Already Dead(37)

Baird seemed to notice the hovering youth outside for the first time, and gestured to him irritably. The young man came in and handed him the file without a word.

‘Thank you, Aaron,’ he said.

He waited until the boy had gone, and grimaced at Fry. ‘Aaron, I ask you. Why do so many parents give their kids these ridiculous biblical names?’

Fry hesitated. ‘Perhaps they’ve never read the Bible and wouldn’t know a biblical name when they heard one, Nathan.’

‘You’re probably right. Ignorance is everywhere.’

He thumbed casually through the personnel file as if he’d never set eyes on one before and wasn’t really interested in seeing one now.

‘Glen Turner, yes. Glen was a multi-line adjuster.’

‘Meaning what?’ asked Irvine.

‘He handled different types of claim. Some adjusters just deal with property claims, or liability cases like motor accidents or personal injuries. Turner had the experience to handle more than one type. He was multi-line.’

‘I see. Does that mean he was particularly good at the job?’

Baird smiled at Irvine. ‘Well, not necessarily. And certainly not in Glen’s case. I’d say from his employment record that he was competent across the board, but not brilliant at anything in particular. You know the sort of employee I mean?’

‘Yes,’ said Fry. ‘I believe we have that sort of employee in the police service too.’

‘Of course you do. If he was outstanding in any specific area, it’s likely he would have been promoted long before now.’

‘Ah. Well, that’s where our areas of business differ, then.’

He looked at her expectantly, with a faint smile. This time, he’d almost recognised the joke from her tone of voice, but seemed to be waiting for a punchline. When it didn’t come, he continued as if she hadn’t spoken at all.

‘My personal impressions, that’s what you asked for. Well, I think the word I’d use about Glen is “geeky”. He was a hard worker, no doubt about it. He’d studied the business, gained his qualifications and all that. But I never got the impression he had any wider awareness of the day-to-day issues that his policyholders had to deal with.’

‘No personal experience of life, then. And no outside interests, perhaps.’

‘Yes, you’re right. I think that’s what it was. Good insight.’

‘All part of the job,’ said Fry.

‘Well, that meant Glen didn’t have much conversation. It made him a bit boring, you know. And insurance isn’t supposed to be boring.’

‘Isn’t it?’

Baird waved a hand, as if swatting a small fly. ‘Absolutely not. It’s a common misconception among the public. Here in Claims, we deal with claimants in all kinds of difficult circumstances. You’d be surprised, you really would. We have to learn how to deal with people sensitively.’

‘I’m sure you do. None of us ever stop learning, do we?’

He clasped his fingers together in mock delight. ‘I certainly hope not. I look forward to learning new things every day at Prospectus Assurance.’

Fry looked down at the file Baird had handed her. It was pretty thin. Its slimness suggested that Glen Turner’s employers knew as little about him as his team leader claimed. She wondered what new things Turner had been learning during his time at Prospectus. Whatever they were, she suspected they weren’t recorded in this file. Luke Irvine ought to have taken up the questioning when she paused, but Fry realised he wasn’t going to.

‘You have a lot of female employees here, Mr Baird,’ she said.

‘Certainly. They’re good workers. They don’t last very long, mind you. About eighteen months on average. We have quite a bit of churn in this department.’

‘Churn?’

‘Turnover. Old staff leaving, new employees arriving. It’s like a revolving door sometimes.’

‘They go on to do other things?’

‘They take up all kinds of opportunities when they leave Prospectus Assurance. We give them a good grounding in essential work skills, and they go off to make use of them elsewhere.’

Fry nodded. Or more likely they couldn’t stand the job for any longer than eighteen months. She wouldn’t last anywhere near that long herself if she had Nathan Baird as a manager.

She looked at the row of call handlers. ‘Did Glen Turner have any relationships with the female staff?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘It has been known.’

‘It’s against policy. We try very hard to discourage it. During working hours, at least. That would be very inappropriate.’