I stopped talking and walked over to the computer on my table and plugged in my thumb drive. Moments later a photograph was displayed. It showed the Gold Room complex. Three barred windows were visible. There were no vehicles or people to be seen. The room had been completely silent while I was setting up the computer.
After glancing around to confirm that I had everyone’s attention I said, “This photograph shows the Gold Room complex. It is one of many that I took around the mine site to record the processing plant and other elements of the construction work that I had been involved with. This was one of a number that I took at sunset, the night before the robbery. The two windows to the right show the reflected sunset. That was probably the reason that I took this shot. However, you should look at the window to the left. It is the window to the storage room. If you look closely at the smudge in the window I will gradually zoom in on it.”
Click by click I enlarged the image, all the time keeping the window centred in the screen. Gradually the smudge morphed into a man’s face looking out the window. As soon as a face became visible there was a gasp from around the room. A few clicks later, the face dominated the screen and I said, “For those of you that have not met him, that face belongs to Harry Hawsall. This photograph places him in the storage room at The Gold Room complex at the Mount Godwin Gold Mine. Not in Townsville” Looking directly at Toni Swan I added. “This is the...”
She beat me to it and finished my sentence. “Smoking gun.”
***
I spent the next few hours being hosted in an anteroom and plied with refreshments while the Coercive Hearing continued.
At around three o’clock Toni Swan burst into the room followed by Peter Williams and Margaret Smith. That they had been successful was obvious. Their faces said it all.
Toni Swan grinned. “It’s all over. D S Strong has confessed. When we related your theory about how the robbery went down he was worried. But the photo was the clincher. He has confirmed everything that you postulated and admitted to taking part in the attempts on your life as well as planting the packages on your boat. He said that Hawsall recognised you as you took the photo of him looking out the window. He’d been busy drilling a hole in the wall through to the lunch room and had just stood up to stretch and look at the sunset. His timing couldn’t have been worse.”
Peter Williams added. “They weren’t sure if the photo showed anything, but D I Hargreaves decided you be eliminated, just in case.”
Margaret Smith was equally excited and wanted to contribute to the explanation. “If they hadn’t gone after you, then none of this might have been discovered. They would have committed the perfect crime.”
I grinned at their enthusiasm. I wasn’t sure about the use of the word ‘perfect’ when three innocent men had died, but I knew what she meant.
After agreeing to meet for a celebratory dinner that evening at the Commission’s expense, and exchanging handshakes, I left.
***
Exiting the Commission’s offices I spied a vacant bench seat, sat down and pulled out my cell phone. Even though I realised that Christine would still be on duty I could not wait to tell her the news.
Christine obviously recognised my cell phone number and answered. “Adam! This is an unexpected pleasure…”
I was so keen to tell her the news that I thoughtlessly blurted out. “Christine! It’s all over…”
The immediate response was a gasp and the clatter of a cell phone falling onto a desk. Moments later Christine said in a strangely subdued voice. “What… what did you say?”
The immensity of my mistake hit me like a brick. “No. No, not us. I’m so sorry. A corrupt police officer has confessed to the attacks on my life and the gold mine robbery. I’m no longer in danger. I don’t have to go around looking over my shoulder all the time. I just wanted you to know.”
Christine’s voice had regained its usual vivacity. “Adam, I’m so glad. Sorry about dropping the phone, I had just been wondering how things were going at the Hearing when you called. For a milli-second I had a crazy notion that you were telling me that we were breaking up.”
“That’s absolutely the last thing on my mind. Quite the opposite in fact. I was going to ask you to marry me.”
She laughed happily. “Adam Cartwright, you are the most unromantic person that I have ever known. Is that an actual proposal?”
I chuckled. “No it wasn’t. But this is, Christine will you marry me?”
She laughed. “Your proposal is accepted subject to one condition.” She paused before continuing. “The condition is that, in the future, you will refrain from being thrown overboard, or being run down, by people intent on harming you.”
I grinned and replied, “Well… Okay then. But you sure do drive a hard bargain.”
***The End***
Author’s Note
Smoking Gun is fiction but the references to the Comancheros bikie gang’s infiltration of construction workers Unions hierarchy and their involvement in construction project blackmail and fraud are factual.
As are the descriptions of the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission and its powers. The Commission evolved from the Criminal Justice Commission, formed after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in 1989. At the same time the Queensland witness protection service was created. The Commission’s initial role was to investigate police and public sector misconduct and to work with the police to investigate organised and major crime. In 2001 the Queensland Government decided to form a single body to fight crime and public sector misconduct and created the Crime and Corruption Commission to oversee the police and the public sector as well as providing protection for witnesses.
The Commission is the only Queensland law enforcement agency with the power to conduct coercive hearings that require witnesses to attend and give evidence. These Hearings enable investigators to override the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination. This allows them to secure otherwise unobtainable evidence, including intelligence regarding activity by criminal organisations.
The references to the vulnerability of gold produced at gold mines in remote areas is true for not only Australia, but in virtually all gold producing countries. In some countries, more than thirty percent of gold mine employees are working as security officers. The incidence of violent robberies of gold mines world-wide is escalating year by year. In Mexico recently, four gold mine workers were tortured to death to gain inside information for a subsequent robbery at the mine.
Dennis Debney
May 2015
The Adam Cartwright Trilogy
The three book series presents episodes in the evolving career, and life, of Adam Cartwright from construction engineer to executive director of a major mining corporation and beyond. The series is set in the Australian mining industry with projects as far afield as Bougainville and Florida.
Smoking Gun
Book One in the Series
Adam Cartwright, a 28 year old construction engineer, narrowly escapes two attempts on his life while he is engaged on the construction of a gold mine in Far North Queensland. At first he suspects that the attacks are connected with construction site fraud by organized crime that he had uncovered. But he later becomes aware that criminals responsible for the robbery of a gold mine, and the murder of three workers, believe that he possesses a key piece of evidence that could bring them undone. In order to survive he has to discover what the ‘smoking gun’ is and how it can be used to bring the criminals to justice, and thus ensure his safety.
Due Diligence
Book Two in the Series
Adam Cartwright is a 33 year old business analyst with a major mining group, CMA, based in Sydney. When carrying out a due diligence investigation of a mining company in Florida he suspects that the management team is conspiring to defraud the owners of the mine and purchase it cheaply by way of a management buyout. When the conspirators become aware of Cartwright’s suspicions, and believe that he is about to uncover the
conspiracy, they set in train a sequence of events that threaten Cartwright’s life and place others close to him in danger.
GoldFinder
Book Three in the Series
Adam Cartwright, now a 38 year old Executive Director of Consolidated Mines of Australia (CMA), has to defeat efforts by a Canadian mining giant to defraud CMA of its fifty percent share of a large multi-billion dollar mining project on the island of Bougainville. Cartwright pins his hopes on a computer program, GoldFinder, which he hopes will revolutionize exploration for gold and help defeat his corporate opponents in his final challenge, a Board Room confrontation in London.
Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) Page 31
