*
He arrived home just before nine and Sue greeted him with a hug and a kiss.
“Is that for me?” she said when he took the perfume out of the bag.
“Of course, and the single malt is for me and the chocolates are for both of us to share AND I know exactly how many there are in the box in case you sneak a few when you think I’m not looking.”
“Tight arse.”
“Sexy bum,” he replied playfully smacking her bottom.
“You must be starving” she said “What do you fancy to eat?”
“I tell you what I’d really like, a plate of bacon sandwiches and a pot of tea.”
“I think I can manage that” she said. “By the way, I got you an appointment with a Doctor Maybury eight thirty tomorrow morning. I hope that’s O.K.”
“Fine thanks,” said Mick.
“How’s your mum?”
“Well I spoke to her this afternoon and she seemed a little better, although she is adamant that she’s not going to hospital. I’ll go down and see her on Saturday. Carol rang from Australia to see how she was but I can’t get hold of Paula, She might be on holiday somewhere in the wilds of Scotland. Paula, her other sister lived in the north east and they saw even less of her than they did of Carol in Australia. Her brother Steve had been down on Sunday and didn’t think she looked too bad.
“Any news about dad?”
“Nothing, I haven’t phoned today, I assumed you’d be going in tomorrow.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next morning Mick unpacked his overnight bag and put all of the stuff from Germany into a holdall ready to take into work. As he showered he went over what he needed to do that day, first and foremost a meeting with Rachel Bond to sort out the ‘politics’ of separating the murder investigation from Phillip Austen’s apparent Criminal activity.
Then to get Emma started on printing off all of the stuff on the discs and putting into some sort of logical order with a contents page so they could find things easily.
He kissed Sue goodbye and said he would go straight to the hospice after work so dinner about eight would be nice.
“No problem,” she said. “Don’t forget your appointment at the doctors.”
*
Mick got to the doctors early, booked in at the reception desk and sat down in the waiting room. His mind went back twenty years to when Sue was expecting. She was about nine weeks pregnant when she was taken ill during the night and Mick had called an ambulance. She was kept in for a couple of days and then discharged with strict instructions to rest as much as possible.
She had gone to the doctors a couple of weeks later for a routine appointment but Doctor Jacobs, their G.P. since they had got married and moved into the area, had said that she needed to go back to Hospital immediately as her blood pressure was ‘off the scale’. He made a phone call there and then and within an hour she had been re-admitted but sadly she lost the baby.
They decided to wait a year before trying again but the year came and went and Mick could tell that Sue wasn’t yet ready. He didn’t press the issue until they were on holiday in Austria a full two years later. She said that she didn’t feel ready, another year passed and the subject was never discussed again.
The receptionist told Mick that Doctor Maybury would see him now and Mick walked down the corridor to the door with his name on it, knocked and went in. He was somewhat taken aback by his appearance, Harlequins rugby shirt, army combat trousers and trainers. How different to Doctor Jacobs, now retired, who always wore a suit, shirt and tie.
Mick explained about the problem with his knee, the doctor took a look and asked a few questions about his lifestyle and so on and came to the conclusion that Mick would be better off seeing a physiotherapist which he said he could arrange but it could be a few months before he would get an appointment. Mick said that as a police officer he thought he might be able to arrange something sooner, Doctor Maybury simply said “well that’s up to you Mr Joyce,” and that was the end of the consultation.
*
Mick headed into Hatfield, not in the best of moods, drove up to the car park barrier, put the pin number in the security pad on the post and parked his car. He walked into the station, again putting his own unique pin number in to gain access, and went up to the incident room where the three members of his team were chatting,
“Guten Morgen” he bellowed, to a chorus of groans.
“So how did you get on in Paderborn?” asked Bob.
“Well I learned an awful lot about Captain Phillip Austen and we have a considerable amount of reading to do, or at least we will have when we have printed off all the information on these discs.”
Emptying the content of his holdall onto the table he said “Emma, I’m putting you in charge of that. There are six discs here containing the contents of his laptop and quite a number of documents we found in his flat which have been scanned onto the discs. They had some difficulty in accessing his laptop, something to do with security levels and passwords. If you have any problems with the discs you are to speak to Lieutenant Andrew Jordan at Paderborn and hopefully he’ll be able to help you.”
He gave her a slip of paper with Andrews’s phone number and e-mail address on it. “Can you print everything off and put it all into folders with a contents page so we can find things more easily.”
“Also can you scan the documents in these cardboard tubes and e-mail them to Andrew, they were too big for his scanner and we ran out of time to take them across to their main admin office. I had a look in one of the tubes, they appear to be just plans and advertising stuff for a housing development, but I promised Andrew I’d send him a copy.”
Mick then phoned Rachel and asked to see her as soon as possible. She was in meetings all morning but said to come up at three o’clock. Mick sat down at his desk.
“Anything new whilst I was away Bob?”
“We’ve had the full Path report and the photos and reports from Scene of Crimes, I’ve had a look but I don’t think they tell us anything we don’t already know. One thing though which might be useful as evidence when we pull the major in, there were some fingerprints on his leather belt that weren’t his. We’ve also looked at all of the CCTV footage we could get, but again, nothing apart from that one image of the victim walking towards the restaurant from where he parked his car.”
*
Emma and Matt went downstairs to get a box of paper ready to start printing and whilst they were out of the room Bob told Mick that Emma had been very upset on the previous Monday morning. Apparently she had phoned her boyfriend at the hotel he was staying in, whist he was on a job in Cardiff, late on the Sunday night, a woman had answered his mobile and when the boyfriend came on the phone they had a blazing row.
I asked her how she was when she and I were alone this morning and she seemed quite positive. She said that she had sent him a text saying it was all over and if he wanted the clothes and other things he kept at her flat he’d better come and get them before the binmen took them away as they were in a black sack next to the bins in the yard. She then said something about today being the first day of the rest of her life.
“Good for her,” said Mick.
Mick picked up one of the cardboard tubes and took out the papers inside. There was a plan of a development of new houses and flats at a place called Woodland Hills together with a list of prices and details of the various types of property available. He looked at the prices several times but couldn’t understand what currency they were in, he’d assumed at first that they were in Euros but that would have made them astronomically expensive, also the text was in English which seemed odd. He picked up a second cardboard tube but it contained much the same as the first, as did the third and fourth tubes.
He picked up the fifth cardboard tube which had not been opened, the one that the neighbour had taken in when Phillip Austen was away. He studied the tube carefully; there was an address on the tube apart from Phillip Austen’s address of
the flat in Bielefeld, the address where the tube had been sent from, S & P Developments, Woodland Hills, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
*
Emma and Matt came back into the office carrying two boxes of paper and a box of lever arch files and put them down next to the printer. Whilst Matt busied himself taking out the first ream of paper and filling the tray on the printer, Emma picked up the discs and put disc number one in and opened the first file, checked it against the list that Andrew Jordan had made and started printing. Matt took out a new lever arch file from the box and they started the laborious task of printing and filing the contents of the six discs.
Bob joined Mick at his desk and looked at the contents of the cardboard tubes as Mick opened the fifth tube. It contained much the same as the others with the addition of a handwritten note, asking Phillip Austen to confirm safe receipt of the contents, signed simply ‘Simon’. Mick suddenly realised the connection, the address in South Africa, the name ‘Simon’. It was Phillip Austen’s brother.
Mick called out to Emma
“When you’re going through that lot can you particularly look out for any details of investments that Phillip Austen has made in a property venture in Bloemfontein South Africa.”
Emma made a note, pinned it up on the board and carried on printing.
“Hang on a minute boss there’s broken glass on your desk, look just there near the phone,” said Bob pointing to the spot.”
“Can’t be,” said Mick. I’ve had nothing glass on my desk.”
He carefully picked it up and looked over the rest of his desk and on the floor underneath. He then picked up the cardboard tube and carefully tipped it up. Four more small pieces of glass fell onto the desk. He carefully looked inside the tube but couldn’t see anything so he asked Bob to get the torch from his car. They took it in turns to peer inside, now with the bright light provided by the torch.
“I think there’s more broken glass in there but it seems to be stuck to the inside of the tube.”
“Pop down to the canteen and borrow a sharp knife will you Bob, we’ll open it up.”
Bob returned with a large carving knife with a serrated edge,
“This should do the trick,” he said as he handed it over.
Mick picked up the lid of the box from the copying paper by the printer and spread it flat on the floor. Kneeling down he placed the cardboard tube down and carefully sawed through the tube near to where he thought the glass was stuck to the inside. When he had separated the two lengths he picked up the bit of tube he was interested in and looked inside. There were several pieces of broken glass stuck to the cardboard.
“This glass was already broken when it was glued in,” said Mick “It doesn’t make any sense.”
He sawed through the cardboard in three other places to check if there was any more, but there didn’t seem to be. He took a letter opener from his desk drawer and carefully scraped the broken glass onto a piece of plain paper, adding the pieces that had worked loose and had fallen out onto the desk. They all gathered around his desk and studied the sheet of paper with the broken glass.
“Anybody any ideas,” Mick said to the room in general. “Why would anybody send bits of broken glass from South Africa to Germany?”
“Well they wouldn’t, are you sure it’s glass, it’s very dirty,” said Emma adding “Don’t diamonds come from South Africa?”
“Do you know, you might just be onto something there Emma. This doesn’t go outside this room until I’ve seen the boss this afternoon but it is possible that Captain Austen was involved in some form of criminal activity. Over the three years he has amassed quite a sizeable fortune, way beyond what his army salary would provide him with. If he was receiving diamonds from South Africa hidden in a cardboard tube, which on the face of it was just advertising literature for a property development, then that has to be linked to some form of illegal activity.”
“They don’t look much like diamonds to me,” said Matt.
“These could be industrial diamonds or rough unpolished diamonds destined for jewellery manufacturers, “said Mick.
“Bob what was the name of the firm that was robbed about three or four years ago? You and I did the initial interviews. Weren’t they involved in the manufacture of Jewellery? “
“Yes I think they were. I’ll have a look at the files, just give me a couple of minutes.”
Mick went next door to the main CID office and found a small jiffy bag which he took back to his desk and poured in the diamonds. Bob found the address of the jewellery manufacturer and gave it to Mick,
“The guy we spoke to according to the file was John Mathers, his phone number is on that note I just passed you.”
*
Mick rang the number and asked to speak to Mr John Mathers. He was put through to another office and a voice said, “Hello can I help you, my name is Paul Cavendish.”
Mick introduced himself and said that he was hoping to speak to Mr Mathers who he had met some three or four years previously after their robbery.
“John Mathers retired last year, can I help you.”
Mick explained that in the course of an investigation they had recovered what they believed to be either Industrial or rough uncut diamonds and wanted to speak to an expert in the field who could examine them and give him some information. “Well I’ve worked in the trade for over thirty years, I’d be happy to take a look at them Inspector.”
“How soon can I come and see you Mr Cavendish?”
“I’m here all day and every day, so pretty well any time to suit yourself.”
“It’s fairly urgent actually” said Mick, “Could I come late this morning. Say eleven-thirty?”
“I’ll look forward to seeing you then.” said Paul Cavendish.
*
Mick left the station and drove the twenty miles or so to Bishops Stortford, found the jewellery workshop and pressed the intercom buzzer.
“Hello,” said a man’s voice.
“Good morning, my name is Detective Inspector Michael Joyce of The Hertfordshire Police. I have an appointment with Mr Cavendish.”
“Wait there a minute please, somebody will come down and let you in.”
Mick stood there and noted the CCTV camera above the door which opened and he was ushered in by a young man in jeans and a black T-shirt.
“Follow me please” he said and led Mick up the stairs, where they were met by a small wiry man in trousers that had seen their best and a loose fitting T-shirt with the Rolling Stones distinctive red lips and tongue logo on the front and Amsterdam July 1998 written underneath.
“Inspector Joyce, please come in, I’m Paul Cavendish.”
Mick produced his warrant card and handed it over, after he had examined it was handed back.
They sat down at a table in the workshop, and Mick outlined what he wanted to know.
“Well, let’s have a look at your diamonds then.”
Mick took the jiffy bag out of his jacket pocket and tipped them out onto a piece of navy blue velvet that Paul Cavendish had spread out on the table. He picked up the diamonds and examined them one at a time with the special magnifying glass that Jewellers use. He then weighed the diamonds on digital weighing scales and announced twenty eight point four grams or one hundred and forty two carats”.
“What are they worth?” asked Mick.
“The basic price of diamonds depends on three things, colour, cut and clarity, These are white diamonds, uncut, the price would increase considerably when they were cut but there would be a reduction in the weight, that is all down to the initial shape of the uncut diamond and the skill of the cutter. These are a mixed lot and the colour will vary from stone to stone as will the clarity. Some of these are quite dirty. “
“That might be because they were glued to the inside of a cardboard tube” said Mick.
“These are worth somewhere between twenty to thirty thousand pounds in their present state. They are probably from South Africa which imposes a tax
on uncut diamonds together with a Diamond Export levy on the taxable income of all diamond mining companies, you’ll have to speak to a specialist on the amount that would add.”
“So if somebody was getting these diamonds out of South Africa without notifying the authorities they would be a lot cheaper than buying them through the proper channels?” said Mick.
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, totally illegal of course. Another possibility is that the diamonds were stolen from the mine and couldn’t be exported without the correct paperwork”.
“Either way it’s criminal activity,” said Mick.
“Absolutely,“ replied Paul Cavendish.
“Well thank you that has been a great help. How’s business, you didn’t suffer too much after your robbery I hope? “
“Not too bad although the insurance premiums went through the roof of course and we spent quite a bit on better security.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mick walked back to where he had parked and passed a small sandwich shop, he went in and bought a couple of ham rolls and a cake as he wouldn’t be eating again until eight at least. He sat in his car and ate his lunch thinking about what he had just been told. He decided against ringing Andrew Jordan and telling him where Phillip Austen’s money was coming from until after his three o’clock meeting.
He got back to the station just after two and asked how they were getting on with the printing,
“About halfway through it would be my best guess,” said Emma, “I’ve loaded all of the discs and there are some pretty big files, particularly from his laptop. I’ve been compiling the contents list as you wanted as I’m going along. Lieutenant Jordan’s notes are a great help though, he seems very thorough.”
“Yes that was my impression replied Mick.”
“Can you print me off the contents list to date?”
She did so and he found what he wanted, the share purchase details from his broker.
The Paderborn Connection Page 8
