Imposture (DI Gardener 6)

“At that age, did he really need anyone to look after him?” asked Reilly.

“Because of all the moving around, his parents were the only people he had ever been close to. Anthony prefers his own company. Having said that, although he’s a bit of a loner, he will adapt and fit in if needed. But the only people he relied on were his parents and after they had died, he had no one, until Ann Marie stepped in. This is what beats me. Why and how has he come to be mixed up in all this crap?”

“We will get an answer for you, Mr Hunter,” said Gardener. “Trust me.”

“Can you tell us anything more about him, Roger?” Reilly ask

ed.

“I can but it’s all second-hand. I only met him once or twice, so anything I tell you is what my brother told me.”

“We’ll settle for that for now,” said Reilly, notebook at the ready.

“It was David who told me that Anthony is a real oddball,” continued Roger. “Everything in his life has to be in order. He has a routine and does not like to deviate from it. He wakes up at the same time every day, eats at the same time, exercises and showers at the same time. Nothing is left to chance. He does not like chance.

“All holidays are planned to the last second: when he will go, what he is going to do whilst there, when he will return, and what he will do on his return. Anthony is not a people person. If the circumstances require it, he’ll talk the hind leg off a donkey. But according to David – not Ann Marie – Anthony has a dark side to him.”

“We can see that,” said Gardener.

“He has little or no compassion,” said Roger. “He will ruin anyone financially without turning a hair; an attitude that seemed to develop following the death of his parents. But I certainly wouldn’t have thought he would bite the hand that feeds him.”

“Something must have happened between them all,” said Reilly.

“But what could be so bad that it would cause this?” asked Roger Hunter.

“You said just now, that he will ruin anyone financially without turning a hair,” said Gardener, “do you have any evidence to back that up?”

“I don’t have anything specific I can quote. All I can tell you is that he was very good with computers, but I suspect you know that already. In fact, David reckoned Anthony was better than anyone he had ever seen.”

Gardener could see now why they were in the dark about the DPA’s activities. If Anthony Palmer – not to mention the rest of them – were as good as they were claiming, Gardener’s team would have a mountain to climb.

Roger sipped his tea before continuing, all the while with the expression of a haunted man, as if he should have seen what was coming, and the results of Anthony’s actions were a legacy he would rather not face.

“Anthony’s long-standing ambition had been to start up his own IT company. The death of his parents not only devastated him, it left him bloody penniless, because the money they had set up in a trust fund collapsed due to a loophole in the policy. That was probably his introduction to how life can let you down.”

“Might even account for how he’s turned and what’s led him up this path,” said Reilly.

“I imagine it had something to do with it,” replied Roger, “but I’m sure there’s more to it. Anyway, Anthony eventually attended college and studied IT. From there he went to university.”

“Do you know which one?”

“No, probably here in Leeds, but I’m sure David or Ann Marie would be able to tell you.”

Roger stopped suddenly, and then corrected himself: “Had they been here.”

Gardener allowed Roger Hunter a moment’s silence and was quite relieved when he took up the story again.

“I think Anthony knew enough about computers to realise their potential and the havoc he could wreak with them. I remember David telling me that he’d discovered Anthony had been developing and selling cures for viruses, which is why I said what I did about ruining people financially, because that’s what computer viruses do, don’t they?”

Gardener couldn’t do anything but agree. At least he was learning more about one of the potential monsters responsible for the deaths of two people. He could only term him as a monster because it appears that he wantonly set out to destroy them. But he needed to know why, and at the moment he wasn’t hearing anything to point him in the right direction. What had happened to cause such an act of violence?

Roger Hunter finished his tea. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more than that, gentlemen. As I said, it’s all second-hand. I only met him on a couple of occasions, family gatherings, so to speak. But even then I got the impression that he couldn’t really be trusted – something in his eyes. I wish you the best of luck with him if he is your man. He’s as slippery as an eel.”

“We’re beginning to realise that.”

Roger Hunter sighed, his gaze distant. “I’d love to know what went on to cause such a rift. And why didn’t my brother say something?”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Roger,” said Reilly. “All sorts of weird things happen within families, secrets buried for years.”