“What is it?” said Lloyd. I handed him the photograph that was the only item in the envelope. It was a photograph of Lisa, apparently out shopping, with a large cross scored across the image with a red marker pen. On the reverse, again in red marker it said, “Give this to Bell.”
“Who is this,” asked Lloyd.
“It's Alec Bell ’s wife,” I replied.
“Give me the bag,” he said, and dropped it and the photograph in to a plastic evidence bag that he pulled out of his pocket. “I will get this checked by forensics to see if we can get fingerprints etc.”
“Well whe re do we go from here? I forgot you were about to tell me what you had found out about Plavsic.”
At that the doorbell went again. This time it was Alec, I let him in and he joined us round the kitchen table drinking coffee. I told him about the courier delivery and asked Lloyd to show it to him.
“ Don't take it out of the bag,” said Lloyd reaching in to his pocket and retrieving the bag.
Alec stared at the photo and then turned it over, he blanched. “Who the hell is doing this? This looks very scary, what do we do now?” he said turning to Lloyd. “Can the police organise some protection for my wife?”
“I think that is justified but I will need to get authority, is there somewhere I can make a private ‘phone call?” he said looking at me.
“There is a phone in the lounge through there,” I said pointing. “We are in a bit of a hollow here so mobile reception can be bad so feel free to use the land line in there if you wish.”
He went off through to the lounge closing the door behind him.
“Martin, what have we got in to,” said Alec? “ It feels like we are in the middle of some crime thriller script, unreal, yet really scary. Are you OK after last night?”
“I'll live, although I don't think I have felt so many pains and aches in my body since I stopped playing Rugby. This is getting serious and these guys, whoever they are, obviously mean business.”
Lloyd returned to the room and said, “I have spoken to Chief Superintendent Fleet, and she has approved a round the clock guard on your wife Mr Bell, is she at home?”
“Yes, she is at home today, but I need to explain to her what is happening.”
“I think you had better go home and do that but first perhaps you might like to hear what I have to report on Plavsic etc. A woman police constable will arrive at your house by 2pm this afternoon.”
He then went on to give us an update on his enquiries. “Plavsic is Serbian and a director of Mendip Finance. However he is not the direct owner. The shares in Mendip Finance are held by a series of shell companies, which so far we have traced to the Caymans without producing any names of interest. We met with Plavsic and asked him about his interest in Control Networks. He refused to discuss it on the grounds of confidentiality and vigorously protested his innocence when questioned on the strong-arm tactics. A blank end with him so far, but we have asked the Economic Crime Squad in the Met to take a look for us. They don't have anything on Plavsic or Mendip, and as with everyone else their time and resources are stretched but they have promised to make a few enquiries.”
“I also tal ked to a few of my contacts in Special B ranch and similarly came up with a blank. Plavsic doesn't seem to be known at all.”
“You don't seem to be getting anywhere,” I said somewhat scathingly.
“Well there is one thing. Do you know anything about Allied Grampian?”
“Not much,” said Alec, “apart from the fact that they are an investment bank with a respectable reputation.”
“Well, they do look legit. But in the past five years they have made a lot of money in dealings with one client and his interests. A Russian called Peter Asimov, he is what is commonly called a Russian Oligarch. Super rich, with vast interests in Russian Oil and extremely close links to the Russian Government. My contacts tell us that they believe, although they have no direct evidence that he is behind some really shady operations in the UK. His links to the Russian government are strong enough for him to have a diplomatic consular appointment in London which of course carries with it diplomatic immunity.”
He carried on, “I had Plavsic tailed. He seems to live at the Grosvenor Hotel in Park Lane, London, and last night he attended a formal dinner at the Savoy. It was a dinner hosted by the Board of Trade for what they call business leaders and innovators. The minister was there and so was Asimov, but as far as we could tell Plavsic and Asimov did not meet.
“So what does all this mean, apart from the fact that the Grosvenor Hotel seems an odd and expensive place for a legitimate business man to reside long term?” I said.
“Not a huge amount at the moment, but there are also indications that Mendip Finance may not be not all it seems. London is really outside of our jurisdiction so I need to discuss all of this with Chief Superintendent Fleet. When you come in to the station in the morning Mr Lever, perhaps I will ha ve some more questions for you. “ I need to get back,” he said finishing his coffee.”
“What about the Volvo?”
“Dead end there I am afraid, it was stolen in London four days ago and the wreck was totally burnt out so there was no evidence left. We have a DNA check to see if we have a match for the driver, but no results yet. The other occupant of the car seems to have disappeared. We have checked out with hospitals and there have been no reports of suspicious injuries, perhaps he was just thrown clear and with little or no injury.”
“I had forgotten about the second car occupant,” I mused.
“ Mr Bell if you have any thoughts please feel free to call me or discuss them with the WPC with your wife. I will let myself out, thanks for the coffee.” With that Lloyd got up and le ft.
“Well,” said Alec, “where do we go from here?”
“I think you should call Frank,” I said. “You need to bring him up to date with what has happened in the past few days. Also you need to get him to get some of his contacts working on this. What do they know about Mendip Finance, Plavsic, Asimov, etc.?”
“I will, but I need to go home and see Lisa now so I will call him from there. I think I should also tell th e brokers that we want to go more slowly on the Float, that could give us a few more weeks until this gets sorted out.”
“I agree,” I said, “but you will need Franks help to handle the board, particularly Armstrong. They could be tricky.”
Alec left and I sat down in front of the computer in the study. I thought I would do a little research myself on these guys.
Next morning I arrived at College Green police station at 9am where I was met by Inspector Lloyd and shown in to a windowless interview room.
“Sorry about the room,” said Lloyd, but we have a screen in here which I can use to show you some pictures. After this session Chief Superintendent Fleet will join us.”
“Did you get that internet research I sent you last night,” I said. “Not really a lot there but according to chat room gossip Asimov was 'around' when both of those big Amsterdam and Paris drug busts were going on.”
Yes, but as far as we can tell he was not implicated in any way.”
“Did you see those photos of him in Washington? He seems to move in elevated circles!”
“He sure does. Perhaps the economic boys in the Met will come up with something. Any way let's have a look at these pictures.”
With that Lloyd turned off one of the room lights and switched on the roof projector using the remote. The images appeared with four characters on each page with a front and profile view of each.
“If any one of these catches your attention shout and I can blow the image up to full screen to give you a better look.”
In the next thirty minutes I must have looked at hundreds of photos, no luck.
“Well that is disappointing,” said Lloyd, “T hat exhausts all of the locals I wanted to show you. I have just a few that have been suggested to me by the Yard. Look at these.”
The third sheet in and I saw a face that
looked familiar. “Can you enlarge that one?” I said. It was definitely the heavy who pulled me out of the car. A huge ugly guy, big shoulders and all muscle, “that's him,” I said, the one who pulled me out of the car. Lloyd clicked a button on the remote, and up came his name and details.
“Jackie Peterson,” said Lloyd, “not someone I know, a London boy and by the look of his sheet a lot of form including aggravated assault. Probably a soldier for hire; I will ask the Met what they know of him. Look through the rest and see if by any chance the guy who broke in to your house is also there.”
A few minutes later up came another face. Lloyd enlarged the imag e for me. It was definitely him, an unattractive individual with a thin face and dark lank hair combed over a balding head.
“That was the guy who entered my house earlier, the one with the trench coat and a knife.”
“Well that is another London villain, Reginald Archer, a record as long as your arm for petty crimes, although no record of violence.”
We then went up to see Chief Superintendent Fleet and updated her.
“Look Chief Superintendent, I am worried. I have been injured twice and both Alec and I have been threatened. Now Alec's wife is being threatened, what can you do for us, th e next time might be much worse? ”
“We will follow up the leads including this man you have identified but I am not sure there is much more I can do,” she replied. “For the time being we will continue to post a WPC to guard Mrs Bell on a 24 hour basis, but beyond that there is little we can do; I am afraid I don't have an unlimited budget; I recommend that you and Mr Bell take great care not to expose yourselves to any more attacks.”
“And how do we do that, lock ourselves in a cell!” I asked sarcastically.
“I am sorry, but we now have a team working on this, and Inspector Lloyd will keep you informed as to progress.”
I got up, noisily pushing back my chair and walked out without saying another word. I decided to walk across town to the office. The walk would give me some time to think and calm down.
Back at the office I walked in to a string of meetings that went on through a sandwich lunch. At about 2.30 Alec buzzed through from his office and said “Martin, I have something here that I need you to be part of, can you get away and join us please?”
“Sure, these guys can manage here without me for a while,” and went out to the hall to get the lift to Alec's floor.
Upon entering Alec's office there was one other person in the room besides Alec, Ron Armstrong. Ron was normally quite a pleasant individual although one could sense that beneath the general bonhomie he was probably hard as nails. Ron was the principal in a large venture capital fund, Armstrong Ventures that had invested forty million pounds in Control Networks nearly four years ago. Today, Ron did not look happy, Alec was sitting behind his desk and Ron had obviously been pacing the room.
“Ah, Martin, I think it is best you join us and hear what I have to say. I was saying to Alec that I have heard from Frank and the brokers that you have asked them to slow up on the float preparations, maybe the projected date is going to slip. You need to understand that the brokers are not at all happy and neither are we.”
“Alec here confirmed that you have put the brakes on and has just been explaining to me why, and what is going on. Frankly, it all seems a bit far-fetched to me, but nevertheless we cannot acce pt it as a cause for delay. Any thing can happen and if you miss this market window it may be a long time before you get another chance and even if that comes I doubt whether you will get as good a price as you will today.”
“We understand all that,” said Alec, “but we also have the safety of families and possibly staff to consider.”
“Well, as I said, it does seem a bit far fetched but if it's real get some security staff on board,” he replied. “The Company can employ a firm to provide you both with personal security and that combined with the police presence at your home Alec, should be adequate.”
“We will discuss it, and consult Frank, and let you know,” said Alec.
“We will not tolerate any delays. Look, we don't want to play hardball with you boys, you have been a pleasure to work with, but we will if we have to. We backed you and invested forty million nearly four years ago. We never said we were long term investors, we told you we wanted to be out in 5 years, earlier if possible, and if you blow this flo at you will probably blow that five year time scale. From what the brokers are saying we cou ld realise 500 million plus from this float and we want it to go ahead now. I would remind you that in accordance with the terms of the shareholder agreemen t you signed with us, if after five years there is, in our opinion, insufficient progress being made towards an exit strategy, we can step in and take over management and possibly sale of the business. You have almost completed the first fo ur years of those five years. My partners are likely to be pretty unforgiving if we miss this current window.”
I was about to explode at this, but Alec seeing that I was about to speak quickly interjected and said, “Look Ron, we don't want to fall out with you, and we are all interested in getting some money out of this, so leave us to discuss it, and we will get back to you tomorrow. Is that OK?”
“Yes, but you hear what I am saying. I am going back up to London tonight so you can call me in the office. I will leave you guys to it, can someone call me a taxi for the station.” Alec followed him out of the office door to ask Penny, his PA, to organise the taxi.
A few minutes later he came back in and slumped down in his chair. “I thought you were going to explode when he threatened us.”
“I nearly did,” I said. “We can call his bluff if we want, he would be mad to step in and take over.”
“I agree he would, but I don't think calling his bluff is right. He might not take over but in a year’s time that contract puts him in a strong position and he could make life difficult. His idea about the security staff was a good one, why don't we call Frank and discuss it.”
“OK.”
After a conference call lasting about 15 minutes it was agreed that we would go back to the original float plan, and the Company would employ security personnel. Frank said he would call the broker; they were unhappy with the earlier move and needed to hear some warm comforting words.
“Frank,” I said, “while we are talking, could you do some really in depth research on Allied Grampian and Plavsic, and does the name of Peter Asimov come up in connection with Plavsic.”
“I will see what we can do, Martin, it is common knowledge that Allied Grampian does a lot of business with Asimov, but I would imagine that it is all oil related. I will let you know,” and with that he hung up.
“Are you happy with that decision?” I asked Alec.
“I'm OK with it if you are. Lisa is off to Manchester tomorrow for at least two weeks, apparently a particularly gruesome murder case. Normally she would come home for the weekends but I will get her to stay up there, maybe even go up myself for a weekend in the Peak District, we have always wanted to do some walking there and I could do with a break from this place.”
Lisa was a barrister and her having a case away from Bristol was good fortune and took some pressure off. “I thought you were telling me that it was non-stop preparing everything for this float, how can you get away?”
He made a rude gesture and said, “it is, and I may not be able to get away, we'll see.”
“So how do we set up this security arrangement? How about calling Fleet, she can probably give you a recommendation. I don't think it best if I call her, I was somewhat irritable this morning and it showed. In the meantime I had better do some serious work on reviewing where we are with this product release.”
Alec buzzed through to my office half an hour later to say that he had a security firm coming in the next morning at 10am to talk about arr angements, could I be available?
CHAPTER 16
Next morning I was in bright and early to prepare for my weekly 8.30 meeting with the sales team. This was really a
meeting where my product engineering team and sales staff jointly reviewed progress on various projects that were currently under way. The meeting also included a review of prospective sales, with particular reference to what can be promised in terms of development deliveries and specifications.
The day started well with some good news. Ken Giles, our Sales and Marketing Director reported that CJP, one of the worlds biggest mineral resources companies was seriously nibbling at giving us a big contract. This deal had been bubbling along for more than a year now and we like others had been vying for consideration. The contract could be wor th upwards of?500 million over five years, so every company in the industry was after it, like bees round a honey pot! They had indicated we were the favourite because they believed we might have technology coming through which would be of great interest to them. An important question for them was what were we prepared to disclose to them about the new developments.
“Ken, have you discussed this with Alec? He needs to be involved in this.”
“I have mentioned it,” said Ken, “but he has been so tied up with float stuff that I have not really kept him up to date.”
“Well I think you need to go and break his door down, and go through this with him! My thoughts are that we would need to secure a very substantial commitment in the form of a down payment, and then under strictly controlled circumstances give them some ideas as to where we are going and how that fits in with their applications. Let me know if I can help.” We then moved on through the agenda.
I then left to meet with Alec and the security people, running about 45 minutes late. When I got there it had all been decided. There would be external security staff at reception and on each floor of the building, and they would supply two security staff to supplement our own overnight security personnel. In addition Alec and I would each have a security guard assigned 24/7.
When they had gone, I stood chatting with Alec for a few minutes and I mentioned the possible CJP contract that I had suggested Ken talk to him about.
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