The Determined Widow (The Matthew Holland Mystery Series)

by Adam Melrose

Ava moderated her tone to a more conciliatory one now that she knew she was not about to be told she could claim on her imagined accident, or that she had won a cruise.

  ‘Well in that case, we would be very grateful to hear what it is you are prepared to share with us. I should explain you are on loudspeaker with my colleague.’

  ‘I guessed as much,’ said the voice, ‘Good afternoon Mr Moss.’

  Bruno sat up in his chair. ‘Hello.’

  The disembodied voice continued, ‘I know you are busy, as am I, so I will get to the point quickly. It is just that I work – I should say I worked for the UK government in a minor role. It doesn’t matter what I did per say, I was a small cog in a big wheel; but my work did bring me into contact with Mr de Varley for a period of about six months a few years back.’

  Bruno had grabbed his tablet and was setting it to record the conversation in case it would be of use later.

  ‘You certainly have our interest, please continue.’

  The voice obliged.

  ‘Well suffice it to say, I am one of the Whitehall types that people get to meet when they are making a lot of effort to lobby the UK government.’

  Ava interrupted.

  ‘And just to be clear, it’s in this capacity that you met Evo – I mean Mr de Varley?’

  ‘It is,’ responded the voice. ‘Are you familiar with the concept of Freeports?’

  Ava and Bruno looked at each other blankly. ‘No.’ they both answered.

  ‘Well in principle, Freeports are buildings, or a series of buildings in which people can bring items of value into a country; and as long as the items don’t then leave these buildings and travel further into the country, then there is no tax to pay on the item in question. They can stay in the Freeport or leave the country again, and no tax is due.’

  ‘Sounds like a tax dodging exercise to me,’ Bruno said dismissively.

  ‘It can be yes, and there have been some incidents that would appear to follow in that vein, but to be honest there are also plenty of legitimate reasons for them to exist where it is not about evading or avoiding tax.’

  ‘And we have these Freeports here in the UK?’ asked Ava.

  ‘No,’ replied the voice, ‘Not yet, but it is only a matter of time before we do. Generally speaking, the UK government does see them as a positive thing.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Good,’ said the voice. ‘Anyway, to get to my point, Mr de Varley’s team approached us early on before Freeports were a priority for the UK government; but they made a good, strong argument for the creation of a couple of Freeports in the UK. To that end, we said we would consult further with them, and that is when Mr de Varley became more personally involved. He started attending all the meetings. Not something I have ever seen someone of his standing do at such an early stage. He was polite, focused, open and direct, but something was off; I could not put my finger on it at first.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Ava. She wanted to ask a whole load of questions, but did not want to lead this person in any direction. Rather she just wanted to hear his story in his own words; though now they were onto this topic, she could not see that it was going to be relevant. Torn between being polite and hearing this out, or shortening the call, she decided to just let the voice continue. It would be a while before they would be getting the call they were really waiting for.

  ‘Well,’ continued the voice, ‘In the end it turned out that what Mr de Varley was actually proposing was totally out of the question. He wanted the government to contract out the customs roles to his own employees, and allow him and his people to run the whole operation. He suggested there would be plenty of checks and balances in place. Well, there was just no way in the world the UK government was going to run with a proposal like that, not in this day and age. The potential for fraudulent activity was too great. So that was it. The project was dead in the water. De Varley and his cronies pulled out… almost stormed out in fact, and the government has ploughed on with its own plans in respect of the creation of Freeports in the UK. I have to be clear, there was no suggestion that the de Varley team and Chantmarle Capital were up to no good; it was just the principle that allowing a private company to do all that they were proposing was a nonstarter.’

  ‘Yes.’ said Ava, ‘I can see that. There is no way that makes sense.’

  ‘No quite. Well that is not the main point. From what I got from Mr James, I cannot see the remotest connection between the Freeport business and what you are investigating. I just gave you that background so you could understand the context of what I am about to tell you.’

  Ava and Bruno raised an eyebrow at each other.

  ‘It is simply this,’ continued the voice, ‘That in all my years of service and government employment, I have never seen anything as odd. It’s nothing remarkable in and of itself, but at the same time it really must point to something.’

  Bruno was getting impatient, he wanted to hear the punch line.

  ‘Well, it was just that in all my dealings with him, his body language just did not match his chat.’

  ‘I am sorry,’ said Ava, ‘I am not sure I follow.’

  ‘No indeed, I am not making myself clear. Sorry. From his spoken words and communications, Mr de Varley was very driven about his Freeport project, massively so in the way many Billionaires we deal with are. Often acting like spoilt children who are not getting their way for the first time when they meet an obstacle. He would be threatening things like, he would leave the UK and take his business and his money with him; then in the next breath, he would be offering things he could do for the UK, which to be honest is what I would expect from someone like him. But his body language didn’t match, not even remotely. His body language was that of someone who actually was not really bothered either way. He just did not appear to have any real cares or concerns. As I say, I have never witnessed that before. When you meet someone and they say they are angry, the body language matches. The same when happy. With Mr de Varley, his moods changed, but his body language didn’t. It was as if he was some third-rate actor. His odd behaviour has stuck with me all this time, so I guess it’s relevant somehow. I just can’t be sure why. When Mr James mentioned his conversation with you guys, something in my gut just told me I should tell you. I hope it is of some small help.’

  Ava spoke, ‘Well I am sure it will be. Both Bruno and I very much appreciate you taking the time and the risk to share this with us. We will give this a lot of thought, and see how it fits with what we know. Thank you again.’ She did not have the heart to tell whoever this was that they were already aware of this sort of thing with Evo.

  ‘My pleasure,’ said the voice before hanging up, and with the sound of a click he was gone.

  Bruno leant forward and stopped the recording app on his tablet.

  ‘Not legal I know, but I wasn’t sure what we were going to learn there.’

  ‘No indeed. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we already know about Evo living off his staff. and not quite grasping the true nature of what is going on at the small detail level. The problem with this case has been the same right from the very start. It all happened so long ago we have nothing concrete to go on from any angle. No witnesses, no fresh crime scene, in fact no crime scene at all...’

  Ava stopped mid-sentence when she saw Bruno’s expression. It looked like he was having a light bulb moment. Ava quickly scanned back through what she had said. She alighted on one word. Concrete.

  Ava blushed, ‘Oh, that wasn’t the greatest choice of word was it. A bit inconsiderate given how Pete died. I didn’t mean anything by it though.’

  Bruno gave Ava a smile that told her he knew she would never make such an unpleasant remark.

  ‘I know you didn’t. Your right about the word though. I think it might be the key to the whole mystery. We were on the right track with the specialist concrete before, but we went down a blind alley that’s all.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Well the problem with this case is no
thing really makes sense. It all seems a bit farfetched and stupid to be honest, and that is what has been holding us back. No indisputable solid leads and all we do come up with seems pretty unlikely. I mean who sets up a secret lab to develop clean energy technology based around hydroelectric dams in a county that doesn’t have the topography to support something like that?’

  Ava said nothing in the moment Bruno stopped to breath and gain clarity on his thought process before carrying on.

  ‘So, we keep searching for a different answer when we come up against a slightly odd theory; but what if that is exactly what is going on here. What if Evo is doing something very odd. Suddenly everything begins to make more sense. It’s not like there are no eccentric billionaires in the world. He certainly wouldn’t be the first by any means.’

  Ava failed to conceal her surprise.

  ‘So you think Evo really might be developing some new tech in The Portal, because no one would think anyone would do that in a county that he could never deploy it in?’

  Bruno shook his head, ‘No not quite. I think he is up to something in The Portal, but I don’t think it involves developing some revolutionary technology. If I’m right, it is all to do with something that is as old as the human race itself.’

  Ava looked incredulous, ‘And what is that?’

  ‘Avarice.’

  ‘I don’t think I follow.’

  Bruno woke his tablet up and swung it around to face Ava.

  ‘There.’ He said pointing to the screen.

  Ava read the article, speaking as she went.

  ‘This is an article about some of the general similarities between some of the existing European Freeports.’

  Ava began to read out some of the listed similarities. ‘Another common feature,’ she said out loud, though not loud enough to be heard from any greater distance than where Bruno was sat opposite her, ‘Is that these structures are all built to ensure they are resistant to earthquakes, a key component of which is specialist concrete.’

  Ava folded the cover over the tablet and handed it back to Bruno.

  ‘It’s a Freeport. Evo has constructed an illegal Freeport right out in the middle of nowhere.’

  Bruno put the tablet to one side, and then took a drink of water from his glass.

  ‘Yes, I think he very likely has done exactly that. If we run with that crazy theory, everything suddenly makes sense.’

  ‘You’re right, it does. The reason why a business minded billionaire would buy a white elephant like that in the first place. The fact that if Pete accidently died there, or was killed there that Evo would not want anyone sniffing around, so he would move the body. It all begins to fit.’

  Ava paused as she thought.

  ‘Oh, but it still doesn’t explain whether Pete was killed deliberately, or if it was an accident, and none of this explains the Shadow Tides.’

  ‘Well,’ said Bruno. ‘I was thinking about that. I agree about it not helping us to get any further on the circumstances surrounding Pete’s death, but I think the Shadow Tide can be explained, backed up by what Joe and Max found out in relation to the doctored books in the library.’

  Ava was now sitting up straight, and both she and Bruno had instinctively leant forward across the table so that they were close.

  ‘I think we were partially right about the hydro dam situation being relevant, but not to develop any new clean energy, I think it’s probably a defence system. Think about it. If Evo has built a Freeport there, from a customs and excise point of view it can’t offer any tax relief, so it has to be about storing items of high value for some other reason. If there is no tax benefit, then it surely has to be a secrecy benefit. And given the cost of building something like that and the sums Evo deals with, there has to be some seriously high value stuff down there. Even a state of the art alarm system on its own isn’t going to be enough protection. Given the secrecy of the place, you also can’t have high perimeter fences and armed guards walking about, or a large building that shouts go away; that would draw too much interest. But…’

  ‘But…’ repeated Eva.

  Bruno moved in even closer.

  ‘What if you developed a whole back story and a system that creates something that if you get caught up in it, there is a good chance you die. Then plant a few stories of people being killed. That’s going to deter pretty much everyone but your most determined criminal, because firstly most people don’t know it’s there, and secondly there is a killer defence mechanism in place. Guard dogs bite. Shadow Tides kill. – Well, so it would appear.’

  Ava sat upright, the sun was getting uncomfortably hot now, and she wanted the protection of the shade.

  ‘What is wrong,’ asked Bruno. ‘You look horrified.’

  ‘I am Bruno. Don’t you remember, the Shadow Tides taking lives, it’s not a tale. People have died from them. We nearly died from one.’

  Bruno looked a little ashen white despite the climbing lunch time temperature.

  ‘That’s what worries me Ava. Just what lengths will Evo go to to protect what he has down there.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Eva, ‘And if he is willing to allow a death or two in order to lend credibility to his protection system, then…’

  Bruno finished Ava’s thought before she could, ‘Then… it’s perfectly possible he killed Pete, and that having shown us a wonderful evening’s entertainment, he tried to kill all of us too.’

  They sat in silence for a few moments, the enormity of what they had just said sinking in. Not only that Pete may well have been murdered by his boss, but also it reminded them what a lucky escape they had all had from their encounter with the Shadow Tide.

  Bruno finished the last of his glass of water and gathered up his tablet.

  ‘If you are up for it Ava, I would like to go to The Portal now. Park down by the road, and just carefully walk up the tree line with some binoculars, and see if we can see anything that would lend credence to our theory. Maybe a guard post or other high security device we have missed. It would be good to have something to back up our theory with when we tell the others.’

  ‘Sure thing,’ said Ava, as she too stood up and gathered her phone and tablet from the table. ‘We should probably nip up to the Operations Room and let Matt or someone else know where we are going.’

  ‘Good plan,’ agreed Bruno, ‘We also need to grab some keys for one of the cars unless you have a set for either car on you already?’

  ‘No I don’t.’ They headed into the hotel. Ava caught the waitress and signed a chit for their meal, then thanked her for the great tasting burgers.

  They began to climb the stairs that were now beginning to become so familiar.

  ‘Bruno?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  Ava sped up so as to join him in sync as they climbed the stairs.

  ‘You’re not proposing that we go into The Portal are you? Not alone, or without backup because if we are correct…’

  Bruno stopped and turned to look Ava straight in the eye, he wanted to reassure her.

  ‘No Ava, there is no way I would consider putting our lives at risk by entering that portal until we have backup, or more idea for sure what is going on there.’

  Ten minutes later, they were crossing the car park towards the cars. They had grabbed the keys to the Audi. There had been no one in the Operations Room, though they had left a handwritten note on the desk. As they got into the car Ava wondered if it had been a good idea to leave the note near an open window. The wind was picking up as the afternoon rolled on. She had tried to call Matt but his phone was not responding, neither was Norton’s.

  Chapter 37

  Bella had not long arrived at The Tame Swan. Again, she had insisted that she was going to cycle there, so Matt and Norton accompanied her. They hid two of the bikes out of sight, and again Matt insisted on setting up a vantage point, so he and Norton could keep an eye on what was going on and respond to any threat immediately.

  Much to Matt’s annoyance and concern, t
hey discovered that there was no phone signal at the pub. Matt and Norton were with one service provider and Bella with a different one, yet all the phones registered no service. The venue was in a communications black spot, which did nothing for Matt’s blood pressure and anxiety. Had Eva or Evo known this? Had one or both of them somehow cleverly engineered this to be the venue? Were they being played?

  Matt had to take a moment to calm himself down. Whilst he was doing that, Norton had found a small side terrace that was further round the corner from the main terrace, and which was difficult to see. It was well hidden, and once Norton had moved a couple of the tables around, he assured Matt that they would have a good vantage point from which to watch Bella; furthermore, they would only be a matter of feet away. Rather than relying on technology, they would be able to rely on their eyesight. This clear and frank situation report allowed Matt to regain his inner composure.

  Bella for her part had selected a table, and ordered a very expensive bottle of champagne. She had managed to talk to a few of the pub staff despite it being busy, and by luck, had managed to identify a member of staff that was only on their second week. They had been brought in to help with the extra summer customers. Bella had handed the waitress an enormous tip that had probably matched her entire week’s wage, and requested that as soon as she saw an elderly lady join her, that she bring out the bottle of champagne already open. Bella then asked that when that bottle was down just below half, she was to bring out another bottle also already open without checking with Bella first. Bella assured the waitress this was vital as it was an old family reunion, and that they were trying to patch things up, so rather than check at the time, the waitress should do what was being asked of her without question. A further request from Bella was that the waitress was to wait at least forty-five minutes before bringing the lunch menu. This was something that the waitress was happy to do given how busy they were. That would allow them to get much of the lunch rush over before she had to worry about these two.

  Matt and Norton positioned themselves in place, and Bella positioned herself so that she was in the shade, and that Eva would be in the sun; as much as Bella thought she could handle without asking to move.