Stone's Fall

All around the table nodded in agreement. I had quite forgotten they were there, but evidently what Steptoe had said had been discussed by them. This was a family decision, not his alone. So I nodded in approval as well, as though it was exactly the decision I thought he should have taken. In fact, it probably was.

'I can tell you who was behind it all, though.'

I looked at him. 'Well, let me take a guess, then. Obviously not one of your workmates. So, you are about to tell me it was one of the bosses themselves. Otherwise you wouldn't say a word. Correct?'

He grinned at me, in a fetchingly boyish fashion. 'That's right,' he said with some satisfaction. 'He told me everything, once I'd figured it out. He was brought in one day, about six months ago and told that he had to do this. Slip fake invoices into the piles and remove them afterwards. Naturally, he asked why, although he didn't expect to get a reply.'

'Why not?'

'Because we're expected to do as we're told. Not understand the reasoning for it. He expected that he'd be told off, and told that he was just to do it, not wonder what it was all about. What business of his was it? Instead, he got a long explanation.'

'And who was this from?'

'Mr Xanthos, who's a boss. Very high up, he is.'

'I see. Go on, then.'

'Anyway, Mr Xanthos said that people think selling things like battleships and guns is easy. It isn't, says he. You have to persuade people. And that involves things that people had best not know about. Like helping to make up their minds with little presents. Doing the necessary.'

'And that's what these payments were?'

'That's what he said. Little presents to people with influence, which would bring in the orders, and guarantee jobs right along Tyneside for years. Of course, it wasn't a good idea for people to know about this. It had to be done secretly. And it had to be kept quiet if anyone found out about it.'

'So this friend of yours went away, thinking he was helping the company to bend the rules a little to secure jobs. And that it was all being done with the company's approval?'

'That's right. But Xanthos had told him that no one was to know. Mr Williams and all the others didn't want to know and wouldn't thank him for saying anything. He only told me when I asked him a question in the pub. Difficult that was; I'm not welcome in pubs any more. Not ones used by the factory. That was a week or so before the accident.'

'What accident was that?'

'Bad thing. Shouldn't have happened, poor kid. But he was going through one of the steel yards at the end of the day, and there was a slip, so it seems. A post holding the girders in place gave way, and they came tumbling down across the floor. He was in the way. Never stood a chance.'

'And this was?'

'About three weeks ago. They had the funeral, and a lovely thing it was. The company paid and gave money to his mother, because he was her only support. And so they should have, but many wouldn't have. They'd have said it was his own fault, that he shouldn't have been there.'

There was a moment's silence as he finished. 'Are there many accidents? In the yards, I mean?'

The father shrugged. 'Some, of course. It's only to be expected. Two or three a year. Mostly it's people's own fault.'

'This man, the one who died, he's not going to be telling anyone else about these payments now, is he? Did he tell anyone else except you?'

Steptoe shook his head. 'No. He was too frightened of losing his job. And who could he tell? I only got it out of him because he felt bad about what had happened to me.'

'So if he hadn't told you, then no one would ever have been able to find out about this? And if the accident had happened only a little bit earlier . . .'

Steptoe nodded.

'Have you told anyone else? Apart from your entire family, that is?'

He grinned. 'Not even them. Not all of them.'

'May I suggest that you keep it that way? I do not want you to have a pile of girders falling on you as well.'

The smile faded. 'What do you mean?'

'The only other person to know anything about this was Lord Ravenscliff, and he fell out of a window.'

I stood up, and dusted the cake crumbs from my lap. 'Thank you, Mr Steptoe, and thank you all, ladies and gentlemen,' I said, bowing to the entire table. 'It was most kind of you to talk to me and feed me such excellent cake. Now, is there anything I can do for you?'

'I want my job back.'

'I will talk to Lady Ravenscliff,' I said, 'and get her to intervene. Do not worry on that score. In the meantime, please write down your account in careful, meticulous detail, and send it to me. I will suggest to her that she offer you payment for your services. That seems only fair.'

CHAPTER 24