by Susan Lewis
‘I’ve been through it,’ Landen assured her, almost swaggering in through the door. ‘There don’t seem to be any problems.’
‘Good,’ she replied, then almost laughed at the way Dan’s head kept going back and back as he looked up at the aide.
A few minutes later, having performed the necessary introductions, she gently steered Landen and his coffee towards the chair she’d set up for the interview, then stepped back towards her own. The camera was next to her, presumably loaded and focused, and while Dan pinned on the mikes, they chatted generally about the weather, and Washington sights and Landen’s relief to get out of the office for an hour.
She smiled sweetly and said, ‘So, are you ready to begin?’
‘Certainly,’ he responded, tugging down his shirt cuffs, then linking his elegant fingers together in front of him.
‘OK.’ she said, giving Dan the nod. ‘Let’s start with Katherine.’ She waited a moment for the camera to get to speed, then said, ‘I believe you first met Katherine when she was still at university.’
‘That’s right,’ he responded, with the kind of aplomb that was going to make taking him apart an absolute pleasure. ‘I was giving a talk at Stanford, and she sought me out after to ask if I’d give an interview for the college magazine.’
‘You’d never met before that?’ she said.
‘No. That was the first time.’
‘So you didn’t know her father?’
There was a beat before he said, ‘Her father died back in the seventies, it was the late eighties when Katherine and I met.’
Which didn’t answer the question at all. ‘Did you know who her father was, what had happened to him?’ she asked.
‘When she told me, I did,’ he replied.
Deciding it might be a good idea to have him articulate exactly what Katherine had told him, she talked him through it, then, having heard nothing that contradicted what she already knew, she struck out in the direction of the affair, which he presumably had no objection to, since she’d put it in her fax. ‘So during the personal relationship that developed between you and Katherine, after that meeting at Stanford,’ she said, ‘were her politics always the same as yours – and her father’s?’
‘Yes, they were, but they changed some years later, when she joined the Democratic Party.’
‘Do you know why she changed?’
‘I’m afraid not. After our relationship ended I didn’t see her again for probably ten years, when she called me up one day, out of the blue, and asked if I’d like to have lunch.’
‘At which time you were still a United States senator?’
‘That’s right.’
She wanted to say and still married, but decided not to, because she already knew the answer, and didn’t feel there was anything to be gained from the dig. However, she did want to get to one of the major points of the interview, so with no more preamble she said, ‘Was it around that time that Katherine introduced you to Franz Koehler?’
‘Not at that lunch, but later, yes, she did.’
Good, he hadn’t denied it, though she hadn’t really expected him to. ‘And some time after that you were invited to join the board of the Phraxos Group?’ she said.
‘Probably six months after.’
Since there might be some value in having the Phraxos Group explained by him, on camera, she asked him to do so, getting him to finish on a statement that confirmed the US Defense Department as Phraxos’s biggest client. She could see he didn’t much appreciate the way he’d been manipulated into that, but tough.
‘How long after you joined the Phraxos Group did you resign from the Senate?’ she asked.
His eyes gave a flash of annoyance, for the question hadn’t been on the list. ‘A few months,’ he answered.
‘Because of a conflict of interests?’
‘Yes, and because my wife was ill, so I wanted to spend more time with her.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Laurie dutifully responded, noting the way he’d used his wife’s death to detract attention from the conflict of interests. ‘So you gave up your position in the House, took a very senior role behind the scenes at the Pentagon, which included membership of a Strategic Arms Committee, and joined the board of a major international investment company, specializing in defence industries, in order to spend more time with your wife?’ She smiled pleasantly.
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to, his expression said it all.
‘Does your position at the Pentagon involve you in budgetary decisions?’ she asked bluntly.
‘Yes, it does.’ His collar was starting to look a little tight.
‘And those budgetary decisions – or increases, we should probably call them, considering the size of the US defence budget now – frequently result in some multimillion-dollar orders for Phraxos-owned or affiliated companies? Yes?’
His discomfort was clearly growing. ‘Yes,’ he said shortly.
‘So was that why you eventually resigned from the Phraxos board too? Because of another conflict of interests?’
His eyes were piercing right through hers.
She waited.
‘I resigned because my duties at the Pentagon are such that I no longer had the time to do both,’ he said.
She nodded. ‘But you’re still a shareholder in the Group,’ she continued, ‘so you personally are still reaping considerable financial rewards from the increases in defence spending that you, personally, are involved in deciding?’ Then she added, ‘Albeit indirectly.’ The crafty placing of those final two words had given her point a much stronger impact, and she could see, from his expression, that it had not passed him by.
Again he didn’t answer, but again he didn’t have to.
‘Do you know, in dollar terms, what America’s arms exports have been to African nations since the end of the Cold War?’ she said.
‘Approximately one hundred million,’ he answered.
She knew where he’d got his figures, and almost wanted to cheer, for she’d got hers from non-governmental sources, such as the World Policy Institute, and they showed an amount so far in excess of the one he’d quoted that when she came to put the programme together this was going to demonstrate perfectly what a slippery character he was. She then got him to talk about refugee crises, famine, human rights abuses and the US role in the Rwandan genocide – all subjects that she would later visualize with library footage, and some rather different statistics, that would show the abject misery and insufferable loss of life that the constant flow of arms to Africa caused its people, and how at least one Pentagon official, though fully aware of the African plight, was quite content to go on making literally pots of money off the back of it.
However, for now his self-interest, and the Phraxos Group’s high-level Government connections, had been sufficiently dealt with, so she promptly changed the subject. ‘Going back to Katherine – have you seen or heard from her since Tim Hendon’s murder?’ she said.
Shifting slightly, he said, ‘No. Not at all.’
‘So you don’t have any idea where she might be, or who she might be with?’
‘None whatsoever.’
‘When was the last time you saw her?’
‘About six or seven months ago.’
‘Before she went to England.’
He nodded. ‘I had dinner with her and Franz Koehler, at a restaurant here in Washington.’
‘Was it business, or pleasure?’
‘Both.’
‘Was Tim Hendon’s name mentioned at all?’
‘No.’
As if he was going to admit it.
‘I don’t believe,’ he added, ‘that she’d been asked to run his campaign at that point.’
‘Did you talk to her at all after she had been asked?’
‘No.’
‘Did you know about her plans to go to Europe, other than to run the campaign?’
‘She mentioned them, yes. She and Franz had been seeing each other for some time by then,
so it wasn’t any surprise.’
‘Is that what she said to you, that she was going to Europe to be with Franz Koehler?’ Laurie said, wondering if he knew that wasn’t the story either Katherine or any of her friends had told. In fact, just about everyone else who’d been spoken to had believed the relationship to be over.
‘Yes,’ he answered, though she could see that he wasn’t sure why she was asking, or if he was giving the right answer.
‘Do you think she’s still alive?’ she asked.
His colour was deepening. ‘I don’t know. I certainly hope so.’
She nodded. ‘Would you consider Katherine Sumner to be a patriotic American?’
Sooner or later he was going to object to all these questions that hadn’t appeared on the list, but for the moment he either seemed to have forgotten that he could, or was more nervous of how it would look if he did. ‘That’s a surprising question,’ he remarked. ‘But yes, I suppose I would.’
‘So you wouldn’t imagine her to be involved in any kind of business that could be termed anti-American?’
She could see he really didn’t want to answer that, so she decided to help him a little by adding, ‘Might she have been involved in, say, certain arms transactions that might end up in the wrong hands?’
To her surprise, and dismay, he breezed right over that one, by saying, ‘As far as I’m aware she wasn’t involved in any arms transactions at all, never mind any that could, as you say, end up in the wrong hands.’
‘But couldn’t her relationship with Franz Koehler be seen as an involvement in arms transactions?’
‘Her relationship with Franz was entirely personal, and Phraxos is a private equity firm, not an arms dealer.’
Pull the other one, she thought wryly, it shoots bullets! Still, she’d deal with that little spin in the edit, rather than now, for she was realistic enough to accept that there was no way she’d get him to admit to a Special Project of arming the other side, either on or off camera. ‘Is there a chance that her personal relationship with Franz Koehler might have helped facilitate a grudge she’d been nurturing for years, against the US Government?’ she said.
He frowned, but she knew very well that he was aware of her meaning. Nevertheless, for the viewers’ sake, it needed to be spelled out.
‘There was never an official inquiry into her father’s murder, was there?’ she said. ‘Though he was a long-serving member of the American Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and a loyal supporter of the Republican Party, it was never satisfactorily explained who was behind the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Hoveyda, in Iran back in ’77, which resulted in John Sumner’s death. Later, very probably as a direct result of the stress of her husband’s murder, and failed support of the Government he had served, Mrs Sumner turned to alcohol, and now has Alzheimer’s, while her son, Katherine’s brother, ended up committing suicide. It possibly doesn’t leave a lot of room for patriotism when you’ve seen your family decimated like that, does it?’ she concluded. ‘Or betrayed, is perhaps how she sees it.’
‘What is your question?’ he responded stiffly.
‘My question is, in the light of what’s happened to her family, might Katherine be waging some kind of personal vendetta against those who were involved in the cover-up of her father’s murder? And if she is, wouldn’t aiding the supply of arms and munitions from US manufacturers to the wrong hands be an extremely effective way of discrediting those people? By “those people” I, of course, mean the US Government.’
‘I’m afraid you’d have to ask Katherine herself,’ he said, actually running a finger under his collar.
She smiled, then abruptly changed the subject again. ‘Did you ever meet Tim Hendon?’ she asked.
Taking no more than a second to adjust, he said, ‘No.’
‘Speak to him on the phone, via email, or fax?’
‘No.’
‘What’s his involvement with Phraxos?’
‘I’m not aware that he had one.’
‘Do you know anything about four million dollars in a Swiss bank account?’ she said, hoping Rachel would forgive her – but by the time this was transmitted she’d probably be ready for it to be made public.
‘No,’ he answered. But he did, she could tell.
‘Do you know an African professor by the name of Patrice Bombola?’ she said.
From the look on his face she half expected his next words to be a refusal to answer the unscripted question, but to her surprise, he said, ‘Dr Bombola is an eminent scholar; a leading expert in his field.’
‘What’s his relationship to Katherine?’
Without missing a beat he said, ‘I wasn’t aware he had one.’
‘What about his association with the Phraxos Group? Are you aware of that?’
‘The Group is a global concern, and Dr Bombola’s expertise has, I’m sure, been called upon to help guide certain business transactions on many occasions.’
A very smart way of putting it, Laurie commented to herself, then said, ‘Would those include arms transactions?’
‘I would imagine so, given the nature of Phraxos.’
‘Does that give you any cause for alarm?’
‘I don’t know what you’re implying,’ he said, ‘but I do know that Professor Bombola is highly respected the world over.’
‘So respected that the US Government froze his assets until January of this year?’ she responded, almost wanting to embrace him for walking straight into it.
He glanced at his aide, then put a hand out to block his face from the camera. ‘Please turn it off,’ he said to Dan.
Laurie turned to give Dan the nod.
‘I came here,’ Landen said, struggling to hold on to what was left of his composure, ‘on the understanding that we would discuss the questions outlined in your fax. I did not expect you to dishonour the agreement, the way you repeatedly have, yet still I have attempted to be as straightforward and helpful as I can. Now, I’m afraid, unless you return to your own scripted interview, I will be forced to draw the interview to a close.’
‘I’m very sorry,’ she said earnestly. ‘It wasn’t my intention to offend you, but perhaps you can tell me, off the record, why you’re behaving so sensitively about Dr Bombola.’
His colour was still high, and by the look of it her request hadn’t helped. ‘I know how very aware you and people in your profession are,’ he countered tersely, ‘of the very different climate we now find ourselves in, so you will understand that there are occasions when it simply isn’t possible to tell you all you’d like to know.’
At last, the catch-all curtain of national security that came down every time a politician found himself in a hole. She’d been waiting for it, knowing it would come sooner or later. How interesting that it should descend over Bombola. ‘Please be assured,’ she told him, ‘that we’re not about putting lives in jeopardy, if that’s what you’re suggesting. To the contrary, we’re trying to find out why Tim Hendon is dead, and very possibly at the hands of Katherine Sumner.’ She wanted to add, or perhaps someone affiliated to the Phraxos Group, but she could find herself in legal hot water if she did, so instead she said, ‘We’ve already outlined Katherine Sumner’s possible grievances towards the party that let her father down, and how she and the Phraxos Group have mutually exploited those grievances, by using her extremely high-level government connections, particularly in the Defense Department …’ She could have said ex-lovers, but high-level government connections seemed more polite. ‘So what I’m trying to establish now,’ she continued, ‘is how Dr Bombola, who met with Tim Hendon, Katherine Sumner and Franz Koehler only weeks before Tim Hendon was murdered, fits into this picture.’
Though he was clearly perspiring, and moving towards the edge of his seat, as though making ready to go, his reply was delivered in quite firm tones. ‘I understand your frustration in trying to get to the truth,’ he said, ‘and in many respects I share it, though perhaps for different reasons. This really isn’
t the same world as we once inhabited, and to be frank with you, I’m very much afraid that Katherine was standing on the wrong side of the line when those airplanes hit, and now she can’t get back again. If she’s trying we need to give her the chance, because she could be holding a whole wealth of information that we’d very much like to have.’
Brilliant! she was thinking. A truly brilliant stroke that could almost, but not quite, have her convinced, because though she didn’t doubt for a single minute that Katherine had a whole wealth of information, nor did she doubt for a single minute that they knew exactly what that information was, and were now doing their damnedest to make sure it never got out. So Katherine’s position on the line of good citizenry the day disaster struck was, to them, irrelevant. In fact, she could see much more clearly now why Franz Koehler and certain members of his board were so keen to find Katherine before the police did, because once she was arrested, and in court for the murder of Tim Hendon, there was just no knowing how garrulous she might become regarding the various names and practices of her old pals at Phraxos, so many of whom were, one way or another, tied up in the higher echelons of this particular Western government, and probably a few others too.
‘So,’ she said to Dan, after Landen and his aide had left, ‘we still might not be any closer to knowing why Tim Hendon was killed, but we do know that Katherine has very good reason to be fleeing from the good guys and the bad guys, because there’s not much to distinguish between the two, is there?’
Dan was pouring himself another coffee. ‘I’ve got to tell you,’ he said, stirring in a dash of cream, ‘you just get better. The way you handed him the rope and got him to hang himself, it was so sweet, I’m still dizzy from the rush … And he came in here thinking he was going to have you for breakfast. It was written all over him.’
Laurie laughed. ‘I have to admit, I did enjoy the experience,’ she said, reaching for her mobile to see if anyone had called while it was turned off. Seeing no one had, but remembering Max’s message, she began dialling his number, feeling slightly sheepish now about having to admit that she’d gone ahead with the interview before calling. But it had been such a great interview …
