Clean Break by Val McDermid Read Free Book Online Page B

“Bloody hell, Kate, it’s me that hired you, not the wife.”
    So now I knew he had, or had had, a mistress. That was the long shot I’d have to keep in the back of my mind. Before I could explore this avenue further, the intercom on his desk buzzed. He pressed a button and said, “What is it, Sheila?”
    â€œReg Unsworth is here, Mr. Kerr. He says he needs to talk to you.”
    â€œI’m in a meeting, Sheila,” he said irritably.
    There were muffled sounds of conversation, then Sheila said, “He says it’s urgent, Mr. Kerr. He says you’ll want to know immediately. It’s to do with the recalled product, he says.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you say so? Send him in.”
    A burly man in a brown warehouseman’s coat with a head bald as a boiled egg and approximately the same shape walked in. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Kerr. It’s about the KerrSter recall.”
    â€œWell, Reg, spit it out,” Kerr said impatiently.
    Unsworth gave me a worried look. “It’s a bit confidential, like.”
    â€œIt’s all right. Miss Brannigan here’s from the Health and Safety Executive. She’s here to help us sort this mess out.”
    Unsworth still looked uncertain. “I checked the records before the returns started coming in. We sent out a total of four hundred and eighty-three gallon containers with the same batch number as the one that there was the problem with. Only … so far, we’ve had six hundred and twenty-seven back.”

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    Kerr looked gobsmacked. “You must have made a mistake,” he blustered.
    â€œI double-checked,” Unsworth said. His jaw set in a line as obstinate as his boss’s. “Then I went back down to production and checked again. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve had back one hundred and forty-four containers more than we sent out. And that’s not even taking into account the one that the dead man opened, or ones that have already been used, or people who haven’t even heard about the recall yet.”
    â€œThere’s got to be some mistake,” Kerr repeated. “What about the batch coding machine? Has anybody checked that it’s working OK?”
    â€œI checked with the line foreman myself,” Unsworth said. “They’ve had no problems with it, and I’ve seen quality control’s sheets. There’s no two ways about it. We only sent out four hundred and eighty-three. There’s a gross of gallon drums of KerrSter that we can’t account for sitting in the loading bay. Come and see for yourself if you don’t believe me,” he added in an aggrieved tone.
    â€œLet’s do just that,” Kerr said, heaving himself to his feet. “Come on, Miss Brannigan. Come and see how the workers earn a living.”
    I followed Kerr out of the room. Unsworth hung back, holding the door open and falling in beside me as we strode down the covered walkway that linked the administration offices with the factory. “It’s a real mystery,” he offered.
    I had my own ideas about what was going on, but for the time being I decided to keep them to myself. “The drums that have been
returned,” I said, “are they all sealed, or have some of them already been opened?”
    â€œSome of them have been started on,” he said. “The batch went out into the warehouse the Tuesday before last. They’ll probably have started taking it out on the Thursday or Friday, going by our normal stockpile levels, so there’s been plenty of time for people to use them.”
    â€œAnd no one else has reported any adverse effect?”
    Unsworth looked uncomfortable. “Not as such,” he said.
    Kerr half turned to catch my reply. “But?” I asked.
    Unsworth glanced at Kerr, who nodded impatiently. “Well, a couple of the wholesalers and one or two of the reps had already had containers from that batch