The Watcher

‘Miss.’

‘Miss Jones, and we don’t have any leads at the moment. We were hoping that you could help us with that.’

She nodded. ‘Of course. Whatever you need.’

‘Thank you.’ Marilyn leant forward, steepling his fingers. ‘Can you tell us about Hugo Fuller’s business?’

‘His business was buying up ground rents to leasehold properties. The revenue came from the tenants’ ground rent payments.’

‘We’ve done a little research, Miss Jones. He didn’t have a great reputation for being a fair and generous landlord.’

Jane Jones’ mouth tightened. ‘It’s business, Detective Inspector Simmons.’

‘But there’s business and there’s business, isn’t there Miss Jones?’

‘That’s very cryptic.’

‘Hugo Fuller’s business was buying up freeholds and ramping up the ground rent by hundreds or thousands of per cent, wasn’t it? And if families couldn’t pay, they were kicked out of their properties, made homeless.’

‘No one is truly homeless in this country, Detective Inspector. The council has a legal responsibility to house everyone.’

‘Didn’t you have any moral objection to what you were doing – working for a business like that, a man like that?’ Workman cut in.

Jones shrugged. ‘He paid my salary on time and he was a decent boss.’

Workman raised an eyebrow. ‘Decent?’

‘He was never nasty to me, if that’s what you’re asking. And he never pretended to be anything he wasn’t.’ She smiled, a cynical, slightly bitter smile. ‘He was a “does what it says on the tin” kind of man.’

‘What about the people he was screwing?’ Marilyn asked. ‘I can’t imagine that they shared your view regarding Hugo Fuller’s decency.’

A raised eyebrow, accompanying another cynical smile. ‘Do you mean metaphorically or physically screwing, Detective Inspector?’

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