by every charismatic and not so charismatic member of parliament the parties could lay their hands on. This one was relatively young, reasonably dynamic, and almost handsome – the jewel in the government’s crown – and he always got national news coverage. Holyoak was lucky to have got him.
    The Rules re-entered unobtrusively after the official ceremony finished; Holyoak and Zelda Driver immediately went over to them. Scott didn’t. Zelda took the keys, and went off to the lift; Scott remained where he was.
    â€˜Holyoak’s stepdaughter did know he was going to make this announcement did she?’ he said, as the crush of people began to organize itself into groups to which the minister could be introduced while casting furtive glances at the clock.
    â€˜Oh, of course,’ said Anna. ‘I think she just got a bit over-emotional, that’s all.’
    Lloyd and Anna had inadvertently become a group; the minister met them, had a sip of wine, and then he and his media circus moved on to the next port of call.
    Lunch was in the boardroom, an impressively large and imposing room off the foyer. They filed in, and Lloyd was agreeably surprised to find himself seated next to Anna Worthing, and at the opposite end of the long table from Holyoak.
    â€˜Holyoak won’t actually be running this place himself?’ he asked, over the soup.
    â€˜No. That’ll be Max Scott’s job,’ she said. ‘But Holyoak UK’s head office will be based here – for the moment it’s housed in this building, but a prestige building is being designed. And this factory will be just the first of Holyoak UK’s acquisitions. Holyoak Security will be the flagship company.’
    Lloyd raised his eyebrows a little at the idea, and the self-conscious quoting from some PR pamphlet.
    â€˜This is just the start,’ she said. She looked round the boardroom, and at the portrait of the firm’s founder. ‘When the factory’s in full production, it’ll employ up to two thousand people. And he’ll build more, in other areas. He wants Holyoak Security to be the biggest manufacturer of state-of-the-art security systems in Europe.’
    â€˜So I’m told,’ said Lloyd. He felt, and sounded, more than a little sceptical. ‘Up to’ two thousand people could actually mean any number under two thousand, after all.
    â€˜Another non-believer,’ she said.
    â€˜How many has it actually taken on so far?’ Lloyd asked, his voice dry. ‘Apart from the ones already employed by Driver’s?’
    â€˜A hundred and fifty, since the expansion,’ she replied.
    More than Lloyd had thought, he conceded. ‘Not bad, I suppose,’ he said. ‘But it’s still a long way