‘But?’ Helen interrupted, keen to get to the point.
‘But the business is on the brink of going under. He’s been paying staff wages via his credit cards, withdrawing cash on them at extortionate rates.’
‘That’s crazy.’
‘Exactly, but he’s just not getting the business any more. He lost a contract with a couple of high street stores twelve months ago and has never managed to find replacements. Bigger players can bring in the clothes cheaper – basically he’s too small to get noticed, but too big to stay afloat financially. Just too many outgoings.’
Helen felt a twinge of sympathy for Thomas Simms. His wife didn’t work, so the family’s financial welfare was down to him. What must it have felt like to watch a business of over ten years’ standing slowly dying in front of you?
‘And here’s the really interesting bit,’ McAndrew continued. ‘There seem to be other payments to staff – cash payments again – that don’t come from credit card withdrawals.’
Helen looked down a line of payroll transactions that McAndrew was indicating.
‘All in all it totals over fifteen thousand pounds.’
‘Any invoices? Did he make this from sales?’
‘Can’t see any. He hasn’t taken in that kind of money in ages. He seems to have been buying a new line of clothes from Malaysia -’
‘Hoping that something will finally stick.’
McAndrew shrugged.
‘Either way, he was heavily in debt. I’ve checked – the house insurance was renewed three months ago and there’s a hefty payout in case of fire.’
‘Even so, I can’t see it, can you?’
‘Stranger things have happened,’ McAndrew replied calmly.
‘He’s got a solid alibi, he’d be a fool to do it when his family were there and, besides, it was so obviously arson – the insurance company would never pay out.’
‘Desperate times prompt desperate acts.’
Helen pondered this new line of enquiry. She had seen men lose everything and destroy their families rather than face up to it – one incident particularly was burnt in her memory. If Thomas Simms was in the throws of a nervous breakdown, it was possible he might have done something desperate and foolhardy. He seemed so smitten with his family though and so devastated by the loss of his wife. Had a crazy plan gone badly wrong somehow? Had an accomplice set the fire and messed it up?
As Helen thanked McAndrew and headed for the exit, she knew there was no point speculating about it. There was only one way to find out the truth about Thomas Simms.
