‘I’d be in a better position to say if there was some record of them.’

Harry nodded. ‘I’ll get one of our marketing people to forward everything we can find.’ He paused for a moment and rubbed his chin. ‘You don’t need to do anything controversial these days to enrage someone somewhere, do you? Whatever happened to reasonableness?’

Claire watched him go into the changing rooms then returned to her car to make some notes. She looked up ten minutes later across the now deserted parking area, and saw Harry get into his silver Mercedes. He buckled up, and then stared vacantly out of the windscreen. He didn’t move for two or three minutes, then rested his forearms across the steering wheel, his head slumped upon them. His shoulders began to tremble.

Businessman Johnny Lam turned out to be very hard to track down. Shireen had tried ringing several times the day before, and had left messages, which were not returned. Gillard sat with her at her desk as she again rang Hong Kong & International Cuisine, only to be told by his polite but evasive PA that Mr Lam was on a flight to Hong Kong. The PA insisted that she had passed on the messages, and that Mr Lam would call as soon as he had a moment.

‘Sorry, boss, that’s the best I can do,’ Shireen said as she ended the call.

‘I could have a word with Hong Kong police, but it seems a bit heavy-handed at this stage. Likewise for an arrest warrant on his return.’ Gillard said. The photographs they had seen online of Lam showed a dapper and flamboyantly dressed middle-aged man with smiling eyes and a goatee beard. There was even one photograph of him at some soirée with Harry Roy – a beautiful Indian-looking woman standing between them, but not identified on the picture.

‘How did you get on with the Americans?’ Gillard asked her.

‘Much better. I spoke to the chief press spokesman of Global Foods in Milwaukee, who confirmed the meeting with Mrs Roy, but was unable to shed any light on what was discussed. She did point out that if Global Foods had been intending to make an offer for Empire of Spice, she would have known about it. Which doesn’t mean that they are ruling it out in the future. She was quite apologetic that under Securities and Exchange Commission rules in the US she couldn’t tell me any more.’

Gillard sighed. ‘I suppose we couldn’t expect any better.’

It was five o’clock, and the mobile incident room was packed. Gillard had convened the meeting principally for DS Shireen Corey-Williams to present the background to the Empire of Spice. DI Mulholland was there, along with detective constables Colin Hodges and Carl Hoskins, plus Rob Townsend, the research intelligence officer.

The PowerPoint presentation Shireen gave was an overview of the foundation of the company, and the various business deals that it had made. Her exotic good looks and halo of dark wavy hair always guaranteed attention from male attendees, though she was often teased about her accent. She was a mixture of Iranian and Lebanese stock, and after marrying a Brummie and living in Britain’s second city for a decade she had picked up a little of the nasal Birmingham twang.