Douglas looked round to check who was in audio range before asking: ‘Who would MI6 be feuding with?’
‘The Security Service, or MI5 as they are popularly known, were pissed off at MI6 about that time. That’s one possible explanation, but who is to say what the real story was; maybe the SAS were just trigger happy.’
‘I thought it was a police firearms unit?’
‘There’s another story I heard from a bystander, who, as it happens, was an old Northern Ireland veteran.’
‘What’s your interest in all this, Johnny? Ever heard of William Tschederer?’
‘Just a piece of history that should be of interest, Douglas,’ Johnny paused. ‘Sure you won’t have a drink?’
‘No, I’ve had enough.’
‘See you around, Detective.’
‘Mr Buxton.’ Douglas said and looked round to see Nicola bearing down on him. ‘You’ll be in shit-street if Caddell finds out you’ve been talking to Johnny the ferret,’ she said when she’d sat down.
‘He was telling me a funny tale about the Doherty’s.’
Nicola looked at him. ‘You’re not laughing?’
‘Not that sort of funny,’ Douglas replied.
*****
Nicola brought him the beer in a straight glass and put it in front of him. ‘They don’t give out the bottles in this place, afraid their customers will start belting each other with them.’
‘It’s not the same from a glass, but needs must when the devil drives.’
She sat opposite him in one of the small round-backed chairs. ‘Talking of the devil, somebody beat up McKenzie, you do know that?’
Douglas looked around, checking the other customers were out of earshot, before replying. ‘My guess is that McKenzie was telling the truth when he said he was working the dodgy whisky scam on his own behalf and that Doherty didn’t know about it – his boys probably did him over.’
‘It’s surprising that he got off that lightly then – he’s still got all his arms and legs in working order. Crossing Tony Doherty usually leads to something worse.’
‘We may have to cross that one off the to-do list – unless McKenzie tells us who did it’s going nowhere…and who else witnessed it?’
‘Talking of Tony Doherty, when is he going to make his statement?’
‘I’ll get hold of him tomorrow, if he doesn’t make contact.’
‘Don’t leave it any later or Caddell with kick up a fuss…and I hear Slippery Sam gave you a verbal going over.’
Douglas picked up the glass and sipped the beer. ‘I’ve still got all my arms and legs.’
‘She was at school with your other half, did you know that?’
‘She hasn’t mentioned it, but there are lots of things she never mentioned, like the size of her parent’s garden. I was going on to her about size of my parent’s garden and them not managing their half-acre and she never said she had several square miles to play around in.’
‘Yes, bragging about one’s parents square miles can put one right off one.’
‘And I felt a right burke when she finally got round to taking me to her parent’s place.’
‘I know the feeling, Dougie and as you’ve had loads of beer how are you getting home?’
He pulled up his sleeve and made an effort to focus on the hands of the watch. Eventually he managed the calculation. ‘Susanne’s picking me up in half an hour…if she remembers…not that she usually forgets.’
‘Tomorrow we’ll have something concrete to work on: the techie guys found another computer in the loft space above Triffit’s flat with the video recording on the hard drive. Everything appears to be on it up to Sunday night, but they couldn’t say why it stopped recording.’
‘Funny that.’
‘You don’t think Tony Doherty removed that supercomputer?’
‘I can’t see that it was of interest to him, unless somebody paid him to do it.’
‘You’re probably right, Dougie, do you want another one?’
Douglas said yes to another beer and Nicola departed towards the bar. As soon as she was out of sight in the crowd Julie dropped onto the seat next to him.
‘She never comes down to the pub,’ Julie said. ‘I’ve been waiting ages for her to disappear.’
Douglas felt woozy from the beer and was slow on the uptake. ‘Why are you wearing that dress?’
She wriggled closer. ‘Do you like it?’
‘It’s short…I’ll give it that.’
‘One thing puzzles me, how did you know to look in the attic?’
He looked down at her legs, very little of which were covered by the gold dress. ‘The fridge spoke to me,’ he said, leaning his head on hers.
‘How many beers have you had, Douglas?’
‘Enough to make the pain go away,’ he said and raised his head.
She took his right hand and placed it on her thigh. Douglas left it there for a couple of minutes before removing it. She looked up at him with a disappointed look in her eyes.
‘Sorry Julie, I think it’s time to go,’ he said, nodding in the direction of Susanne who was making her way through the crowded bar, her head moving from side to side as she searched for him.
*****
Susanne looked down at the figure sitting on the edge of the bed. ‘What would you have done if I’d not turned up?’ she asked.
Douglas lay back on the bed. ‘Fallen asleep,’ he said. ‘Take my trousers off, girl; zips are a bit beyond me at present.’
She did as he asked and when he was naked he stood up unsteadily and pulled the duvet back before slumping onto the bed. She pulled the duvet over him. ‘That’s a good girl, now come to bed,’ he murmured just before falling into a deep alcohol fuelled sleep.
*****
Tony Doherty leaned his elbows on the parapet of the bridge and looked at the water flowing quietly past in the moonlight. He heard the faint sounds of footsteps and looked towards the north side of the bridge. She walked surprisingly quietly for someone of her build. In the moonlight it looked as if she was entirely clad in black. He could not see her black gloves this time, perhaps she wasn’t so wary tonight or there was a man with a rifle trained on him. But, if she was working for five it wasn’t likely, and then again, perhaps she was working for her old employers.
‘The same place twice, isn’t that against the rules?’ Doherty said.
‘You made the call?’
‘OK, Tanya, Ashburner wants a statement tomorrow.’
‘I’ll repeat what I said last time: Need to know, he asks a specific question, answer that question. If he doesn’t ask, don’t tell him.’
‘What about Annabel, what’s going to happen to her?’
‘There’s nothing we can do directly.’
‘Shona said you turned up with Ashburner, so you’re in the middle of the investigation.’
‘I can’t do anything directly, but I think you can trust Ashburner.’
Tony Doherty laughed and flicked his cigarette into the darkness. The shower of sparks died as they hit the water. ‘And what are you doing here?’ he asked.
‘The usual, observing.’
‘When he gets the answers about Annabel, he’ll want to know why she’s hiding, which leads to the rest of it.’
‘He knows some of it already. Answer his questions, but don’t mention us and say nothing about the old days.’
‘And?’
‘The bank interests Ashburner, lead him in that direction.’
‘And Marcus Triffit.’
‘He not going to talk, he’s dead.’
‘That’s true…are we done?’
‘Yes,’ Tanya said and walked away towards the end of the bridge, disappearing into the gloom of the industrial estate.
Tony Doherty walked slowly back towards his bodyguard, who stood impassively at the end of the bridge.
Chapter 14
Thursday
Douglas kissed Susanne goodbye in Albion Street and the early morning sun warmed
him as he walked to the junction with George Street, where he turned left. Two blocks into his journey to work, a large black Mercedes slowed as it passed him. He tensed as it drew up at the kerb just ahead of him. He stopped, the adrenaline pumping. The front passenger door opened and Shed slid quickly out and straightened up. ‘Mr Ashburner,’ he said.
Douglas nodded a greeting.
Shed opened the rear door and Douglas bent down to check it was Tony Doherty in the back. It was, although this time he was dressed in a purple tracksuit and bright red and white trainers.
‘Good morning, Mr Ashburner, your boss isn’t around is she? It’s just she seems a wee bit hysterical these days,’ Doherty said.
‘Not as far as I know…I’m heading for work.’
‘We’ll give you a lift, but not to the front door, mind, we have our reputations to think of.’
Douglas got in and Shed-in-a-suit quietly closed the door and climbed back into the front seat of the car.
‘I hope your no’ in a hurry, because the answer to your question is complicated,’ Doherty said.
‘I have the time; tell me about Annabel Sutherland,’ Douglas replied.
‘Off you go,’ Doherty said to the chauffeur and the car moved silently away in the light early morning traffic. Douglas noted the chauffeur was also dressed in a tracksuit, dark blue this time – maybe he was keeping his boss company in the gym.
Doherty pressed a button in the arm of his seat and a glass partition rose to separate them from the front seats. ‘We can talk now,’ Doherty said. ‘The business with Annabel Sutherland started after I met Marcus Triffit. The Cameron-Smythe brothers brought him to the Blue Pelican Niteclub and after a bit of agro with a couple of the other punters I got talking to him. He was an interesting guy. Anyway, he introduced me to Annabel a couple of months later and we hit it off. She fancied a fling with an old-fashioned Glaswegian. I got her into the flat along from Shona’s and we’ve been an item for about twelve months.’
‘OK, but why did she disappear?’ Douglas interjected.
‘I was getting to that bit! Last summer she was given a job at her father’s bank and at some point she had a stupid idea and told Marcus about it. With her help he hacked into the bank’s computers. They started by simply downloading the account and transaction data. Marcus got the Cameron-Smythe brothers involved in trawling through the stuff and it didn’t take them long to discover there was something badly wrong with the bank – it had lost around four hundred and fifty million pounds and were trying to recoup the losses by laundering money for the Russians. They passed the money into their branches in Cyprus, Cayman Islands and all the other suspects. The bank was charging ten percent commission on the transactions and had made up about half the loss the loss by the time they downloaded the data, so the amount of money they’re shifting is bloody enormous.’
Doherty stopped talking and took a small padded envelope out of the door pocket. He handed it to Douglas. ‘Annabel posted this two weeks ago and I only got round to opening it yesterday. ‘There are two DVDs in there. It’s her insurance in case something happened. The DVDs have all the data they downloaded from the bank, plus the passwords, access codes, account numbers and the spreadsheets they drew up. It also has all the information you need to access the Bank’s computers and move the money.’
‘Are the passwords still valid?’
Doherty shrugged again. ‘No idea…Annabel phoned me in a panic two weeks ago, she thought a couple of men were following her and wanted me to sort it out. I gave her the money to sort it and she hired two men to do the bit of performance art you’ve seen on the video – it obviously convinced you lot. The idea was to put people on the wrong track.’
‘Who was following her?’
‘She thought it was her father’s men. But take your pick: Six or Five, Special Branch, the Russians, her father’s security men, SCDEA, who knows.’
‘These two men she hired?’
‘Muppets by the name of Kenny and Danny Shaw: brothers and they were only supposed to keep her safe.’
‘Where’s Annabel?’
‘The brothers will hand themselves in,’ Doherty said.
‘And Annabel?’ Douglas repeated.
Doherty shook his head. ‘You sort out her father and the Bank first.’
‘OK, but no more of the Bonnie and Clyde act,’ Douglas replied after a moment’s reflection.
‘I’ll sort it, Mr Ashburner.’
Douglas changed tack. ‘Who killed Marcus Triffit?’
‘No idea, but my money would be on the Russians hiring Bulgarians as the hit men. Check the flights back to Sofia for the days after the killing.’
Douglas raised his eyebrows. ‘Do you have any evidence?’
‘No, I’m giving you my best guess.’
‘Did Marcus take any of the money?’
‘I don’t know who took the money, but the bank is short a few million. If Marcus knew where the money was, whoever killed him knows where the money is.’
Douglas changed tack again. ‘Do you know anything about the disappearance of Marcus’ big computer?’
Doherty gave him a strange look and followed it with an outburst of laughter. ‘They must be worried his dream came true…and it’s got nothing to do with me. If I were you, I’d look closer to home.’
Douglas considered Doherty’s statement, but couldn’t see what was behind it and diverted the conversation to another topic: ‘Henry Cameron-Smythe, any idea where he is?’
‘No.’
‘And James Cameron-Smythe, what was the argument with him?’
‘Time’s up, Mr Ashburner, I have a busy morning ahead of me.’
‘And does Shona feature anywhere in these events?’
‘No, and keep her out of it, Mr Ashburner,’ Doherty said and knocked on the glass partition separating them from the front seats. The car pulled into the kerb and Douglas made to get out but Doherty put a hand on his arm to stop him. ‘Shona’s leaving for Spain, she’s staying with her mother for a while and she’ll contact you when she gets back.’
Douglas got out and closed the door. As he watched the car drive away along West George Street he wondered how he was going to explain this conversation to Nicola Collins. After putting the envelope containing the DVDs into the inside pocket of his jacket he walked back along the road.
*****
In the office Douglas saw Tanya was already at her desk.
‘Hi,’ he said taking off his waxed jacket and dropped it on the back of his chair.
Tanya peered round her computer screen and shot him a sympathetic look. ‘Your late again, Douglas, She’s in her office and she’s fuming. I’d make my act of contrition before she explodes.’
‘Hell’s bells,’ he muttered.
‘My advice is to get in there before you start hearing them.’
He retrieved the envelope from the jacket pocket and walked over to knock on Nicola’s office door. As he waited for permission to enter he looked back and saw Tanya was looking at him intently. He heard the answer and opened the door.
‘Dougie, glad to see you’re still in one piece,’ Nicola said.
‘Boss?’
‘Close the door,’ she replied and waited while he did as she asked. ‘They have Doherty’s car registration in the ANPR system and I’ve just had a message from the CCTV suite that you survived your trip with him. What did you get?’
He dropped the envelope on her desk and sat down in a chair opposite her.
She picked up a pencil out of the blue plastic pot and poked the envelope with blunt end. ‘Is this going to explode?’
‘There are two DVDs in there. Tony Doherty says they are Annabel Sutherland’s insurance policy and I think she’s just claimed on it.’
‘So the abduction was just a show?’
‘Apparently carried out by two muppets, names of Kenny and Danny Shaw, hired by Annabel and they were only supposed to keep her safe, according to him.’
‘Were does sh
e fit in with the rest of this mess?’
‘Marcus Triffit introduced her to Doherty.’
Nicola ran her hands through her hair in exasperation. ‘How in God’s name did Triffit know Tony Doherty?’
‘Apparently the Doubled-Barrelled brothers took him to the Blue Pelican Niteclub and he got talking to Doherty after a bit of agro with some of the other customers. Doherty confirms that Annabel is, or was, his lover and he got her into the flat near to Shona.’
Nicola leaned forward and put her elbows on the desk. ‘I can see where this is leading. Annabel once had a job in the bank; Marcus knows all about the bank’s computer systems and at least one of the Doubled-Barrelled brothers is short of money.’
Douglas nodded his agreement. ‘The DVDs have all the data that Marcus downloaded from the bank.’
‘And that data got him killed?’
‘Maybe…I guess Marcus didn’t have the right set of financial skills and brought in the brothers to analyse the data. They found the bank was bust to the tune of about four hundred and fifty million, and concluded the bank was recouping the losses by money laundering for the Russians: possibly through the Bank’s subsidiaries in Cyprus, Cayman Islands and other places. The bank took ten percent commission and they’d made up a lot of lost ground, so the amounts involved are vast.’
Douglas pointed to the envelope still lying on the desk. ‘I wouldn’t get your prints on those DVDs. All the stuff needed to loot the bank is on them: Passwords, access codes, account numbers, etc. And Doherty reckons someone removed a couple of million from the bank.’
‘Not him?’
‘He would hardly give us the evidence to convict him, would he? My money would be on the elusive Henry Cameron-Smythe.’
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