by Ian W Taylor
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THURSDAY - CANBERRA
After seeing off Koshi at the airport in Darwin, Anna Sentoro flew to Canberra, taking the opportunity of working in the plane to catch up on a huge backlog of her normal day to day work as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was met by her driver at the airport and taken to her home in Canberra where she spent the evening with her husband Don and her two young teenage sons. She hadn’t seen them for a week and enjoyed spending a few hours just being a normal wife and mother and catching up on their activities. After she had cooked the boys their favourite dinner of cannelloni followed by banana shakes, the four of them sat around the table as she told them what had happened over the last week, sparing them some of the gory details of the assassination of the Prime Minister and others. She then explained to them that she had to make a decision as to whether she would run for the leadership of the Liberal Party to become Prime Minister.
They were supportive but she knew if she were to be successful there would be a real strain on the family in view of the huge demands on her time as a Prime Minister. As it was, Don was unhappy with the amount of time she spent away from the family in her role as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and their relationship had been strained for some time. After kissing the boys goodnight she and Don shared a bottle of red wine on the couch watching the television. There she nodded off to sleep until Don gently woke her and she shuffled her way to the bedroom. She was asleep again the minute her head hit the pillow.
FRIDAY MORNING - CANBERRA
Anna woke refreshed in the morning, threw on her robe and prepared breakfast for Don and the children and packed their school lunches. She was again happy to do the normal things as a wife and mother after the horrendous week she had been through. She kissed the boys as they walked out the door to the garage and got in Don’s car. Don always drove them to school on his way to work. Her chauffeured-driven car was already waiting to take her to her office in Parliament House. She quickly showered and dressed, jumped in the car and was in her office by 9.00 am. She acknowledged her staff as she entered her office where she collapsed into her chair with a huge sigh. The last week had been the most gruelling in her life and the next week wasn’t going to be much easier with the ballot for the party leadership coming up and a state funeral to arrange.
Her Personal Assistant, Jenny Larkham, brought her a cup of coffee and presented her with her schedule for the day, the daily news briefing and the red folder containing urgent action papers. She switched on her computer and scanned her emails.
She then called her staff to a meeting in her office and briefed them on the activities of the last week before asking each of them to fill her in on major issues she needed to be aware of. On winding up the meeting she asked her Chief of Staff, Allan Laidley, to stay behind. Allan was in his early thirties, but looked older. He had a perpetual frown on his face, was short, overweight and balding. Owing to his appearance, people often underestimated him. He was highly intelligent and had a very good feel for politics and policies that would work. He had been working for Anna for six years and she depended on him for his loyalty and honesty and respected his opinions especially in regard to his judgement in reading the political climate.
“What’s the latest on the leadership election Allan?” Anna asked, referring to the ballot by the Liberal Party to replace Neville Murray as Prime Minister.
“It’s going to be held in the party room next Monday at 10 a.m. Apart from yourself, It looks like the only other candidate to stand for the leadership will be Malcolm Crichton. There will also be a spill for the deputy leadership position with two nominations.”
“What’s the feeling in the party room?”
“We’ve been canvassing around the members and at the moment you are the clear frontrunner, especially after your handling of the crisis following the P.M.’s assassination. But Crichton is an old campaigner and is certainly pitching hard. He’s making a lot of noise about your inexperience compared to his long standing as a minister of various portfolios.”
“Heaven forbid if he ever got the Prime Ministership. He’s forever feathering his own nest. There’s still a lot of rumours about some dodgy mining and property deals he’s involved in.”
“Nevertheless, there is a number of undecided back-benchers and you need to get on the phone to shore up your support. I’ve made a list of the more influential members.”
“O.K. thanks for that Allan. Anything else of importance today?”
Allan ran through the most urgent matters requiring her attention and her appointments during the day. She noted an appointment scheduled at midday with Anthony Wiley, Malcolm Crichton’s Chief of Staff, and queried it with Allan.
“He requested an urgent meeting with you Minister and wouldn’t say what it was about. He said it was personal. Do you want me to cancel it?”
“No, but I wonder what that little weasel wants. No doubt Crichton has something nasty he’s cooking up.”
Allan left her office and she started going through the papers in the red folder. By midday she had signed off the most urgent papers and handled two meetings in her office.
Jenny tapped on the door to announce that Wiley had arrived. She told her to bring him in and she waved him to a chair on the opposite side of her desk. Wiley was well named and had a reputation as a skilled manipulator of people in the world of politics. He was a small ferret-like man and Anna knew he revelled in doing hatchet jobs for Crichton.
After making the usual pleasantries and congratulating her on her handling of the terrorist crisis he finally got to the point.
“Minister, would you mind telling me if you are planning to run for the party leadership?”
“I haven’t made up my mind definitively yet, but several party members have encouraged me to run. I’m sure you already know that.”
“Well, something has come to my attention which might cause some embarrassment to you and the party if it came to light.”
Seething, Anna said “And what might that be Anthony?”
Wiley pulled out an envelope and threw it on Anna’s desk.
She picked the envelope up and shook out its contents. There were three photos. She gasped when she saw them. The first was of her and Jake Stafford dancing very closely together at the celebration party at the Yellow Water Resort. The second showed her and Jake kissing on the balcony in her suite at the after-party. The third showed Jake coming out of her room and was time dated at 3 a.m.
Her face turned bright red with fury. “You little weasel, where did you get these from?”
“Let’s just say they were taken by someone who knows you well.”
“This is monstrous! Nothing happened between Jake and me. We were just having a bit if fun. I danced with lots of people at the party as well as in my suite afterwards.”
“That may be so Minister, but the camera doesn’t lie and it casts you in an embarrassing position, especially if the media gets hold of these photos.”
Anna couldn’t believe what was happening.
“Who else has seen these photos?”
“To date only the person who took the photos, Mr Crichton and myself.”
“So what are you planning on doing with them Wiley?” Anna sneered.
“That depends on you.”
“What do you want? Are you trying to blackmail me?”
“Not at all Minister. In fact I’m quite happy to give you these and the originals.”
“O.K. what do you want from me, what’s the price I have to pay?”
“Well, if you were to withdraw your candidacy for the party leadership ballot, I’m sure this problem would be resolved.”
“You worm. You and Crichton are the biggest bastards ever. This is blackmail. I’ll take this to the police.”
“And we would simply deny we have ever seen them.”
“You can’t threaten me with this. I’ll go to the press and explain what happened and tell them about your sordid blackmail attempt.”
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“Again, I would just deny it. It wouldn’t help you, your family or the party if such a scandal was exposed. But it’s up to you, let me know your decision by tomorrow or these just might find their way to the press. You can keep the photos as mementos.” Wiley sniggered.
“Get the fuck out of my office, you vile little man,” Anna screamed.
Wiley smirked and let himself out of her office. Once she had recovered her composure, she asked Allan to come in to her office. She tossed him the photos and explained what had happened. He stared at the photos with a horrified expression on his face.
“Christ, what are you going to do about this?” Allan asked.
“I honestly don’t know. It’s all circumstantial and I could call their bluff and see what happens. But if this gets to the press it could be damaging to me personally as well as the Government. It would also be upsetting to Don and the boys. While I can explain to Don that nothing really happened it would still place additional strain on our marriage.”
“Who do you think took the photos?”
“It could have been anybody who was at the party and who was celebrating at my suite afterwards. Many people were taking selfies with their phone cameras. But does it matter now that the prints have been made?”
“Probably not, but if we could work out who it was and somehow got hold of their phone we could delete the evidence,” suggested Allan.
“It’s a long shot and even if we did find out who it was, how do we get their phone off them?”
“Don’t know, but nevertheless I could draw up a list of people who were at both places and see if we could work it out. What about Jake - do you think he might have noticed anyone?”
“I don’t know, he wasn’t drunk like most of us so he just might remember someone.”
She thought for a second. “He needs to know about this anyway, so I might give him a call and ask him.”
“Allan, would you keep this to yourself and think how we might contain it from becoming a scandal. Come back to me in an hour with any thoughts.”
Allan nodded and walked out if her office.
She dialled Jake’s number. He picked up after a couple of rings.
“Jake it’s Anna. How are you?”
“I’m fine thanks Minister.”
“Please call me Anna, Jake. How’s the leg healing up?”
“Ah, good thanks, Anna. I’m pretty mobile again.”
“I’m sorry to have to ring you Jake but I’ve got a problem which affects you.”
She explained about the photos and Wiley’s threat to go to the media.
Jake listened in amazement.
“This is crazy, nothing happened between us.”
“I know Jake although I apologise if I was a bit drunk and coming on to you. But the photos show us in a compromising position and the press would have a field day if they got hold of them. Can you remember anyone who might have taken photos of us.”
Jake thought hard for a minute.
“I can remember a young woman walking past as I let myself out of your suite. I can vaguely recall a flash as she brushed past me. She could have taken a photo from her mobile phone. I’d seen her at your party but I don’t know her.”
“Do you think you’d recognise her again if you saw her and could you describe her?”
“Yeah, I think so. She was short, blonde and wearing a green dress at the time.”
“O.K. I’ll ask around the office and see if anyone can identify her. I’ll get Allan to send photos of anyone who might meet that description.”
“Right Anna. I’ll wait for them.”
“Thanks. Jake this is highly confidential. Please don’t breathe a word to anyone about this and don’t take any calls from the press.”
“Of course.”
“And Jake, despite everything, I did enjoy myself at the party.”
“Me too Anna, it was a fun night.” Jake rang off.
Anna called Allan into her office and gave him the description of the woman with the green dress.
“O.K., I’ll ask around and see if anyone can identify her.”
In less than ten minutes he was back in her office.
“Jenny thinks she knows who it is. It’s Belinda Rattan, a media advisor in Crichton’s office. She was at the party in the resort as well as at the party in your suite. Jenny saw her taking lots of photos with her mobile. ”
“That would make sense. What a bitch! Can you get hold of a photo of her and send it off to Jake?”
“Will do. The Parliamentary Office will have one.”
Allan hurried back to his office, opened his laptop, downloaded Rattan’s photo from a link to the Parliamentary Office and sent it off to Jake’s phone with a quick text. Jake texted back a few minutes late confirming it was the same woman. He walked back into Anna’s office and sat himself down in a chair.
“Jake’s confirmed it’s Rattan alright. What do we do now?”
Anna thought for a second. “I’m not sure. We could confront her with it, but she’d probably deny it.”
“What if we managed to grab her phone and delete the photos?”
“How would we do that - by stealing her phone? Even if we did delete the photos, Wiley’s still got copies.”
“Without the originals, we could claim they were doctored.”
“No, people will believe they’re the real thing anyhow. I’m afraid we’re stuffed.”
“Let me think about it anyway. It’s worth chasing up.” Allan got up and left her office and walked over to Jenny Larkham.
“Jenny, we have confirmed it’s Belinda Rattan who took those photos. Do you know her well? She’s put Anna in a very compromising position. I’d like to confront her on it and see what she says.”
“I don’t know her that well, but I see her around the Parliamentary Offices from time to time. I’ve seen her drinking with some friends at the Kingston Hotel after work a couple of times.
“It’s Friday, do you think she’d be going there tonight?”
“Quite likely. In fact I’m going there myself with a couple of people from the office. Do you want to join us, we’ll be there at around 5.30 p.m.?”
“Thanks Jenny, I’d like that. I’ll see you then.”
Allan rang his wife and told her he would be late getting home. He spent the next two hours finishing off the more urgent paper work, packed his brief case, said good night to Anna and walked out of the building to the car park. It took less than ten minutes to drive to the Kingston Hotel. The hotel was a popular watering-hole for public servants and staffers from ministerial offices. The car park was full so he parked in a side street and walked into the main lounge of the hotel. The lounge was packed and as he looked around he recognised a number of people from ministerial offices. He nodded to a couple of acquaintances and spotted Jenny sitting at a corner table with two other people from the office. He offered to buy them all drinks. He pushed his way through the crowd at the bar, ordered and paid for the drinks and carried them back on a tray to the table. They chatted about the last week’s events, raising their voices so they could be heard above the din.
Jenny leaned across and spoke to Allan quietly. She pointed discreetly to a table about ten metres away.
“See that group three tables up, the woman in black in the centre of the group is Belinda Grattan.”
Allan turned on his seat slowly and cast his eyes over the people around the table and let them rest on the woman in the centre. He realised he had seen her before at the party in Anna’s suite. He recognised most of the people on the table as being on the Defence Minister’s staff. They were in a party mood and looked as though they had been drinking for some time.
“Thanks Jenny, now all we have to do is steal her phone.”
Half-jokingly, Jenny said “That should be easy. All you have to do is spill a drink over her and while she is cleaning herself up lift her phone out of her handbag.”
“Yeah right, we don’t even know where she keeps her phone.�
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“There’s an easy way to find out. Just ring her and when she answers, say she’s won a prize from a radio promotion or just say sorry wrong number and hang up.”
Allan thought for a second. “Hey, that just might work. I’ve got her mobile number, I can call her now.”
“No, then she’d have your number and might be able to track it down. Use the public phone at the bar,” suggested Jenny.
“Good thinking. O.K., I’ve got nothing to lose, I’ll try it. We’ll both watch her to see where she keeps her phone.”
Allan stood up and walked over to the public phone. He picked it up, dialled Belinda’s number and leaned over so he could see her reaction. He watched her but there was no reaction. He thought either she hasn’t got her phone with her or she hasn’t heard it ring. He tried again and sighed with relief when she shuffled in her handbag and pulled it out.
“Hi, is that Belinda Gray?” Allan asked disguising his voice.
“My first name is Belinda but my surname is not Gray. I think you must have the wrong number.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to bother you. Bye.”
He watched as she put her phone on the table and picked up her drink.
Steeling himself, he waved to Jenny with his fingers crossed, picked up a half empty glass from the bar and walked towards Belinda’s table. At the same time two young office workers, obviously intoxicated, brushed past him, forcing him sideways. He accentuated the move and crashed into the table with the contents of his beer glass splashing over Belinda’s dress and the impact sending glasses flying everywhere. He recovered his footing, apologised profusely to the startled Belinda and used serviettes to mop up the beer on her dress. She swore at him.
“You stupid bastard, look what you’ve done?” she screamed as she pushed his hands away from her sodden blouse. The others on the table were also trying to recover from the mayhem.
“I’m so sorry, those guys shoved me as they walked past.” Allan apologised again as he started to sponge up the beer on the table.
A large man at the other end of the table leaned over and glared angrily at Allan.
“Just get out of the way before I hang one on you,” he said, pushing Allan in the chest.
“O.K., O.K., I’m going, I said I was sorry.” Allan took the opportunity to leave and walked to the men’s toilet, winking to a startled Jenny as he walked past.
In the toilet, Allan locked himself in the cubicle and pulled out Belinda’s mobile from his pocket. He quickly scanned through her photos and grunted with satisfaction as he found the photos taken at the party. He deleted the offending photos, and then went back to have another look at a photo which caught his attention. He copied the photo onto his own phone, put Belinda’s phone back in his pocket and let himself out of the cubicle. At the washbasin, he dabbed at beer stains on his shirt and walked back to his table where Jenny was looking at him wide-eyed.
“Did you get it?” she whispered as he sat down. He nodded and cast his eye around the room. Belinda had obviously rushed off to the ladies’ room and the rest of the group were standing around waiting as the table and chairs were being dried off with a towel by a waitress.
“Give it to me and I’ll slip it back before she realises her phone is missing. You need to make yourself scarce in case someone twigs as to what is going on.”
Once the table had been cleaned, Jenny walked over to the waitress and gave her the phone explaining that she had picked it up off the floor and assumed that it belonged to someone involved in the accident at the table. The waitress thanked her and gave it to one of the group taking their seats.
She returned to her own table and saw Allan heading towards the exit. She raised her glass of wine to Allan who smiled and made his way out of the hotel.
Once outside Allan sent a quick text to Anna telling her he had deleted the offending photos.
