Gatecrasher

by Robert Young

  'God bless search engines eh? I ran him through a couple and found all the usual stuff - the professional profile on the company website, couple of people with the same name keeping on-line diaries about Christ knows what. And then a picture of him. It was in the trade press so it was tucked away but I recognised it properly then. Special Commendation in Global Equity Funds sector wasn't it? Not bad going really. Tough competition. And the photo was of him at the awards function in his black tie and his girlfriend - sorry - fianc?, on his arm.'

  She looked at him then finally but her expression told him nothing. It was empty.

  'Red really is your colour.'

  Campbell could see the muscles around here eyes begin to twitch before the first tear spilled out onto her cheek. He looked away, determined to be resolute.

  'I mean really Sarah; you're a looker anyway. Don't think that was lost on me. In fact you know that it wasn't don't you? But you really scrubbed up well that night. Really. Wow! ? And you know what? I knew then. The absolute nanosecond that I saw the picture that I didn't need to check the date. Not because I remembered the article or when the awards were. I just knew right then. I did check of course. Checked and checked and checked again because - fuck you Sarah - because I really wanted to be wrong.'

  'When? When did you figure it out?' she said finally but her voice sounded small in the room.

  'Just in time. In time to fix everything. Make a few alterations to the plan. See at first I thought maybe you had just let me think there was no boyfriend. Maybe to make it easier on me, to make me feel better when I was so scared and confused and vulnerable. I told myself that maybe you'd just let the lie get out of hand. Seriously. Believe that? I really told myself that. I even tried to convince myself that you didn't know that he was in on it. Jesus!'

  She was staring at her hands clasped in her lap and saying nothing. When she lifted her head Campbell was holding a box of tissues out to her and she took the box, thanking him quietly.

  'So Horner and your other half Ben meet through work and Horner recognises in Ben the qualities he so fruitfully puts to use himself. They cook up this plot, plant you inside Griffin to be the person on the ground, keep an eye on everything, set it all up and all that and then they start getting the money invested. When everything is ready to go, you give the instructions on what to look for and where to find it so that Gresham's boys can do the break in without a hitch - oops! - make it look like an outside job and then sit back and let Horner take care of blackmailing Asquith. I turn up sniffing around and you decide to keep an eye on me to make sure I don't wreck everything? But what went wrong in Cornwall? I can only presume that Ben didn't tell Horner in time to call that guy off. Unless Ben is really as big a shitbag as Horner and was happy to let him bump his own fianc? off for the sake of a few quid. But what I can't really work out is why you were ready to let me ruin it all - or at least ruin Horner. I imagine that you two had cash in this - Ben got his first million pound bonus two years ago right? I read about that. So then he just rearranges the investment of your own money accordingly and then you stand back and let me set up Horner's downfall. Why?'

  'You're making a lot of guesses Dan. You don't really know anything do you?'

  'Am I getting warm?'

  Sarah looked at him in the eye for the first time since the News item and gone were the tears and the emotion, switched off easily when she saw how little use they were, how little effect it had made on Campbell. This was a person Campbell did not recognise.

  'Warm yes. But not as close as you think. I'd been at Griffin for about six months when Ben mentioned Michael Horner. It was a coincidence, nothing more. Ben kept getting snippets from Horner about what he'd done in the past, about some of the dodgy stuff he was mixed up in but he only ever dropped hints. Such an arrogant man. So preoccupied with the impression he makes, with his reputation. He was just trying to impress Ben most of the time but after a while we thought that maybe there was something to it. So I started to dig around at work and found out about the arms shipments, about Africa. Ben and I came up with a plan to blackmail Horner with it, get our hands on some real cash and go off somewhere. Give up work. He's loaded you know? Horner. Totally loaded. But then when we confronted him with what we had he just turned around and laughed. He said 'Is that the best you can do?' and told us we should have a little more ambition. Eventually the two of them came up with the idea of the aid contract blackmail of Asquith. The Dam Scam, Ben called it.' She laughed humourlessly at this.

  'Genius,' Campbell replied sarcastically.

  'It was all in place and we were supposed to wait until Horner got to Asquith and then we'd collect our winnings. When you showed up I was worried that you'd go to the police or something and we already had everything under control. You're right - I decided to try to keep an eye on you. We decided. I did come round to see you that night like I said. Saw you getting dragged off and I thought that maybe Gresham would deal with you. Keep you quiet, out of the way. But when you called me that day and I was halfway to Cornwall I was pretty surprised. I played the indignant employee of course, didn't want to raise your suspicions by agreeing to see you right away or turn the car around. So then you show up, tell me you know pretty much everything that's going on and I'm thinking that if we don't do something, you're going to ruin two years of work. I'd been running around in that shitty secretary job for two years! Two years of being totally bored, just waiting it all out. No way I was going to let you wreck everything.'

  'And the guy that turned up at the cottage? Why didn't you just stay there on the sofa and let him cut me up?'

  'You were right about that too. I left you that afternoon and called Ben. We decided that we should try to use you to manipulate things. We wanted to get Horner out of the way. Ben hated him. Really hated him. Since we came in with him on the deal he just got into our lives too much, had too much control over the whole thing. He was running the show, but getting Ben to do all the dirty work, the hard work, and I was stuck in a job that was really killing me to stick at. But he insisted that it looked less suspicious with Ben dealing with a lot of the paperwork, helped cover our tracks by spreading things out a bit. And he said that I needed to stay there all the way through to keep on top of everything - I was his "point man" he said. Christ! We thought that with you on board we had a secret weapon. Ben and I could still make a bundle, could still go through with the deal but we could get rid of Horner. Ben thought that after this we'd maybe never get away from him, didn't trust him to just let us walk away - we would be a threat to him just because we knew and Ben was starting to worry about what would happen to us afterwards. By then though, Horner had already sent the man to follow you and get rid of you and Ben could hardly tell Horner that you were with me. That would have blown everything so I took a chance. Ben was frantically worried, but we needed you lie and we needed you close. I'd searched around the cottage and the fields nearby to see if I could find anyone - if they'd followed you down there with me I thought I could find him, not many places to hide round there. Anyway, no sign.

  'So I started playing nice with the food and the hot bath and all that. Smiling and listening and talking to you. I was as scared as you when he appeared, never ran so fast in my life. When you left me in those trees I didn't think you were coming back. After that it all started falling into place, I could see what you were thinking, what you were trying to do and it suited us perfectly. Until you decided to go to the police. I went along with you, followed you here to the flat hoping that I might talk you out of it but I was thinking on my feet and I didn't really know what I was going to do then. I even considered seducing you just to stall you. And then Slater turned up and the other guys and everything went crazy. After I got out of Gresham's place and that guy drove me home I made him take me straight to Ben's place. The whole thing was just a nightmare but you'd already told me what you were planning by then so as soon as you told me that you had convinced George to help you we figured that we were through the wor
st of it.'

  Campbell listened to Sarah's confession in silence. He had dropped into a chair at the table and could not take his eyes off her as she spoke, could not fathom how dispassionate she was about the whole thing, could not understand how completely he had been used, deceived and manipulated. Since he had made the shocking discovery about Sarah and her fianc? he had wondered how much she had been involved in the plan. Was she merely tagging along with the two other men, a passenger? Or was her role in this more active? He had found himself hoping that it was the former, that she was the kind and decent person that he had come to see her as. But as he had stared at the picture of her with her fund-manager boyfriend taken less than two months ago he knew that it was not true.

  Listening to her now Campbell's initial shock was tempered by a growing sense of detachment. Hearing her talk about what she had done with not a shred of remorse, about how she had felt all through, how she had suffered. She was indifferent to Campbell's own fate. He noted that her observation that he may not return when he had left her to tackle their attacker on the Cornish clifftop held no sense of regret, no suggestion that she had been upset by the prospect. She had simply noted it, remarked on the event, the outcome of which seemed to hold little interest for her.

  'Proud of yourself Daniel? The good guy? You've taken us all down and put money in the pockets of Gresham and Slater instead. Violent criminals, guys that kidnapped you and beat you up, threatened your friends and family.'

  'Well at least they were honest about it. At least with them I knew what I was dealing with Sarah.'

  'Oh Daniel. The heart weeps,' she said, making no effort to mask her contempt.

  They looked at each other in silence then. Long moments passed without words as he looked at her, seeing the pretty, smiling woman he had met in Griffin's offices, seeing her expression when she'd seen his own bruised and swollen face, the nervous edgy person unpacking groceries in the kitchen like a schoolgirl with a crush. None of them was really Sarah. Sarah didn't really exist.

  'Get out,' he said finally.

  Her lips were pressed thin and her eyes narrowed. With a final poisonous look she turned slowly, picked her coat up from the end of the sofa and walked out of his flat, the door closing loud and hard behind her.

  For a long time after she'd left, Campbell stared at the space in the room that she had been standing. He noticed that the chair he sat in had been the one where he'd sat and held her only days before, her arms around him and drawing him into her.

  He stood and walked into the kitchen, staring at the clean floor, the pristine surfaces, the small gap beneath the oven. In the glass of a cupboard door he caught his reflection. The swelling around his eye was going down now and the black lines on his cheek and lip where he had been cut were smaller and not so obvious. He hoisted his t-shirt up to see the bruising on his chest and ribs was softening into lighter shades of green and red. Walking back into the living room and stretching out on the sofa Campbell closed his eyes and listened to the silence.

  Daniel Campbell will return in Headhunter, out 2015.

  Copyright

  ? Robert Young 2012

  Robert Young has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the author, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Cover image ? Chris Fertnig www.istockphoto.com/chrisfertig

  Cover design, Elizabeth Young, 2012.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks are due to several people for help and support, chief among them the following: My wonderful wife, who not only did the hard yards of formatting this beast, but designed the brilliant cover and who puts up with me. Michelle Mortimer, whose direct and honest criticisms of the early draft were invaluable. Simon Salter has also been quite handy to know too. Jules, Paul, Kelli and Mum all did their bit too! Thanks.

  The three 'issues' I've touched on in the book came from various bits of reading.

  Graham Hancock's book 'Lords of Poverty' was one of the few University study texts I actually read properly. It might well be a little dated now, but is fascinating all the same.

  As an extension, the stuff about the dam in Malaysia was the result of some web searches.

  Finally, the book 'Unscathed' by Phil Ashby is an incredible true-life story but provided much info on Sierra Leone and conflict diamonds.

  Any errors in the text with regard to these issues are my own, either through artistic licence, or just some straightforward ignorance. Apologies for those.