(2013) The Catch

by Tom Bale

  ‘Intensely personal,’ Patricia agreed. ‘We made Mark Templeton who he is, and in return he cut us dead.’

  CHAPTER 36

  Tonight it was Cate who arrived at the pub first. When Dan walked in she gave him an uncertain smile. He joined her at the bar, and because they had kissed upon her departure yesterday it seemed natural to greet her with a kiss now.

  As he did, he placed a hand on her arm to steady himself and was seized by a sudden urge to pull her into an embrace. He quickly withdrew, scared that his self-control might desert him.

  Cate insisted on buying the drinks. Dan chose orange juice. He wanted to keep a clear head.

  ‘Robbie’s supposed to be joining us,’ Cate said.

  ‘Really? Did you twist his arm?’

  ‘I didn’t have to. DS Thomsett paid him a visit this afternoon.’

  ‘Oh.’ Dan’s response was casual, until he remembered that he was entitled to feel concerned about this. ‘How did it go?’

  ‘Robbie didn’t tell me. He was in a foul mood because he thinks I dropped him in it. But I wasn’t sure ...’ She hesitated. ‘I can’t decide what’s natural or normal any more. I’m second-guessing everything I say and do.’

  Dan nodded. He knew exactly what she meant.

  Cate went on: ‘The trouble is, nobody can keep up a deception for ever. And listening to Thomsett, I don’t think he’ll stop chipping away at this. He’s certain the money would have been found during the initial search, which can only mean that somebody took it, then panicked or had an attack of conscience and brought it back.’

  ‘That sounds like a crazy risk, doesn’t it?’

  ‘You’d think so. But Thomsett told me that the farmer who found the money is the same man who discovered the body the day before.’

  ‘So he’s the likely suspect?’ Dan realised he sounded far too eager.

  Cate nodded. ‘DC Avery was questioning him today. But if he flatly denies it, I don’t see what they can do. The fingerprints aren’t going to prove anything either way.’

  ‘Fingerprints?’ A wave of nausea swept over him. Cate started to speak, then glanced to her right and flinched: reacting to her brother’s hostile gaze.

  ‘Hold on,’ she said. ‘I may as well explain it to you both.’

  ****

  Robbie marched straight up to the table. He looked different: a new hairstyle that didn’t suit him. Dan went to make a sarcastic comment and then understood why Robbie would want to change his appearance.

  ‘Thanks very much!’ Robbie glowered at his sister as he sat down next to Dan.

  ‘I didn’t warn you in case it was a test. Thomsett might have told me on purpose to see if I tipped you off.’

  Dan nodded. ‘Cate’s right. It would have seemed even more like you had something to hide.’

  A couple of slow blinks signalled that Robbie was thinking it through; then he seemed to relax slightly.

  ‘Luckily for us, DS Thomsett has other things on his mind.’ Cate told him about the farmer, and that the detective intended to test the envelope. It wasn’t news to Robbie.

  ‘He said he may want to take my prints.’

  Cate seemed relieved that Robbie already knew about it. In some respects, Dan thought, this was the perfect outcome: the farmer under suspicion, Robbie questioned without incident and Cate satisfied that her brother had played no part in O’Brien’s death.

  But the fingerprints ... the fingerprints could be their undoing.

  ‘Anyway,’ Robbie said, ‘what does the money have to do with whoever killed Hank?’

  ‘I asked the same thing. It’s an inconsistency, pure and simple. But I don’t know how far they’ll pursue it. The damp weather might have destroyed the prints—’

  ‘It rained!’ Dan exclaimed. Cate gave him a troubled glance, while Robbie nudged him with his foot.

  ‘You guys are getting too worked up,’ Robbie declared. ‘Of course these cops will put us under some pressure. We just have to soak it up till they get bored and go away.’

  ‘Blasé as ever,’ Cate said. ‘I only hope you’re right.’

  ‘Me too,’ Dan said. ‘Are you sure Thomsett doesn’t suspect it was you in the pub on Tuesday?’

  Robbie shook his head, but he looked shifty. ‘I told him I was out with a “friend” that night.’

  ‘That was quick thinking.’ Cate’s response gave Dan a second to process his shock. ‘A female friend, I assume?’

  ‘Is there any other kind?’

  Robbie laughed, a deep lascivious heh-heh-heh. Cate narrowed her eyes and said, in disgust, ‘You are a piece of work, you really are.’

  ‘What?’ Robbie seemed genuinely mystified; then he caught Dan’s eye and growled in frustration. ‘Oh, come on, I didn’t mean that we’re not friends – me and Danny boy. Of course we are. Best buddies, eh?’

  Dan shrugged, while Cate shook her head. Leaving her drink half-finished, she stood up.

  ‘You don’t deserve him, Robbie, I’ll tell you that for nothing. You don’t deserve either of us.’

  CHAPTER 37

  Still bitter that his wife might have been confiding in Stemper, Gordon decided he should take a greater part in the conversation. First he poured more wine. He regarded it as safe to drive on up to half a bottle.

  ‘It was called Templeton Wynne from the start, but there was only ever Templeton in charge. The name was a silly pun to bolster his ego. “Wynne” as in “winner”.’

  Patricia took over. ‘It was my address book and Gordon’s PR skills that launched his business. Practically every contract, every connection that made him successful, he owes in some form or another to the assistance we gave him.’

  ‘Billions of pounds in PFI contracts,’ Gordon said. ‘Not to mention all the direct government funding for his management services and assorted claptrap.’

  ‘Right from the start he failed to give us credit. And this was when we’d just begun our own political consultancy. Gordon and I were slaving night and day to make it work. It wasn’t unreasonable to expect some mutual support. Instead, he simply cast us aside the moment we’d served our purpose.’

  ‘Did he ever explain his reasoning?’ Stemper asked.

  ‘Not a word,’ Patricia said. ‘Not a damn word.’

  Gingerly, Gordon added, ‘There had been one or two minor disagreements. Spats. But nothing to justify his treatment of us.’

  ‘He saw to it that we lost out on some very significant contracts. There’s no other reason to account for why we were passed over ...’

  ‘And in the meantime he was raking in a fortune.’

  Stemper gave a sombre nod. ‘I imagine the recent knighthood must have rubbed salt into the wound ...?’

  Gordon cringed. Of course, Stemper wasn’t to know the subject was strictly off-limits.

  Patricia said, with frosty disdain: ‘I shan’t comment on whether “Sir Mark” deserves his title. But it’s a given that he’ll be in the Lords within a year or two. His Party donations are already into seven figures, much of it funnelled through proxies.’ A bitter look at Gordon. ‘And to think that I was the one who introduced him to David.’

  ‘Of course,’ Gordon said drily, ‘we hadn’t the vaguest notion how important that smooth young man would later become. No one did.’

  More sympathetic noises from Stemper. He was sitting very straight, his hands folded neatly in his lap. His only movements were regular glances to his left or right, apparently casual, but Gordon sensed he was absorbing every detail of the room and its occupants.

  He said, ‘And how does O’Brien’s death link in?’

  Patricia nodded. ‘I’m sorry, we’ve gone off-track. It’s a badly kept secret that Templeton is cashing his chips. Even with the spending cuts, the government is intent on outsourcing to an extent that will make the last gold rush seem like small change. In health, in education, social security, policing, you name it. There are hundreds of billions up for grabs, and of course the American conglomerates are de
termined to get their noses in the trough. One of them decided that a merger with Templeton Wynne offered the perfect route to the front.’

  ‘“Merger” being something of a euphemism,’ Gordon said.

  ‘Exactly. Not that Mark Templeton will care much either way. Even on conservative estimates, he’s looking at an instant personal gain of around a hundred million pounds.’

  ****

  Stemper didn’t do anything as coarse as whistle, or even shake his head. He simply digested the news with a sip of water and nodded at Patricia to continue.

  ‘The one saving grace was that Templeton wasn’t aware of my past association with Hank O’Brien—’

  Jerry chose that moment to cough loudly, and not entirely convincingly. Gordon glared at him, wondering what he knew – or what he thought he knew. Someone as boastful as O’Brien might well have spoken out of turn, and Gordon squirmed at the idea of his dirty linen being aired in public.

  ‘As I say,’ Patricia quickly went on, ‘this gave us a marvellous opportunity. We worked on O’Brien for years, until he came round to our way of thinking.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘Put simply, that Templeton owes us. From our own experience, we were certain that there would be excessive profits, much of it derived from fraud. When a private company lands a lucrative government contract, it’s like being handed a blank cheque. How many of us can say we wouldn’t add an extra nought?’

  ‘Or three extra noughts?’ Gordon said.

  They all chuckled, politely, and Stemper said, ‘Did Hank confirm this?’

  Gordon nodded. ‘For nearly five years he’s been collecting evidence, not just in the UK but from Templeton subsidiaries across the globe. Canada, Australia, Hong Kong.’

  ‘Part of the deal was that Hank insisted on keeping the incriminating material until we were ready to proceed,’ Patricia said. ‘It’s a decision that with hindsight I bitterly regret.’

  ‘Fair enough, really, though.’ This was another unexpected contribution from Jerry, who looked taken aback when everyone stared at him. ‘I mean, that was his insurance policy, if anything went wrong.’

  ‘He didn’t need an insurance policy,’ Patricia said, which Gordon knew was slightly disingenuous. In the event of disaster, their clean-up strategy would have entailed recruiting Stemper to neutralise any threat to the Blakes – and that had included O’Brien, and, indeed, Jerry himself.

  Stemper said, ‘If O’Brien held on to the documentation, might he have felt he could go it alone?’

  ‘It was always a possibility,’ Patricia said. ‘But a solo venture posed various dangers for him.’

  Gordon said, ‘We had guaranteed protection for Hank, particularly if the whole affair went public.’

  ‘I still have many high-level connections, both politically and in the media,’ Patricia reminded them. ‘Hank was aware that we could shield him from a firestorm.’

  ‘Even if that meant revealing your own part in the affair?’

  She shrugged. ‘This was in the context of a total meltdown. We had no reason to believe it would come to that. But you’re right to highlight the importance of secrecy. It was – no, it is imperative to the success of our plan that Templeton has no inkling that we’re behind it.’

  ‘Understandable,’ Stemper said. ‘But it made you vulnerable. I wonder if Hank merely exchanged your protection for that of another party ...’

  ‘And something went badly wrong.’ Patricia nodded grimly. ‘You’re completely in tune with our thinking.’

  ‘So what now?’ Stemper asked. ‘Granted, you need to know why Hank died. But on the larger issue of Templeton – and the money – can you walk away from it?’

  ****

  This was the central question of the meeting, and they all knew it.

  ‘The honest answer?’ Patricia said. ‘I’m not sure that we can.’

  ‘How much is it worth to you?’

  She glanced at Gordon. ‘Templeton is in the United States at the moment. We have private detectives monitoring the negotiations in Delaware and New York. Once we received notification that the agreement was ready to sign, Hank was going to confront his boss with a weight of accumulated evidence. If Templeton didn’t pay up, that material would go to the authorities in half a dozen countries. It would obliterate the value of his company and put Templeton behind bars for a very long time.’

  She hesitated, expertly building the tension. Jerry was gaping at her like some docile beast, his mouth lolling open.

  ‘In return for silence, our price was fifty million pounds.’

  Once again Stemper didn’t flinch. But there was a noticeable gleam in his eyes, as if everything had become much clearer. Jerry closed his mouth with an audible snap. He’d never been told exactly how much was involved, and Gordon regretted that he was present to hear it now.

  He said, ‘The crucial thing is to locate the paperwork. If Hank partnered with someone else, his accomplice may be preparing to use it to extort money from Templeton.’

  ‘Or from us,’ Patricia said. ‘It’s not inconceivable that Hank kept incriminating documents relating to our part in this.’

  Stemper said, ‘Is his death likely to jeopardise the merger?’

  ‘We’ve had no indication of any problems.’ The thought provoked a weary sigh. ‘I dearly hope not.’

  ‘Hank was senior, but nowhere near business-critical,’ Gordon said. ‘And the due diligence is already complete. I suspect the Americans will never even hear of it.’

  Patricia said, ‘The key point is that on Tuesday night we lost control of our own destiny, and we don’t know if that control was wrested from us deliberately or quite inadvertently.’

  Stemper nodded. ‘You shouldn’t rule out a coincidence. But with fifty million at stake, that becomes rather more difficult to believe.’

  ‘If there’s a conspiracy, it must revolve around this woman in the pub with Hank, as well as the two men who returned to the accident site.’

  Jerry stirred into life again. ‘A couple of young guys? I don’t see them cooking up something on this scale.’

  ‘Foot soldiers, Jerry,’ Patricia declared crisply. ‘They come in all shapes and sizes.’

  Stemper agreed. ‘It’s prudent to assume the existence of an unknown adversary. Are there any obvious candidates?’

  ‘None we can think of. It really did seem watertight. And we’re so close – only a week or two away.’ She made a fist. Gordon saw the liver spots on her hand stretching tight over her knuckles. ‘If we can find an answer quickly, we should be able to retrieve the situation and lay our hands on what’s rightfully ours.’

  ****

  Stemper, pragmatic as ever, said: ‘Is the house still unoccupied?’

  The Blakes looked at Jerry, who said, ‘Far as I know.’

  ‘Good. I suggest we search it tonight.’

  Gordon sensed an inward groan from Jerry. Chiding himself for enjoying it, Gordon thought he should mention what they had found on the laptop. He described the email that referred to the British film.

  Intrigued, Stemper said, ‘I’d recommend getting hold of a copy on DVD, if you can.’

  ‘I suppose we have nothing to lose by checking it,’ Patricia said. ‘And your last hunch was certainly spot on.’

  Stemper inclined his head, modestly, and returned the compliment: ‘That was an excellent briefing. Thank you.’

  Gordon could feel the glow of pleasure emanating from his wife. Stemper picked up his glass and gently swirled the water round. ‘Let’s reconvene tomorrow for a progress report.’

  A handkerchief had materialised in his free hand, which he used to wipe the glass. Gordon was astonished – even more so by the fact that neither Patricia nor Jerry appeared to notice what he was doing: removing his fingerprints.

  Patricia leaned forward, eager to capture Stemper’s full attention. There was an unmistakeable sheen of tears in her eyes.

  ‘Those funds weren’t intended to squander on t
he comforts of retirement. The bulk of it was earmarked for a specific project. We were going to do a lot of good with that money, and now someone –’ the sadness turned to rage as she snarled ‘– some animal has taken that from us.’

  As she stood up, Stemper rose with her and nodded solemnly. ‘I understand.’

  She took a step away from the table, moving out of Jerry’s earshot. Gordon also stood, determined to remain privy to their conversation.

  In barely more than a whisper, Patricia said, ‘There are three things we have to find out. Who are they? Why did they kill Hank? What do they want now?’ A glance at Jerry, and another, less hostile, one at Gordon, and then she added: ‘And when we know that, we make them pay for what they’ve done.’

  CHAPTER 38

  After Cate’s departure, an uneasy silence. Dan barely trusted himself to speak, so it was Robbie who gave way first.

  ‘I dunno why she had to get so worked up. We’re still mates, aren’t we?’

  ‘You changed your hairstyle and set up an alibi, but didn’t think to mention it to me. Is that what a “mate” does?’

  ‘Dan, you’re in the clear, remember? It’s not your workplace this cop’s gonna come sniffing round.’

  ‘Not yet. But if they lift the fingerprints it’ll make no sense. O’Brien’s won’t be on there. Neither will Cate’s. That’ll send DS Thomsett back to you for an explanation, and the more he looks at you the more he’ll start to wonder if you were at the pub ...’

  Robbie nodded glumly. ‘I know. It’s not good.’

  ‘My fingerprints are on that envelope.’

  ‘Yeah, but it’s not as though they’ve got them on record, have they? Unless you’ve got a criminal record you never told me about.’

  A lopsided grin. Dan made a face. ‘Funny.’