Dulac was on his way up to his hotel room when his cell rang. Dulac recognized the number. It was Wade.
“Simeon filled me in. Nice work. I have a bit of news myself. We picked up Singh. He was trying to board the Dover ferry. Thought you might be interested.”
“I’m on my way.”
Dulac packed his bag, paid the bill and grabbed a taxi to Southampton Central. Moments later, ticket in hand, he was waiting on Platform 3 B for the London –Waterloo Station express to arrive. He grabbed his cell and dialed Lescop’s number.
“Lescop.”
“It’s me. Wade’s men have picked up Singh. I’m on my way to the Yard right now. Any news on Mirolet?”
“Not much. We’ve only been able to break through the first layer. Five owners, all numbered companies, all incorporated in Zurich. Beyond that, we can’t pierce the corporate veil, so to speak, without furnishing proof of a major crime to the Swiss.”
“Great. Just pissing great. Anything on the ownership of the unregistered phone?”
“I spoke to Gina and our guys downstairs last night. They don’t dare try any harder to break through MI-6’s firewall. They say it’s too risky. Might show up on their screens. If it does, we’ll have a major diplomatic row.”
“Damn. On another subject, remind me again. The cross-default clause on P & W’s ships’ insurance policy was triggered by the non-payment of which policy?”
“The building policy.”
“And the payment was withheld on Bolding’s instructions?”
“The cheque had been issued by accounting, but was actually stopped by Mills, the CFO. If you recall, he and Bolding said there was a cash flow problem. We have no evidence that Mills acted under Bolding’s instructions.”
“Makes sense.”
“What?”
“Never mind. My train just arrived. Talk to you later.”
* * *
Two hours and ten minutes later, Dulac stood in front of Wade’s closed office door. He knocked.
“Come in,” said Wade.
Wade was sitting at his desk, busily typing on his computer when Dulac walked in. Wade rose slightly and extended a moist right hand across his desk. Dulac shook it reluctantly.
“Where is Singh?” said Dulac.
“He’s in a holding cell downstairs,” said Wade. “Claims he left P & W two weeks ago because he was having a nervous breakdown. He’s been seeing a doctor Dagmar Dokkar. A few days ago, this doctor conveniently recommended Singh take a vacation. Apparently that’s when he decided to leave for France.”
“Yes, very convenient.”
“Under the Antiterrorist Act, we can only hold him for one more hour. He’s called his barrister.”
“Let me take a crack at him,” said Dulac.
“Be my guest.”
They took the elevator down. Accompanied by two constables, Wade led Dulac along a narrow corridor, lined on both sides with the heavy metal doors of the holding cells. Near the end, they stopped and a constable unlocked the door of Cell 15.
Dulac entered the small room, where a tall, middle-aged, bearded man wearing a white turban walked back and forth nervously behind a small table. A wooden chair was set in front of the table. The man stopped and looked at Dulac with suspicion.
“Interpol. My name is Dulac. Mind if I sit down?”
“I want my solicitor. You have no grounds to keep me here.” Singh thrust his chin forward in defiance.
“We’ll see about that. So you were sick?”
“I have a medical certificate to prove it.” Singh started pacing to and fro again.
“Supposedly. You must admit it’s a hell of a coincidence that you fall sick just as the people you hired happen to hijack the Caravan Star. While your solicitor’s on the way, let’s chat about P & W, shall we? You’re aware that Sir Adrian Bolding was murdered?”
Singh stopped pacing and looked at Dulac. “Murdered? The TV said it was suicide.”
“That’s what the assassin wants us to think. Obviously, Bolding wasn’t playing ball, as the Americans say.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m sure you don’t. Does the name Leon Binagro mean anything to you?”
Singh shrugged his shoulders and resumed his walking.
“How about Henri Messier? His name ring a bell?”
“Never heard those names before.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Except they’re both dead now also. Murdered.” Singh stopped, and Dulac noticed a small twitch in the right corner of Singh’s mouth. “When was the last time you saw Allister Mills?”
“I suppose before I left P & W. Two weeks ago.”
“About the same time Mirolet was incorporated?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t. Probably don’t know Andrew Toombs either.”
“I’m not talking until I see my solicitor.” Singh stopped pacing. He crossed his arms against his chest and leaned against the wall, facing Dulac.
“Of course. Let me do the talking for now.” Dulac dropped his fists down onto the table and rose. He leaned across and locked his stare onto Singh. “Let me tell you a story, a story of what I think happened. You are, or were, a security officer at P & W, but you are also a member of the Baluchistan Tigers, with whom you have a dormant relationship.”
“Nonsense.”
“You, the Tigers and their accomplices have been planning the hijack for some time, carefully replacing the Caravan Star’s security officers. That would have been key to the operation to control the passengers. You had to do this gradually, lest you attract unnecessary attention and someone started to get suspicious. Your plan was just about complete when Allister Mills mentions that the company is in trouble during a corporate meeting of you were attending with your fellow officers,. In fact, P & W’s been edging closer and closer to bankruptcy. This threw a wrench in your hijacker friends’ plans. When you told them this, they realized they had to act before P & W did in fact go bankrupt and you lost your privileged position at P & W. Out of a job, you’d have beenre useless to the Tigers and their accomplices. Besides, in the event of foreclosure, there’d be a strong chance the ships would be seized. You couldn’t afford to wait.The hijacking had to go forward.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh really? Then tell me how it happened that at the time of the hijacking, all the security officers aboard the Star were Baluchistan Tigers? You were responsible for hiring them, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t check what province in Pakistan they were from. There are many other Pakistanis aboard P & W ships fulfilling many other functions. I don’t choose personnel based on race or nationality. That would be against the law.”
“And you wouldn’t do anything illegal, of course. So to continue, your accomplices still needed some vital info to control the ship, such as the ship’s detailed schematics, and only a few senior officers such as Mills and Owens, the VP Ops, had that info. But you happened to know that Mills has an extravagant lifestyle. When I reviewed his file recently, his credit rating was triple C. Not good for a VP Finance. I found that he applied to P W for a loan, presumably to cover his debts. But now that the company is in financial difficulty, you and he knew there was no way the Board of Directors would approve that loan. So you saw a potential ally in Mills, because desperate men do desperate things. Plus, if P & W went bankrupt, Mills would be out of a job, too, with no chance to pay back his debts. Some of his creditors wouldn’t have taken too kindly to his defaulting. But Mills knew there was one way to make money on P& W’s demise, by selling some of its stock short.But Mills is a drowning man, he hasn’t got enough money to make that option work, either. That’s when you decide to throw him a lifejacket, but first you have to talk to the others.”
“This is going from the ridiculous to the sublime.”
“Is it? So humor me a bit longer. You need that info, and time is pressing. You talk to your accomplices and they decide having Mills share in the ransom isn’t a big deal. There’s plenty of money to go around. They tell you to get him on board. But you see where you could make a nice pile of money instead of just being a good soldier for the Baluchistan cause. You tell Mills you and he could partake in the ransom directly. So Mills authorizes Toombs, P and W’s solicitor, to form a nice, discreet, hermetic Swiss corporation, in which Mills and you and possibly others will have shares. You contact Tariq and the Tigers and they agree that in exchange for the info they desperately need, Swissco, alias Mirolet, will get part of the ransom money, funneled through Leon Binagro. Still with me, Tajar?”
“You have a vivid imagination.”
“But for the plan to succeed, especially with P & W being strapped for cash, you and Mills need a guarantor, or at least a strong chance that someone else would pay the ransom. Mills knew that Bolding fraternized with Hays. We happen to know that Mills, as CFO, signed Bolding’s expense accounts, which included many dinners with Hays. But here’s where it gets tricky. We know Toombs had numerous telephone calls with someone at Home Office but—”
Suddenly, the door opened, and a tall, dark-haired man with greying temples wearing a three piece suit entered, briefcase in hand. He tossed it ceremoniously onto the small table.
“Giles Blount. I’m Mr. Singh’s barrister. On what grounds are you holding my client?”
Dulac turned. “Oh, I don’t know. Try conspiracy to acts of terrorism, conspiracy to hijack a ship, accessory to murder of twenty-seven passengers aboard the Caravan Star. Evasion of justice. Accessory to Bolding’s murder. I’ll think of a few more while I draft Interpol’s red flag warrant for your client’s arrest.”
Blount stared at Dulac. “Unless you charge my client now, we’re leaving.”
Dulac looked at his watch. “Under the Antiterrorist Act we can still hold him for another half-hour. Just a moment.” Dulac got up and opened the door. Wade stood at the doorway and Dulac took him aside. “How fast can you get some wire taps on P & W’s and Mills’s phones?” whispered Dulac.
“It would take a couple of hours to prepare the papers and go before a magistrate. And there’s no guarantee it’d be allowed.” Wade looked doubtful.
Dulac scratched his scalp. “Singh is starting to get nervous. I’ve got him thinking that he just might be next on their hit list now that he’s been caught. We’ve got to offer him a deal.”
“That’s way out of my jurisdiction,” said Wade. “Besides we only have your theory to go on. We have no hard evidence.”
“Once Singh leaves, he’s bound to warn the others and we can’t stop him. I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“You can’t—”
“Just watch me.”
Dulac re-entered the room and closed the door behind him. He eyed first Blount, then Singh.
“Here’s the deal. I’ve spoken to Wade and what I’m about to offer you is the best deal you’ll ever get. Right now, you’re facing two conspiracy counts of two murders, conspiracy to hijacking a ship, aiding in the concealment of weapons to be used in a crime, multiple violations of the British Antiterrorist Act and willful disregard of human life. Since your ‘friends’ seem to be rather trigger-happy, there’s a strong chance they’re going to get rid of you as well. Especially now that you’re a potential witness against them.”
“Mr. Singh has not said or done anything incriminating,” said Blount.
“Possibly. But do his friends know that for sure? Are you willing to put Mr. Singh’s life at risk?”
“Mr. Dulac, you’re an Interpol agent. You have no authority to offer any deal here,” said Blount.
“You’re right. That’s why my offer is conditional to what Mr. Wade accepts.”
“Then why doesn’t Wade make the offer?”
“So you’re saying you’ll consider the offer.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Dulac looked at Singh’s face. His expression shouted of quiet desperation.
“I think your client thinks otherwise,” said Dulac.
Blount turned to Singh, then back Dulac. “I want to confer with my client outside.”
“By all means.”
* * *
Blount paused on the steps of the main entrance under the suspicious gaze of two policemen. He took out a cigarette, lit it and looked at Sing. “How much of Dulac’s info is correct?”
“I don’t know how he got it. It’s scary.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Blount took in another deep drag from his cigarette. “He still has no hard evidence. They’ve got a long way to go before they can even think of getting a conviction in court. In the meantime, whatever you do, don’t contact anybody except me. I’m sure they’re going to wiretap your phone if they haven’t already. Don’t speak to anyone without going through me first, is that clear?”
“How bad is it?”
“They’re going to offer you reduced charges in exchange for your testimony against the others. Are you prepared to do that?”
“So if I shut up and I’m convicted, I spend the best part of my life in jail. If I talk, I get a bullet.”
“We’ll make witness protection part of the deal.”
Silence.
“I’ll have to think about it,” Singh said finally, resignation on his face.
“It’s a hard choice, but it’s my duty to tell you that your friends may not be so sure you haven’t talked already. Is there anything else I should know?”
Singh hesitated. “No, not really.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. So what should I do?”
“Let’s hear what they have to offer. It won’t hurt to listen.”
While Blount and Singh conferred, Dulac convinced Wade to drop the conspiracy to murder Bolding charge and offer a reduced, criminal negligence charge related to the dead passengers in exchange for Singh’s eventual testimony against Mills and the naming of his accomplices. Dulac and Wade sat and waited in the interrogation room for Singh and Blount to return. Dulac’s cell phone rang.
“Dulac.”
“It’s me, Gina. I’m with Director Arlberg. Can you talk?”
“You sound nervous.”
“We were able to break through MI-6’s firewalls and trace the owner of the unregistered phone.”
“Fantastic.”
“Are you sitting down?”
“I am. Why?”
“It’s Sir Terence Hays.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“Arlberg wants to speak you.”
Dulac got up, gesturing to Wade that he needed to take the call in private. He opened the door and exited the room.
“Where are you?” said Arlberg.
“Scotland Yard. They have Singh, but he’s not singing yet.”
“No points. Dulac, promise me you won’t do anything rash until we see the implication of this.”
“You mean I can’t go to the press?”
“Very funny. Until we see where this goes, keep this strictly to yourself.”
“I wasn’t thinking of sharing it with Wade, if that’s what you mean.”
* * *
Singh and Blount returned, walked past Dulac, and Wade directed them into the interrogation room again. “I’ve got to go. Call you later,” said Dulac. He ended the call and entered the room.
“What’s your offer?” Blount looked at Wade.
Dulac made a timeout gesture. “Wade, can I see you for a moment?”
The two left the room and closed the door.
“Something’s come up,” said Dulac.
“Yes?”
“I can’t tell you what.”
“I thought we agreed to share all info.” Wade looked royally annoyed.
“Believe me, if what I just heard is true, ignorance is bliss.”
“What about Singh?”
“Let him go. Keep him on a tight leash. Tap his phone, get a tail on him and hold his passport. He’s bound to contact the others. Meanwhile I’ll pay a visit to Mills, P & W’s new president. If I’m not mistaken, he already knows Singh is here.”
“What about the offer to Singh?”
“It can wait.”