That might be because B dealt only with the practical: no theorizing, no theology, no hearty kicking around of bouncy moral questions. Instead, B was good on organizations and their structure, a subject Esther liked more than ethical jigsaw puzzles. For instance, months before she went to Fieldfare, Esther and a couple of her most senior CID people had tried to draw a structure plan of the so-called Cormax Turton Guild, the most successful, long-lasting, rich and ruthless crime corpus on their patch. Yes, they had the plan and thought it eighty-five per cent accurate, with Cornelius Max Turton still influential and so far untouchable at the top, despite his retina trouble and arthritic knees and knuckles. Immediately beneath him, and actually responsible for the running of the firm, including all waterfront activities since, at the latest, the famous carnage on 17 November 2004, came Ambrose Tutte Turton, aged forty-one, a nephew, and thirty-seven-year-old Nathan Garnet Ivan Crabtree, nicknamed Palliative, one of Cornelius Max’s grandchildren, second son of his daughter, Annette Veronica Crabtree, and her first husband, Brent Holywell Crabtree.
