CHAPTER THIRTEEN

George stood up nervously and greeted each one of us tentatively. It was obvious from the worried look on his face that he was grappling with demons. His hands were sweaty and shook slightly. He had lost a lot of weight since I had last seen him. He was a big man and the loss of weight made him look gaunt. The waitress took our order for drinks. We all ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale which we had become acquainted with at the 'Dog.' I am not a beer drinker but this beer was special. It had the most smoothing and satisfying taste that I had ever come across and if it was freely available in South Africa, which it isn't, I may have alternated between it and my beloved ' Cappies.'

Sam fixed George with his 'no nonsense' stare which resulted in a nervous twitch to the right of his mouth.

'George we don't have time to exchange pleasantries or commiserate with ex-cops who are light on the truth. We have enough of that back home and I'm not in the mood to play chess today so tell us what the hell is going on with these abductions. You may have a British passport but Interpol frowns on child abductors and as you are well aware will go out of their way to help us nail you.'

The ales arrived and I sat back to listen to the story to come.

George took a few sips of the amber liquid and began.

'I want to state up front that I played no part in the abductions.' He raised his hand as Sam started to protest. 'I don't know how much you know already but I presume you are well acquainted with my role in my parent's adoption agency of which I am not proud. I was young, angry with life for no real reason, a rebel without a cause and all I wanted to do was make money. Looking back I can see why the business started to fold so quickly. I was arrogant, never did my homework – it is important to match prospective parents with the right child – I never even made an attempt to do that in a professional manner. If the opportunity for an adoption arose and I had a client I would try and match them straight away without checking if it was a good fit. Of course it did not take long for my clients to see right through me and go elsewhere. I also treated my staff, who were salt of the earth, and who had been nurtured and trained by my parents, abysmally.' He could see from our reaction that he had our attention and visibly relaxed. His voice picked up a few notches and the tremors disappeared.

'I had also handled my finances like a drunken sailor. I was in serious debt when an elderly gentleman arrived at my office with a dilemma and a way out for me financially. His son had made a young prostitute pregnant and was besotted with her. He was insisting on marrying the girl but the old man was vehemently opposed to it. I offered to mediate between the two but he assured me that he would deal with the marriage aspect – he wanted me to deal with the adoption. His son would cave in on the marriage but not the adoption. He doubted that the young lady would either, so he needed me to forge the adoption documents. He offered me three hundred thousand pounds which six years ago, was a fortune and would not only help me clear debts, but set me up for life. I was hesitant at first but the money was so good that I totally overlooked the risks and focused on the task at hand. The birth of the baby was three weeks away so I had time to work with the old man on a strategy. As luck would have it, fate dealt us an ace which we never expected. The childbirth was a difficult one and the young lady experienced severe bleeding which the doctors were not able to stop. She lingered on for three days during which time I managed to get her to sign the adoption papers during one of her few conscious spells. I told her that the document was for hospital purposes. She was incapable of understanding what was going on and just did what she was told. The old man's son was incensed when he found out what had happened. He knew that she would never have signed the document as they had had plans to marry. He refused to sign the documents so the old man forged his signature without his knowledge and I proceeded with the adoption of the two boys with the Williams and Manning families. The second bit of luck that I had was that Linda Evans was retiring, so I forged her signature on all of the documents as final authorisation. I knew that the governance system was non-existent at the time. Everything was based on trust and as I, and only I, had the authority to record the documents in the computer database. The only risk I was taking was that the auditors who only checked a sample of documents might pick up the forgery. I only closed down my business after the final audit when I was sure that the deal would remain under the radar. The two weeks of the audit were the most nerve racking time of my life but I escaped unscathed.

'We were told that you failed to record the documents,' Sam said.

'No, I recorded the documents, but I made a small change to the input process which dumped it in the recycle bin. That bin is emptied once a month and is supposed to be checked by the data administrator before final deletion but that never happened in those days.'

'Why not just leave it out of the database altogether?' Clem asked.

'There was a manual record of all adoptions for the year. Only the children's names were recorded and that is where the auditors took their sample from. If there was no document in the system, alarm bells would ring and my plan B was, that I would retrieve the documents from the system for the auditor and hope that they would not check with Linda that she had actually signed them. The correct control would have been to send a copy of the sample to Linda and ask her to confirm that she had indeed signed the documents. They did have a sample signature and because I had lifted the real signature onto the form, I doubted that they would do that anyway. The risk of the forgery being discovered was small but I still sweated.'

We were fascinated. It was almost foolproof.

'Shortly after the young lady passed away, I went through the documents to make sure that I had covered my tracks when I noticed that she was only fifteen. I was horrified and finally understood why the old man was so dead set against the union. It was not just the fact that she was a call girl that had bothered him but that she was underage.'

The son came to see me. He was totally distraught and had found out what had happened. He told me he met her at a private party. She had been totally upfront with him from day one. Apparently she had been sold – sold to Nigerians – by her parents who lived in a white squatter camp. She had only been with them for two weeks when he met her and he 'bought' her back from the Nigerians for a large sum which he funded out of trust money that his grandfather had left him. As he intended to marry her he filled his father in on the situation shortly before she gave birth to the twins. The father went ballistic and that is when he came to see me. I felt sick with what had happened but took some comfort in the fact that the twins had been placed with excellent parents. I refused to divulge who the parents were, sticking with the story that Samantha, I think her name was, had agreed to the adoption because she did not believe that with him just finishing his university career, he could take care of them. You will all be pleased to hear that he gave me a beating which put me in hospital for two weeks and I never saw him again.'

'Did either of the sets of parents know that the adoption was fake'? I asked.

'Yes, Jonathan Manning came in shortly before the beating – in fact it is thanks to him that I am still alive as he heard the accusations. After I was discharged, he came to see me to make sure that the adoption was safe. I assured him that it was, and had not seen him again until I was assigned to the abductions. The Williams family and Mrs. Manning had no idea as to what had transpired.'

That explained Jonathan's comment – 'my past is coming back to haunt me.' Sam stopped him, we ordered another round and some light snacks. 'Right… continue,' he said.

'About two years ago I googled the name of the youngster and found out that he had been killed in a car crash in Surrey. I know that not one of you will ever believe me but I suffered extreme remorse for my role in this sordid affair. I decided to turn my life around and joined SAPS, he said looking at Sam. I thought that I could redeem myself, but God works in mysterious ways and he decided that my punishment was not over. You can imagine how I felt when I was assigned to your team and found out that both abductions involved the twins.'

'Before you continue George, why did the four parents not recognise you?' I asked.

'When I was running the adoption agency, I had a full beard and long curly brown hair. The beard was immediately discarded and I dyed my hair blond. I have been short-haired and blond ever since. I told them I was Detective Willemse, in case the name made them suspicious.'

'Did they tell you that the boys were adopted?' I asked.

'Yes, of course, but I knew that if I recorded that, you would soon be on my tail. I transferred a hundred thousand rand from an account that I hold with a bank in Iceland, where the bulk of the money the old man gave me, resides. I cleared our debts, bought the plane ticket, resigned and came here before you could track me down. I was fully aware that the extradition process with the UK is onerous. My marriage has been a farce and I knew my wife would start divorce proceedings once the past was uncovered, which will be a plus for both of us.'

'The name of the father and the son and if there is a holy ghost, I need that too,' Sam bellowed.

George smiled wryly. 'I guess I'm the holy ghost,' he said softly. 'Before I give you names, I need an assurance that I will be indemnified from prosecution.'

Sam looked at him for what seemed an eternity. 'I will give you that assurance if we find those boys intact and safe, and only if we find that you were not involved with the abductions.'

He looked at us. 'I don't believe that under the circumstances it will benefit those two boys to know the gory details. What you did was despicable and you will have to live with your conscience.'

Clem and I nodded in unison. 'In addition you will share whatever is in your nest egg bank account with your wife.' His reaction indicated that that hurt. He obviously still had a sizeable amount in the account. Good. His wife was better off without him.

'And if I don't?' George said in low whisper.

Sam smiled. 'You're an expert in sweating it out, Georgie boy. One more time won't do you any harm.'

I could see that George had made his decision. As usual he was well prepared. He took a piece of paper from his top pocket and handed it to Sam. Sam glanced at it and visibly flinched. 'You're not serious?' he said.

George nodded. 'This is not enough, young man. I need proof. Give me your plan B and just remember you are on standby until we have had a chance to speak to him.'

George smiled and produced a set of papers from his inside pocket. 'Give them to the spook,' Sam said. 'You go nowhere until she says so.'

I examined the documents. They were copies of the adoption papers that Samantha Neale had signed. In addition, he had a copy of the bank deposit for the three hundred thousand pounds. It indicated that an Alistair Isaacs had deposited the money into the account. I could just make out that the signature of the father on the adoption paper which was also Isaac. It appeared to be a P.M. Isaac. I gave the thumbs up to Sam and we all stood up to go.

'Speak to you soon, Georgie boy,' Sam said. George nodded and walked to his car.

'Who is Alistair Isaac, Sam? I could see from your reaction that you recognised the name.'

'He is the British Minister of Environmental Affairs,' he said glumly.

'How do you know that?' Clem' asked. 'That wasn't one of the questions from the quiz last night.'

'It is going to come as a big surprise to you to know that I am passionate about the environment and belong to the South African Environmental Support group to the Government. I have actually met this gentleman.'

Clem and I were gobsmacked, especially me. I had known Sam for a number of years and never knew that he was on the committee. I knew that he loved the environment – we had had some good debates about how to preserve it and he was quite knowledgeable. That he was on the committee – nope, I never knew that.

He grinned, relishing in our discomfort.

'You think that only whiteys are bunny huggers, hey? My forefathers were part of the bush long before Jan Van Riebeeck arrived. One of the big regrets in my life is that not enough of my black brothers share my enthusiasm for the environment, but our committee is working on the youngsters and we are making good progress. You will be amazed at how many youngsters are insisting on having a dog in the house. You are not the only one who has Yorkies, Casper.'

'Great to hear – I'm impressed. What's the next step?'

'I'll phone Mr. Isaac directly. I have his number somewhere in my files – we need to see him ASAP.'

'How are you going to get an audience with the Minister of Environmental Affairs at the drop of a hat?' Clem demanded to know.

'Clem, if I contacted you and gave you the story George has just given us, you would want to speak to me at the drop of a hat,' I teased.

She laughed. 'I guess we do have the ace, don't we?'

Sam phoned Tom on his cell who had gone to visit a friend while we had our meeting. He appeared five minutes later.

When we arrived back at the hotel we agreed to have some chill time before Tom picked us up for dinner at eight. Tom had made arrangements but refused to tell us what they were, other than that our livers were not at risk.

We met in the foyer at seven-thirty and Sam informed us that he had made contact with Alistair. He had agreed to meet the following day at the same restaurant where we had met George at noon. He did not appear to be surprised by the phone call and it appeared George had told us the truth. I couldn't help thinking that we were finally edging closer to solving this case.

When Tom picked us up, he told us that we were off to Windsor. What a treat. As usual he gave us the full history of Windsor on the way. We ended up having dinner at the Thai Square Restaurant in Thames Street which was divine. I am not a soup person but the Thai soups make my taste buds do flip flops. After the meal we took a walk past the castle which is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Simply breath-taking. We walked down to the Thames River and had an Italian ice cream. The Thames looks so peaceful and serene at night. You couldn't help wondering how many of the rich and famous had stood on the exact same spot over the years, contemplating how small and insignificant we are. I felt so blessed and privileged to be in this wonderful place sharing this moment with two of my dearest friends.

Just when we thought the evening was over, Tom stopped at the Theatre Royal and produced four tickets for the show, 'Beauty and the Beast.' You can't come to England and not go to a theatre,' he said. It is like going to Cape Town and not going to Table Mountain.' We whooped with joy and Clem and I embarrassed the Scot by kissing him passionately on the lips in the foyer. Theatre does attract the 'stiff upper lips', some of whom turned their backs to us in horror, hoping that we would be swept out with the cockroaches. Tom roared with laughter. 'Hey Sam, why don't you kiss me?' Sam smiled walked up to him and kissed him on the cheeks, Italian style. The show was superb. We rounded the evening off by having Don Pedro's back at the hotel.

At breakfast the next day we took some time to gather our thoughts. 'What were your impressions, ladies, about our man George?' Sam asked.

'I think he was open and honest with us. I don't think he was involved in the abductions in any way,' I answered.

Clem nodded in agreement. 'I looked at his eyes,' she said mischievously smiling at me. 'He was dead honest.'

'Agree,' Sam said. 'I've decided that if we find he is totally innocent, I'll leave him in peace, but will inform his wife of the hidden bank account. I think we're on the home straight now. I got the feeling that Mr. Isaacs is going to co-operate as well. Let's hold thumbs.'

Tom had an important business meeting to attend so we caught the train at Maidenhead station to Ealing and the tube to Earls Court.

Alistair Isaacs arrived at the restaurant 10 minutes after us. Although he was seventy-five, he looked much older. Dead man walking. This man was obviously ill. I had googled his details last night and found an article speculating on his health. The rumours were out there. He greeted Sam enthusiastically; it was clearly evident that there was a bond of respect between them.

Sam introduced us and the three of us ordered 'Newcastle's while Alistair ordered a stout.

'I was expecting your call last night Sam, George had the grace to phone me and fill me in on the details of your meeting yesterday,' Alistair began. 'I need to state upfront that I too had nothing to do with the abductions. I am a very sick man - I have advanced pancreatic cancer and was hoping that this nightmare would die with me. I have already resigned my position in Parliament but the Prime Minister asked me to hold back on the official announcement until he has decided on the appropriate replacement. He is unaware of this situation. If the media get their hands on it, it will be quite damaging to our party, which quite frankly, needs it like a hole in the head right now. I've decided to be totally forthright with you. I owe it to my grandsons to assist in locating them.' A tear formed when he mentioned the boys.

I was shocked for a moment. It was true that we were all sitting here with the maternal grandfather.

I don't expect you to understand my behaviour and I have no excuses for what I did six years ago. I had only my interests at heart and to throw away one's grandchildren is unforgiveable. At the time I never realised what I was doing and have spent every day since then wishing that I could turn back the clock. I was a deputy minister at the time and if the press found out that my son had committed statutory rape, it would have ended my career. My son Peter was correct when he insisted on righting the wrong. He kept telling me that marrying the girl would dilute the flames considerably, and that was partially true. The problem of course is that our press is relentless, and I would have had to resign. Would that have been a problem? In retrospect, of course not. I was a CPA with Deputy Finance Minister on his CV. Highly marketable but oh no, I had to have the position. Another tear formed.

He looked at us with a sadness that sent shivers down my spine.

'Don't ever trade family loyalty for position and power,' he said. 'It's not worth it. It's like having a swimming pool in Alaska. I lost my son who I adored. He hated me for what I did. He loved that little girl. He could not live with her death first of all and then the loss of his children. When he died in that car crash, he was three times over the legal alcohol limit. He was living in a squat in London, a hopeless alcoholic and it was entirely my fault.'

The tears flowed.

'I have never forgiven myself for what I did. I welcomed the news when my doctor told me I had pancreatic cancer. I just want to go now. I might have felt different if I was a believer – I would fear having to face my deceased wife and my son. I don't believe, so I just want this pain to go away. Death cleans the slate.'

He hesitated.

'I have decided that the one thing I can do, as a small part of my redemption, is to assist you in finding the two boys. Two weeks ago these documents were dropped over the wall at my property together with a note that said that the British press would find them interesting.'

He produced two documents and handed them to Sam who looked at them and then handed them over to me.

They were copies of the exact same documents that George had given us yesterday afternoon.

'I panicked. I knew I was dying but I couldn't face the thought of my reputation being sullied after my death, after such, he made the inverted comma sign with his two fingers – an illustrious career.'

'I was instructed to leave an amount of two hundred thousand pounds in a small attaché case by the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park – which I did. I never saw who retrieved the case. I was told to drop it off at a specific time, twelve noon and move out of the park as soon as possible. That instruction was given to me through a payphone. The voice was disguised,'

'We all know that blackmailers don't stop with one sting but I knew that I was dying so they were in for a surprise. I just wanted to die before anything came out. When George phoned me last night and I discovered that my grandsons had been abducted, I realised that I had to help find them. I don't care about any repercussions anymore. Who am I kidding? I know what I am- I can't hide that away. Everyone should know what I've done – that, like so many of my colleagues, I am a fake. I have a heart to heart planned with the PM tomorrow and if the truth comes out in the press, so be it.'

'Have you had any further requests for money?' Sam asked.

'No!'

'Have you any idea, Mr. Isaacs, who could be behind the abductions? We are convinced that George isn't – so who else knew about the adoptions?' I had a nasty feeling that we weren't on the home straight quite yet.

'I agree George isn't involved. I've racked my brains but I just can't think of anyone else who knew about this. We kept it very tight, as you can imagine. My son Peter could have told numerous people during his bout with alcoholism, but I got the impression from one of the guys in the squat whom I paid to keep me up to speed with Peter's movements, that he was a closed book.'

'Did Peter ever have copies of the adoption papers?' Clem asked.

He shook his head. 'No – there was only one set of papers and George had those.'

Sam's cell phone rang. He looked at the number, apologised and went outside the restaurant – a few minutes later he beckoned me to join him outside. He was as pale as me.

'Jackson Bryant's body had just been discovered in a hotel in Maseru. He had been shot.'

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