The Malthus Pandemic

by Terry Morgan

CHAPTER 31

  As I've said, Colin Asher's business methods are still a mystery to me. An ex London cop, he started his own private investigation company but has turned it into one that operates more like the back office support for a number of other small, private investigators. But much of Colin's work is local, UK based. For Colin to be of any use to me, Colin had had to change the way he worked. And with my business growing so did Colin's. Colin now has a network of what he calls "sub agents" in far flung places. For me, Colin has become invaluable.

  His report on Livingstone Pharmaceuticals arrived on my laptop just as I finished speaking to Clive Tasker.

  The report began by giving a date of formation of 1947 when one Josiah Livingstone had started manufacturing hand creams in New York, USA. Livingstone Skincare Products had grown by slowly adding more and more products and had become a well known brand on the back of marketing itself not just as yet another cosmetics company but as a pharmaceutical company with its own "Dermatology Research" centre also in New York. It continued to develop new products but soon after, in 1991, old Josiah Livingstone died and the business had fallen into the less driven hands of his two sons.

  They had sold it to the company's main distributor in New York. That company, realising the asset it had bought for a song, changed its own name to Livingstone Pharmaceuticals. The business had grown by adding painkillers, common cold remedies and other simple treatments and by 2005, Livingstone Pharmaceuticals had become a household name for family type medicines. But again, due to unspecified problems, it was put up for sale.

  Colin's report went on and I'll give it to you just as it came:

  "The buyer: Daire Capital Investments (DCI) - a company registered in the Cayman Islands. We are seeking more on DCI - initial information suggests Gregory O'Brian is the majority shareholder. DCI Finance Ltd is a company registered with UK Companies House but is not trading. Directors are Gregory John O'Brian, Keith Alan Donovan, Kevin Stephen Mallory. We can delve more if needed.

  [Note: Daire is the Irish spelling for Derry or Londonderry - Gregory O'Brian gives this as his place of birth although now a US citizen]

  Livingstone Pharmaceuticals: Last information - 65 employees, seems profitable but domestic USA market share is static or falling. Export markets are apparently growing at about 25 percent annually. One report says it is looking at investments in developing countries overseas.

  Personal: O'Brian is an Irish American from Boston. Tracking him back shows he originally ran a company trading in fertilizers and animal feed from offices in New York, Dublin and Belfast. No information traceable on Daire Capital Investments. It is probably a holding name that is used for all sorts of business activities. We also found Daire Insurance, Daire Chemicals and Daire Property with O'Brian's name linked somewhere. As a result, the financial picture is currently impossible to track as everything appears to go via the Cayman Islands.

  Livingstone Pharmaceuticals Business Strategy (information obtained from business publications): Said to be looking at increasing product registrations and approvals in Africa and the Middle East. There was an expressed interest (information obtained from a copy of an official enquiry to the commercial interests section of the US Embassy in Japan) in taking on agency lines in more specialised pharmaceuticals."

  That was it. I read it twice. Then I switched to Colin's final sentence.

  "If, as I suspect, its Greg O'Brian - GOB - that really interests you, Daniel, then phone me. I don't want to put everything in an email."

  I looked at Anna. She was sat cross-legged on the bed reading a Thai cookery book but looked up when she realised I was smiling. I smile a lot when I look at Anna.

  "Kamun gai, my Mister Look Lap - I think you will like Kamun gai. I'll go and buy some in the street. Bring lunch to our room, yes?"

  "Sounds very good to me, Anna," I said. "I've got another phone call to make. You go ahead."

  In England it was early morning, seven-thirty, but Colin answered the phone as if he was expecting me to call at any moment. "Morning, 007," he said. "You got the notes I assume? OK, here's more and so I don't prejudice things with my own interpretation, I'll read it to you, verbatim so to speak. As it was given to me. Direct from the horse’s mouth, as it were. No frills, you understand. No glossy highlighters and no asterisks……."

  "Get on with it, Colin."

  "OK. Gregory O'Brian. Age 62. Confirmed links with the Provisional IRA in the seventies and early eighties but avoided arrest or extradition from USA through insufficient evidence. An IRA fund raiser in Boston.

  "Linked with several major frauds in USA, UK and Ireland. These including insurance and property with suspicion around embezzlement and money laundering.

  "Grew up in Londonderry, father a quarryman and explosives expert. Not short of luck, he won a lot of money doing the "football pools" as betting on football results was once called. Money used to start his business selling animal feed and fertilizer through a business called Daire Agriculture.

  "Moved to Boston, USA, married the daughter of a local Irish Republican physician in Boston, childless as far as we can tell and now spends little if any time with his wife. She now lives near Cape Cod. He ran Daire Agriculture from Boston but it was a front for all sorts of illegal activity. Alleged to have made millions through a medical insurance fraud but no-one seemed able to prove anything. This is the likely explanation for the Cayman Islands account and how he found the money to buy Livingstone Pharmaceuticals. Owns several properties including one - estimated value three million dollars - near Newport, Rhode Island. Currently rented out for so called leisure activities. Used by congressmen, film, TV, people. Probably earns enough in rent in one year to buy a similar property down the road. Regarded as a high octane but secretive operator. Livingstone Pharmaceuticals appears to run itself as O'Brian takes a back seat. But Livingstone is probably a facade for other things."

  Colin stopped as if he was waiting for things to sink in. "What other things?" I asked.

  "GOB's other life is the same as his current life. He makes money by whatever devious means he can dream up or comes his way. But I suspect a criminal psychiatrist able to get him to lie still on his coach for an hour might also link it back to failed political ambitions. He never got his dreamed-of unified Ireland with a job in a new Irish Government. Since then he's dabbled in other ways to change the system - any radical idea gets his attention, especially if it involves causing a few headaches for democratically elected politicians in US, UK or anywhere. You got an extreme plan that might upset someone he dislikes? GOB will go for it. A bit of money for National Front? GOB's there. A few living expenses for someone falling foul of the system? GOB's on hand. Fighting fund for anything extreme that might yield a profit in return however many years into the future? GOB's definitely your man. GOB seeks power to influence, power to blackmail, power to get whatever it is he wants. Trouble is he's getting old now - 62 is way too late and past it for some professions and he might be getting impatient."

  Six thousand miles away, Colin probably realised from the long pause that I was thinking hard. I was. I was also getting excited. I like this sort of thing. It's what I do. And this case had needed livening up. GOB sounded just like the Malaysian guy with the holiday resorts I'd met only a month ago. But let's not stray.

  "How do you know all this, Colin?"

  "It's my job to know, Daniel. Also, I once did a job for a private investigator who had a client seriously out of pocket after investing in one of GOB's health insurance schemes. GOB was the architect but he hid behind a system he'd deliberately put in place. No-one got arrested. No charges were brought and the only other people to benefit from the work were the trading officers from the local council. But his scam went far wider than the UK. Australia and New Zealand got a taste of him as well.

  "But you won't find his name mentioned too loudly, Daniel. He's a nasty piece of work when it comes to revenge."

  "Such as?" I asked.

&nbs
p; "Such as the client of my client. He was found dead in his garden shed in Bracknell with a garden fork stuck in his chest. It's still an unresolved murder. Needless to say I didn't invoice my client."

  "Christ!" I said and I don't normally swear.

  "So, Daniel, my friend," said Colin at last. "Food for thought? Will that be all for the time being? Moving on from Bangkok are we or are you finding life comfortable there at present?"

  "Comfortable, Colin, thanks for asking," I said thoughtfully as I was still thinking about garden forks stuck in chests. There was then a knock on the hotel room door. Anna came in carrying lunch in several plastic bags.

  "Lunch," Anna said and then noticed I was on the phone. "Sorry." She was getting used to me already. The food smelled good.

  "GOB as you call him is linked with Mohamed Kader, Colin," I said. "How does that sound?"

  "Wow, Daniel, that's something that is. And you are there in the middle of it - whatever it is?"

  "They are co-operating on something or another - officially it's a distribution agreement but...."

  "But it might not be?" Colin interrupted. "Is that what you're saying?"

  "I don't know what I'm saying at present, Colin. I think I'll have some lunch and think about it."