By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2)

by Alan Alexander

  'Thank you for agreeing to see me, Mr Eisner.'

  'Pleasure. But, as ever, I don't know if I'll be able to help.'

  'We'll see.' Vanessa smiled in away that she hoped was ironic. 'Perhaps we can work on the assumption that we both know that you obtained confidential information about my investigation. I need to know, entirely off the record, and for reasons internal to the force, where that information came from.'

  Eisner looked Vanessa straight in the eyes and said, 'After that email fiasco, my boss, Cy Packard, sent out a note, to me, Tammy and Bernard Donovan, telling us that we should be as co-operative as possible with what he called "the local authorities". That includes you, Chief Inspector, but it does not oblige me to incriminate third parties.'

  'Fair enough. What can you tell me?'

  'Cy wanted me to try to get an inside track on your enquiries. I received a cellphone number on my burner. I reached an agreement with someone I've never met and that person provided me with some useful information.'

  'I'm guessing you're not going to give me the name of your initial contact, but is there any reason not to give me the phone number?'

  'Can't think of one.' Eisner reached into a drawer and took out a disposable phone, turned it on, wrote down a number and passed it to Fiske.

  'Can we have an off-the-record conversation about what Packard thinks of what's been going on here with GRH and Vermont One?'

  Eisner laughed. 'What does "off-the-record" mean in this context?'

  'It means the conversation didn't take place and if anything it contains helps my enquiries it will do so in ways that only I will know about. Intuition always has a place in detective work.'

  'OK. You're obviously aware that Burtonhall is in any business to make money and make it quickly. You've had financial experts crawling all over Hedelco and Ebright and it's no secret that, as of now, these businesses are marginal. Right at the start of this, Cy said to me that it wouldn't take much to push them into the red. I think he's now beginning to believe that the murders were the push. But he's got no idea why or who.'

  'Cui bono?'' Vanessa thought. 'Cui bono?'

  'Thank you, Mr Eisner. I don't think I'll have to speak to you again.'

  'Glad to hear it. I'm flying to Washington tomorrow afternoon.'

  *

  Frank Mancuso seemed rather less relaxed than Jack Eisner, probably because he wasn't leaving the area.

  'How can I help, Chief Inspector?'

  'We both know that for some time you've had access to confidential information from NEC HQ, going right back to the demonstrations against the Last Cairngorm development. I need to know who was your source. No. Let me be more direct. I need you to confirm that your source was Martin Gilbertson, Mid-Aberdeenshire's PR man.'

  Mancuso said nothing.

  Vanessa took out of her bag the piece of paper Eisner had given her. 'If I call that number, how likely is it that Gilbertson will pick up? Shall I try?'

  Mancuso still said nothing. But he had gone very pale.

  *

  Donovan's conclusions were in Caleb Adams' inbox when he arrived at Hedelco HQ in Boston at 0730 hrs Eastern Time. Masur and the number crunchers at GRH had refined the figures and the recommended additional expenditure was £1.8m in the current year and over £3m in a full year. Fancy accountancy might spread some of this over several financial years, but it was clear that Hedelco would be losing money on the GRH contract for some time.

  Adams spent a couple of hours going over the figures with his chief financial officer. They managed to trim the numbers marginally, but every time they tried to cut more deeply the risk profile changed to a point where the management at the hospital would be unable to say that they were dealing adequately with the recommendations expected from the inspectors. Hedelco's final recommendations went off to Packard at 1100 hrs ET / 1600 hrs GMT.

  *

  'How soon can we get Fleming in here?' Vanessa Fiske had gone straight to Esslemont when she got back from Last Cairngorm.

  'I'll get Caitlin to phone his solicitor. I told him to be available at short notice, so I think he could be here this morning. What have you got?'

  'Enough.'

  'Enough for what?' The DCS was showing some signs of irritation at the lack of detail.

  'Enough to get a confession, and probably a resignation, out of Fleming. Possibly enough to charge Gilbertson, though I'll have to talk to Fiona about what we can do him for.'

  'What's the hurry, Vanessa? We need to deal with it, but we've got more important things on the go.'

  'Exactly, sir. It's a distraction. I want it off my desk as soon as possible.'

  *

  'I can't tell you who mike@exflt.com is, but I can tell you what MacIver was exchanging emails with him about.' Dongle Donaldson had his own laptop open on the conference room table beside MacIver's. 'Some of it's technical, some of it's economics, and a lot of it's political. And all of it's about American companies in Scotland.'

  'Really?' DCI Fiske moved to stand behind Dongle so that she could see both screens. 'Have you transcribed them all?'

  'If you look at MacIver's laptop, all you'll see, in every email, in and out, is a series of groups of numbers. If you look at mine, you'll see what I've made of them. Before I started I made copies, so that for evidence purposes I could give the originals and the deciphered versions compatible and recognisable reference numbers. The originals have a number followed by the letters "AC", for alphanumeric code. The deciphered versions have the same numbers but with the letters "DC", for deciphered.'

  Vanessa laughed. 'Your sense of humour's quite near the surface, isn't it?'

  'Yeah! I like a bit of fun. But it's clear and logical. A jury will love it.'

  'A bit early for that, but let's have a look.'

  Vanessa began to read the first exchange. mike@exflt.com appeared to be following up on a casual meeting with MacIver and was asking his views on the financial performance of American companies that had recently invested in Scotland. MacIver's response struck Vanessa as guarded, as though he was trying to establish the nature of his correspondent's interest.

  'Before we go any further,' Vanessa asked, 'How would they have known what code to use, if this was the first exchange?'

  'No idea, boss. No evidence. Could have been set up by text, or even, God help us, by snail mail. But if you put “How to encode messages” into a search engine, you'll be surprised at what comes up.'

  There were a lot of emails, more than thirty, and Vanessa had time only to scan them quickly before going to talk to Fiona Marchmont about what she might charge Martin Gilbertson with, and then making the arrest. A quick scan was enough to give her the flavour. The exchanges had moved quite quickly – the emails had all been sent over a period of just under six months – from generalities about inward investment to discussions about how disruption to operations might affect measures of economic performance and, from there, to questions of the political repercussions. The latest emails seemed explicitly to link economic disruption to perceptions about the independence referendum, and MacIver seemed to take a view very different from that of his boss, not least in his willingness to consider what Dongle had deciphered, probably accurately, as “direct action”, to achieve his ends. Perhaps, Vanessa thought, MacIver had not moved far from his days in the Scottish Freedom Party, or if he had, not in the direction that his public role suggested.

  *

  Despite Harvey Jamieson's concerns, no official inspections had been ordered on Vermont One. Ironically, given Tammy Wootten's efforts to get Jamieson's laptop back from the police, his emails had not become public. Ebright had all the messages that had been sent before the day of Jamieson's death. DCI Fiske and her team had them too, as well as the drafts that remained unsent on the hard disk.

  The Hedelco case, and the release of the Keller emails, had caused Ebright's risk assessment staff to get senior management approval to send copies of the emails to Wootten, with a request for her recommendat
ions. She reacted in the same way as Bernard Donovan at GRH. In the two major areas of concern - the high risk strategy of running some key components to failure, and the possible corner-cutting on health and safety, money would need to be spent, more on the early maintenance or replacement of sophisticated equipment than on improving the largely statutory aspects of health and safety. This would forestall the certain reputational damage and the possible negative financial consequences for Ebright of a snap inspection by the Health and Safety Executive and perhaps a temporary shutdown of the platform.

  Wootten's strategy was to counteract the negative press reports about the performance of Vermont One, especially those by Ben Aaronson in the Financial Post, by demonstrating that local management was on top of any problems that the inspection by Jamieson might have uncovered. Ebright's management in the United States quickly approved her recommendations and passed them on to Burtonhall.

  They arrived on Cy Packard's desk on the same day as Hedelco's recommendations on GRH. Almost simultaneously, and in a way that made even an aggressive and unsentimental manager like Packard feel embattled, a long analysis piece by Aaronson cast doubt on the ability of Ebright to maintain the profitability of Vermont One in the face of the recent steady decline in the spot price of Brent Crude and the more serious forward prediction of further drops. Packard was looking at two loss making businesses in the Burtonhall portfolio. He hadn't seen that before and he was already calculating the possible effect on his annual bonus. He decided to talk to his Chairman and began to make contingency plans for an emergency board meeting.

  *

  'Sara, I need you to come with me to Mid-Aberdeenshire Council. I'll brief you on the way.'

  DCI Fiske had just come from the office of DCS Esslemont where she had got his approval to arrest Gilbertson. They had decided to bring him in before they talked again to Richard Fleming. If Gilbertson was in custody it was more likely that Fleming would confess. Fiona Marchmont had eventually been persuaded that they had enough to bring Gilbertson in, but she made it very clear that Vanessa should try to persuade him to put his hands up.

  'The PF will say that what you've got is pretty thin and may not sanction charges, but it's worth a punt.'

  When they got to the council offices, they went straight to the annex where Fiske had met Gilbertson on her previous visit. Once again, the young woman who responded to the entry phone kept them waiting while she went to see if Mr Gilbertson was available. The fact that Vanessa and Sara were police officers cut no ice. She had her instructions. Like many members of the PR profession, her boss did a nice line in non-communication.

  'Mr Gilbertson, I need to speak to you privately. This is my colleague, Detective Sergeant Sara Hamilton.'

  He led them to the room with the wafer-thin walls where Vanessa had spoken to him the last time she had come to the council offices.

  'How can I help?'

  'Martin Gilbertson, I'm arresting you on suspicion of conspiring to commit corruption in public office.’

  Gilbertson tried not to react, but the deliberateness with which sat down at his desk proved an inadequate cover for his obvious shock. He listened while Vanessa cautioned him and checked that he had understood. He nodded and began to speak.

  Fiske interrupted. 'Please be careful, Mr Gilbertson, what I've just said is serious. DS Hamilton is here to make a verbatim note and you may be asked to sign it to confirm accuracy and timing.'

  'I understand that, but there's some things you need to know.'

  'I'm sure there are, but, believe me, it would be in your best interests to save them until we get to an interview room and you have consulted a solicitor.'

  'But I know who planned the bombing.'

  *

  'Richard, we have Martin Gilbertson in custody on suspicion of conspiring to commit corruption in public office.' Vanessa paused to let the information sink in. 'I don't have to tell you that conspiracy is never a solitary crime.'

  Fleming said nothing. He looked at his solicitor, who nodded.

  'I would like to make a full statement. I shall also be resigning from the police service with immediate effect.'

  DCS Esslemont leaned towards Fleming and looked straight into his face. 'You know that resignation will make disciplinary action against you impossible, but not criminal charges.'

  'I'm aware of that, sir, and if I'm charged, I intend to plead of reducing the penalty. I also wish to co-operate fully with your enquiries.'

  After Fleming had given a full account of his relationship with Gilbertson, which he insisted had not been sexual, Vanessa asked him if there was anything else.

  'Such as?'

  'Such as information going in the other direction, from Gilbertson to you, about matters of current interest to us.'

  'I'm not sure I know what you're talking about, Chief Inspector.'

  Vanessa was in no mood to be pissed about. 'Come off it! You're still a police officer and, until just a few days ago, you were in a very privileged position. You knew - you know - exactly what's going on here and I need to know if anything of interest to us came out of your relationship' - she tried to keep her use of the word neutral - 'with Martin Gilbertson.'

  Fleming turned to his lawyer and they had a very brief, whispered conversation after which the lawyer asked if he could have a few minutes alone with his client.

  Fiske and Esslemont left the interview room and, after telling the uniformed constable who was sitting outside to come and fetch them when Fleming and his lawyer were done, they went to the canteen.

  Esslemont bought a coffee and a fizzy water and they found a table. 'What do you think?'

  Vanessa sipped her drink. 'He's got something, sir. He's talking to his brief about how much it might buy him.'

  'Any idea what?'

  'Not really. But if you forced me, as Harry Conival might say, to choose a horse and put money on it, I'd go for the Mancuso connection.'

  *

  When the interview resumed, Fleming described an occasion in the Dunottar Castle, after a quiz night, when Frank Mancuso had too much to drink and began to talk about the 'big names' who had taken an interest in Last Cairngorm.

  'I wasn't surprised to hear him talking about the First Minister, given her constituency responsibilities. And there were a lot of local celebrities - I'll give you a list if you need it - both for and against the development, and local politicians, local government people and police officers he claimed to have good relationships with. But then he began to hint about major international figures who had been, as he put it, "sniffing around". He was trying to be very discreet, or maybe very mysterious, but then he went to the bar and spent some time teaching the licensee how to make a Whisky sour. He came back with a very large glass. I think it tipped him over the edge.'

  'Into what?' Fiske was becoming impatient. This was taking some time to get off her desk.

  'Real indiscretion. The sort you get from someone who wants to impress.'

  'Who was he trying to impress?'

  'Difficult to say. Maybe me because of my closeness to the Chief. Maybe Martin as payback for the information he had supplied.'

  'And that you had supplied to him.' This was Esslemont, who was equally irritated by the slow progress of the interview.

  'Yes, and all of that will be in my statement. But Mancuso started talking about an old friend who worked for a huge American conglomerate and all the major political figures he knew.'

  'Go on.'

  'He then leaned forward, in a kind of cod conspiratorial way, and said that he was expecting a visit from people connected with a very important person. By this time, Martin and I were getting pretty fed up and Martin said Frank had had enough, took his his keys off him, and asked the landlord to call him a taxi.'

  'That's it?'

  'Not quite. He became pretty incoherent, rambling on about his time in the FBI, contacts with the CIA, his closeness to Ewan Last - I didn't believe that - and then, as he staggered into his taxi, he leaned
very close to me and Martin. We were more or less carrying him. He said just one word.'

  'What was it?', Vanessa asked.

  'Roskill.'

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ‘The deposits to MacIver’s account came from a bank in the British Virgin Islands. Difficult to impossible to find the true identity of the account holder. BVI is a tax haven, highly secretive and if you set up an account there you don’t want anyone to know it’s yours.’ DI Andy Hanna paused, just long enough to allow DCI Fiske to speak.

  ‘So you set up a shell company with nominee directors and work out a way to give them instructions and pay them fees.’