Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1)

by Dennis Debney

  As the morning progressed I realized that I was getting distracted and appraising everyone that I met as a potential threat. Eventually though I got so immersed in dealing with project issues that by lunchtime my focus was entirely on the job in hand. The events of the previous Friday evening were now on the backburner, for the time being at least.

  ***

  I had just walked into my office after lunch when the telephone rang. It was the site security officer manning the gate, the gate keeper. “Boss, there’s two guys here from the Mareeba Council. They say that they are here to carry out an environmental audit of the site.”

  I sighed in frustration. Today of all days. “Did they ask for me in person?”

  “Well, no they didn’t. In fact they suggested that you shouldn’t be bothered. They just asked for access to the site.” The gate keeper then hesitated before continuing. “Actually they demanded access to the site. They told me that it was an offence under the Environment Act to refuse them entry.”

  “Have they shown you any proof that they are who they say they are?”

  “I have Mareeba Council business cards from each of them. One’s a building inspector. The other’s a health inspector.”

  “Are they there with you now?”

  “Yes. They are right beside me.”

  “Okay. Ask them to show you some sort of photo ID. A drivers licence would do.”

  After a minute or so of silence other than the sound of muted voices in the background the gate keeper spoke again. “Yes. They are who they say they are. Building inspector Wilson and health inspector Watson.”

  Wilson and Watson? The names sounded familiar. Then I recalled when I had heard their names before. They were troublemakers and the last people that I wanted to have wandering around the site. “Good. Tell them that they will not be permitted onto the site until after I have spoken to them. Unfortunately I will be tied up for the next twenty to thirty minutes but I will see them as soon as I can. Let them bring their vehicle through the gate and have them park it in the visitors parking area near the gate. Offer them a drink and invite them to use the waiting room.”

  Dealing with Local Government officials was one of the downsides of being a construction manager. Building a new mine in a semi-remote area changes the social landscape and brings new sources of revenue to the surrounding shire council. Sometimes there is considerable interaction between the two organizations and the Council’s relationship with the mine operators is symbiotic. In the best of situations the give-and-take is reciprocal and both parties benefit. But the Red Rock Mine lay within the Mareeba Shire and the relationship with the Council was far from being the best of situations. The Mareeba Council was more akin to a parasite attempting to suck the life from a host. Persons claiming to be Council representatives were relentless in their pursuit of payment for services. Services that were often of dubious justification, the payment for which were often requested to be paid to agencies whose connection to the Council was tenuous to say the least.

  My first confrontation with Mareeba Shire Council had followed my rejection of their claim for a road maintenance levy to be paid by all heavy vehicles hauling equipment to the mine site. Unfortunately the first claim had been paid by the site accountant unaware that the roads used by our trucks were State Highways which were not maintained by the Mareeba Shire Council. When I had become aware of the issue I had denied their unfounded claim and had requested repayment of the amount already paid. My actions had not endeared me to the Council’s representatives. Our ongoing relationship was permanently soured.

  I smiled, thinking back to when I had told Brian Clements that the Council officers considered me to be arrogant and that I considered them to be either incompetent or dishonest. Brian had quipped that we were probably both right.

  The Council also had an interest in a local gravel and concrete aggregate supplier that had expected to supply tens of thousands of tonnes of concrete aggregate during construction of the mine facilities. I had considered their price to be too high and had brought in a mobile crushing and screening plant to quarry our own aggregate from the local limestone outcrops. The Council had tried to block us but eventually had to back down when I was able to show that the mine development approval granted by the Queensland Government specifically permitted us to do so.

  The continual conflict with the Mareeba Council did sometimes distract me from more important issues on occasions but I had already saved more than $300,000 by not giving in to the Council’s invalid claims. I did not intend to start doing so now.

  But first I would do a little checking. Clicking the mouse to reactivate my desktop computer I did a Google search for “local government devolvement queensland environmental regulations”. Top of the responses was a pdf document entitled; ‘Environmentally Relevant Activities Devolved to Local Government’.

  In less than a minute I had what I was looking for. Page one of the pdf presented a table listing all the Local Government Areas in Queensland that did not have environmental responsibilities devolved to them. In the middle of the table, among the eighteen Regional Councils and Shire Councils listed, was the Mareeba Shire Council. It was clear. Messrs Wilson and Watson were trying to bat in the wrong league.

  I decided that I would deal with Wilson and Watson and hopefully get them out of my hair for good.

  ***

  Leaving my office I drove in my 4WD to the work site looking for Tony Payne. As expected, he was working on the concrete foundations and retaining walls for the Mill Building. Seeing me drive up and get out of my vehicle he raised a hand in greeting and walked over to where I was standing. After exchanging friendly greetings and briefly discussing the work in hand I got around to the point of my being there. “Tony, a few weeks ago you told me about two of your workers having a run-in with two Mareeba Shire building inspectors…”

  Tony Payne nodded and spoke before I had finished speaking. I took no offence from his interruption as I was aware that I often gave rather long-winded preambles prior to asking a question. “Sure. Tom Beatty and Bob Thomas. Both have homes in Mareeba. Do you want to see them?”

  “Yes, I’d like to talk to them. Would you bring them across to my office as soon as you can spare them for fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Sure. They’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  “Excellent. Thanks. Come with them if you can make yourself free.”

  “No problem.”

  ***

  Ten minutes later the three of them walked into my office. Standing to greet them I motioned for them to be seated. “Tom, Bob. Two inspectors from the Mareeba Council waiting to see me. When I heard their names I recalled Tony telling me about your experiences with a couple of corrupt inspectors from the Mareeba Shire Council. Today’s visitors are named Wilson and Watson. Are they the two that you told Tony about?”

  They both nodded vigorously and chorused, “Yes.”

  I asked, “Tell me about them.”

  After exchanging brief glances, Bob Thomas spoke first. “I had to wait months to get some work inspected when I was doing some renovations at home. Finally when I asked what I had to do to get the work inspected I was told to leave a hundred dollars in an envelope at the site of the work to be inspected. If the money was there the work would be approved. As if the bloody fees that I had to pay to the Council were not enough. Anyway, I did it. I left the money in an envelope and the work was finally inspected by one of the inspectors and approved. Well, inspected might be the wrong word, visited by one of the inspectors might be more accurate. I can’t imagine either of them actually doing any work.”

  Tom Beatty’s story was similar. Both of them also claimed that they were not the only ones to be ripped off in that way.

  Asking them to remain seated I rang the gate keeper and asked him to escort the two visitors across to my office. When the gate keeper knocked I walked over to open the door and meet the visitors. I did not shake hands with them, I merely motioned towards two empty
chairs and said, “You can sit there. I want to talk to the gate keeper for a minute.”

  Following a brief conversation the gate keeper left. I walked back into my office and closed the door. As soon as I sat down I said to the two inspectors. “Okay. Now, which of you is Wilson?” One of them held up a hand. So I looked at the other and said, “So you must be Watson.” He nodded and started to speak but I cut him off holding up a hand and saying. “May I have a copy of your business cards please?”

  Silently they extracted the requested cards and handed them to me. After examining them on both sides with a skeptical look on my face I said, “So you claim to be representing the Mareeba Shire Council here today?” They both nodded but did not speak.

  Looking up at the two men I switched my gaze back and forth for a few moments before continuing. “In case you are wondering who these others are… their names are Tony Payne, Tom Beatty and Bob Thomas. They are here at my request. I believe that you know Tom and Bob already.”

  I then paused, waiting for a response.

  Wilson and Watson exchanged worried glances and eventually nodded in reply. I think that they now sensed that I intended to make things difficult for them but did not know just what I had in mind when I resumed talking. “I’m told that you are here to carry out an environmental audit as provided for in the environmental regulations. Is that correct?”

  Wilson, who seemed to be the more dominant personality of the two, replied, “Yes.”

  “And that you are empowered to come onto this site and carry out that audit as designated officials of the Mareeba Shire Council?”

  Wilson, refusing to acknowledge Watson staring at him anxiously, responded defiantly. “Yes.”

  I exhaled slowly watching him closely as I swung my computer monitor around so that the others could all see the screen and said, “I have trouble believing that the Mareeba Shire Council has any responsibility in regard to the environmental regulations. As you can see the table of Regional and Shire Councils displayed on the screen lists the local government bodies that do not have environmental responsibilities devolved to them. The Mareeba Shire Council is one of them.”

  The two inspectors sat silently staring at me. They were bewildered and nervous so I decided to increase their concern and said, “No doubt, you are both aware of the serious penalties of misrepresenting yourselves as officials in respect to the Environmental Act and Regulations. Custodial sentences are mandatory as provided for in the Act.”

  Watson was the first one to panic as he blurted out. “There seems to have been some sort of misunderstanding. We have been misinformed. We are sorry for any inconvenience.”

  I had no sympathy for their now obvious distress. But I had to move quickly as they would eventually realize that my mention of prosecution for misrepresentation was just a hollow threat. “There is also the matter of your extortion of bribes from people like Tom and Bob here. I am going to give you five minutes to decide whether you will make restitution to Tom and Bob and all the others that you have cheated.” I gestured towards the office next to mine. “I suggest that you both go next door and discuss what you intend to do. You must come back in here and give me a commitment to making restitution. It is no good you thinking that you can just leave the site. The gate keeper to not open the gate for you without my approval.”

  Wilson spluttered. “You… you can’t do that. You can’t keep us here against our will.”

  “You are probably right. I’ll probably have to make a citizen’s arrest then. I’ll charge you with attempted extortion.”

  “But that’s not true.”

  I smiled. “So you say. But, the rest of us remember things rather differently. Anyway, look at it this way. Extortion is your stock in trade, so we wouldn’t really be lying.”

  Wilson and Watson gaped at me momentarily before looking at the others. They were all nodding. Tony Payne said, “Four against two. I don’t like your chances.”

  The two sorry-looking inspectors silently trudged out of my office.

  ***

  Promptly, five minutes later there was a knock on my office door and the two inspectors entered. Motioning towards the seats that they had sat in earlier I said, “Sit down. Tell us what you have decided.”

  It was immediately clear that they had recovered some of their former bravado. Wilson sounded almost belligerent when he spoke. “We ain’t going to do anything. You can do your worst. You still have to prove your claims.”

  As soon as he paused Watson added. “We don’t reckon that you will go through with your threats. You have no proof.”

  I smiled. I had expected that they would regroup when they had a chance to talk things through. But I had one more card to play and said, “What you say was true when you left my office five minutes ago. But now the situation has changed. We now have a recording of your discussion in the next office. Every word that you have said has been recorded. We now have all the evidence that we will ever need.”

  My bluff worked. Neither attempted to try and bluster their way out of the situation. After a brief feeble attempt to regain their equanimity they sat with their faces in their hands. Their collapse was complete. They must have realized that whatever they had talked about in the office next door would have been their undoing.

  While they sat there, temporarily oblivious to their surroundings, I took my cell phone out of my pocket, clicked it on to record, and placed it on my desk in front of me. Tony Payne and the other two watched me in silence. Neither of the inspectors noticed what I had done.

  Slapping the top of my desk with both of my palms to get their attention I said loudly. “Okay. Okay. Let’s wrap this up. Let me recap. Mister Wilson, do you agree to make full restitution of all the bribes that you have extorted from numerous persons while carrying out your duties as a building inspector for the Mareeba Shire Council?”

  Wilson barely looked up as he mumbled his agreement.

  Watson also confirmed his commitment to make restitution when I asked him the same question.

  I was almost finished. “Do you, Building Inspector Wilson, and Health Inspector Watson, both acknowledge that you knowingly made false claims when you said that you were responsible for enforcing the environmental regulations here on this site?”

  Neither responded so I raised my voice and said tersely. “Well. Say something!”

  Eventually they did say something. Together they muttered. “Yes.”

  I sat silently watching them for a few moments before finally speaking a single word. Pointing to the door I said, “Go!” Then as they were exiting the door I called out. “Wait!”

  When they turned to look at me I added. “You are both persona non grata on this site. Also if you fail to make restitution then today’s recordings will be widely circulated.”

  ***

  After the inspectors departed I turned to the others and stood up indicating that it was time for them to return to work. Extending my hand to shake hands with each of them I said, “Thanks for sitting in on this.”

  Tony Payne looked at me with a curious expression and said, “So now you have recorded them confessing and agreeing to paying restitution.”

  I nodded. “Right.”

  “But did you actually record them when they were in the office next door?”

  I shook my head. “No. I was bluffing.”

  He grinned and said, “Well, you sure had me fooled.” Then laughed and added. “Remind me to never play poker with you.”

  ***

  Tuesday October 13

  Red Rock Project Site

  A major concrete pour was scheduled this morning. It was the final stage of the foundations for the primary crushers and the Mill Building. In a weeks time the final major concrete pour was scheduled for the processing plant. As usual I was there to see the inspectors do their final checks before the pour commenced and I stayed there to see it completed. If things went wrong during a concrete pour, decisions may have to be made quickly. I preferred to be there
on the spot if a problem occurred. Not for me to step in and make decisions but to expedite getting assistance or co-operation from other sections of the workforce if it was needed.

  Constructing complex building elements with concrete has a certain fascination. It probably has its roots in the same genetic elements that led us to build sand castles at the beach when we were very young. Pouring concrete and forming useful structures probably fulfils one of mankind’s primal instincts; to build a shelter.

  It’s not as though concrete is a modern building material. The Romans are well known for their extensive use of concrete more than two thousand years ago. But they were not the first. The earliest known use of concrete dates back to before 5600 BC; a 25 centimetre floor slab discovered on the banks of the Danube in Yugoslavia. In Egypt, murals dating from 1950 BC show workmen engaged in the process of making and placing concrete.

  During the Middle Ages, the use of concrete declined, although isolated instances of its use have been documented and some examples have survived. It became more extensively used during the Renaissance and its manufacture was described in a work published in 1568. At that time, mass or plain concrete was used in structures such as bridge piers, many of which still exist today.

  Structures made of mass concrete exploited its great strength in compression, but its weakness in tension limited its early use. The final advance was the inclusion of steel bars to provide tensile strength making concrete a much more versatile construction material. But even this had been pioneered by the Romans when they embedded bronze in concrete when they constructed the dome of the Pantheon in 125 AD. Much later Christopher Wren had also seen the need for tensile strength and had embedded iron chains in concrete to resist lateral thrust in the dome of St Paul’s church in London, when it was built between 1675 and 1710.

  In the 18th century the industrial revolution brought with it a greater interest in concrete. At the time that modern Australia was being settled and developed there had been an urgent need for infrastructure and the use of concrete was widely embraced.