Helen frowned, unable to see where Lindsay was heading. “Right. So we’d have made other films instead. Films set over here. Or in developed countries where the bribe culture is more or less dead.”

“My point exactly,” Lindsay said triumphantly. “For manufacturers, the paying of bribes is a necessary business expense or else they go to the wall. For you, it’s a luxury. You could conceivably make other films that would equally ensure your continued success. So if someone grassed you up to the taxman, you’d be a perfect case to use to trumpet to the world that this government is encouraging the Inland Revenue to clamp down on corruption.”

Helen looked gobsmacked. “You are fucking wicked,” she said admiringly.

“You’ve only heard the half of it. Customs and Excise have never really gone along with the Revenue on this one. Their view has always been that if there’s anything in the VAT accounts that looks dodgy, they’ll come down like a ton of bricks. Mostly, foreign kickbacks don’t have any impact on the amount of VAT a company’s due to pay. But there are circumstances where they do—like if you’ve disguised a bribe as a payment for goods or services and you’ve paid it to a company with a UK subsidiary. Would there be anything like that in these accounts?”

“Oh, yeah,” Helen said eagerly. “I can show you, if you like.” She pulled the monitor towards her so she could see the screen. Lindsay passed the keyboard across and Helen moved expertly through a set of accounts till she found what she was looking for. “We keep the accounts for each project totally separate,” she said as she moved the cursor down a list of payments. “This is Thirty/Three, Guy and Stella’s little honeymoon on the subcontinent. There, that’s what I’m looking for. Canopus Islamabad.” She double clicked on the file. A window popped open detailing dates and amounts of payments. “We hire our lighting from them. We pay them in the UK, with a hefty slice on top of the actual hiring charge.”

“Perfect,” Lindsay said softly. “Now I need you to show me the way round your accounts software.”

“You’re not going to alter them, are you?” Helen asked, looking aghast.

“Nothing that crude,” Lindsay said. “I just want to get familiar with the ins and outs of what was paid, when it was paid and who got the cash. Then I can get to work.”

“So what are you going to do?” Helen nagged.

“I’m going to plant some files in Stella’s personal desk. And some in Guy’s. I can’t tell you the details, because I don’t know what they are yet.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Helen asked, worry replacing fury for the first time since Lindsay had revealed Stella and Guy’s racket to her.