She reached across the table and touched the tips of his fingers. She wasn’t sure, but she thought he twitched at her touch, as though it were unwelcome. What she had said back at the Corrigan house had obviously crossed a line; she just hoped they could get back from it.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Imogen watched Gary tapping away at the computer, pulling up various documents and sending them to the printer.

‘How’s Adrian?’ Gary said.

‘He seems to be improving. He’s lost some weight, though; this bug really has a hold of him.’

‘What’s the doctor given him?’

‘I don’t know. Antibiotics, I assume,’ Imogen responded. ‘What are we looking at?’

‘I’m just looking at all the construction jobs that have taken place over the last few years since Corrigan Construction moved into town.’

Imogen remembered what Angela had said about moving from Shropshire.

‘How long ago was it again?’ she asked.

‘Around ten years now. Which is not that long in business terms; he grew that company very fast.’

‘Do you think we can get him on dodgy books or something?’

‘Nothing obviously illegal as yet. We’ve tried reaching out to his competitors in the area, see if he has been strong-arming them into letting him win bids on big contracts. He seems to get more than his fair share and I find it hard to believe that’s completely above board. Same story, though. No one has anything to say about him on the record. I mean, why aren’t they kicking off about it?’

‘Why wouldn’t it be legal to win bids?’

‘It was a huge deal a few years ago. Then the law was changed to ensure the bigger companies weren’t fucking over the smaller ones, which they were by ensuring that they always won the biggest construction bid, basically putting lots of smaller companies out of business. You aren’t allowed to create barriers to prevent other companies from entering a market; it’s possible that’s what was happening here. Again, nothing on paper that is untoward, but you don’t know what he is saying to these people in person.’

‘He’s probably not taking them out to dinner. He knows how to make people do what he wants, which means there won’t be a paper trail,’ Imogen said. ‘Can you find out more about Angela Corrigan when you have done that? Where she is from, if she still has any family that maybe we could connect her with. Do it when you finish that. Let me know if you need me to speak to anyone. Although so far no one wants to say anything specific against this guy; he is like a Sith Lord or something.’

‘Oh no, has Adrian been making you watch Star Wars?’

‘Last month he made me watch the first three movies.’

‘The first three?’