Toni Swan smiled and nodded. “Good. Neither do we.” Then turning to me she added. “Mister Cartwright, you might be interested to learn that Toby Jones is right in our sights. He could be the first cab off the rank.” Then as if as an afterthought she added. “By the way, you can tell Miss Lex Robertson and Mister Heino Pops that we do not intend to prosecute them, provided of course, that they are fully co-operative.”
I grinned. I was not surprised that the Commission had found out who they were. I had guessed that the Commission would be able to identify them from the bank account statement provided on which their names, and the account number, had been blanked out but not the name of the bank. She was telling me, in an indirect way, that the Commission had not been entirely inactive. The oblique warning was that if the whistleblowers did not front up, and tell all, that the Commission would handle the matter the hard way.
I was curious as to how much more information she would give us. “What about John Hall? Is he on your list of miscreants?”
“Yes, him as well. But why do you ask about John Hall in particular?”
I hesitated before answering. “Lex Robertson mentioned that after Hall left the Mount Godwin construction site that there was no one left to pressure her and Heino. I figured that he had to be involved somehow.” I smiled and added wryly. “Also he’s such an unpleasant sod that I like the idea of him going to jail.”
Toni Swan smiled. “So, I guess that you are also pleased that Toby Jones will probably join him in custody?”
“I sure am.” I paused thoughtfully and said, “I don’t know whether I am a seeker of justice, or merely vindictive by nature. But, yes, I am pleased that Mister Jones has been found out and will be punished.”
Toni Swan smiled and changed the subject. Gesturing towards her assistants she said, “Peter has been looking into your list of approved suppliers and has some news to report.” Glancing at him she nodded an instruction for him to speak.
He had obviously been eagerly waiting for his chance to contribute to the meeting and responded quickly. “We have carried out an in-depth company search and discovered some serious issues. There are half a dozen registered companies on the list that in fact do not carry out any legitimate business. All six of them have been involved in activities aimed at defrauding Gibson Construction and other major building contractors. Four of the bogus suppliers are just shell companies with the directors and company secretaries all being employers of the law firms that set them up. The law firms have all relied upon protestations of ‘client confidentiality’ and refused to disclose the names of the persons who actually control those companies. We are working with ASIC, and the Serious Fraud Office, to prosecute those six companies for breaches of the Companies Act and criminal fraud. If they don’t tell us the real owners of the bogus companies the lawyers themselves will be prosecuted.”
When Peter paused and looked across at us it was Gregory Taylor who asked the obvious question. “What about the other bogus suppliers?”
Looking like the cat that got the cream, Peter smirked. “We’ve got the Comancheros dead to rights. We can prove both of the other companies have committed serious fraud and we have identified individuals that we can prove to be responsible.”
Toni Swan picked up the thread of the explanation. “We have a list of the companies for you.” As she spoke Peter slid a single sheet of paper across the table to Ewan Ryan and me. “We need you to keep the names of these companies confidential. It is important that they do not suspect that legal action will soon be taken against them. I suggest that you limit knowledge of these companies to your staff on a need-to-know basis.”
I immediately scanned the list of company names. As I looked up Ewan Ryan was looking at me inquiringly, so I said, “Sure. I will have our project accountant postpone any payments to them that might be in the pipeline and we will avoid making any further commitments to them. I think that we can do that without anyone other than the project accountant being aware of our concern regarding these companies.”
Toni Swan smiled and nodded. “Good. Now for some not so positive news. We have not managed to discover any evidence that the Comancheros were involved in the attempt on your life. Our undercover officers report overhearing comments that the Comancheros considered you to be a person of interest, and a threat to their construction site activities. But, so far, we have no confirmation that direct action against you has been attempted by anyone connected with the Comancheros. But we have not given up. It is an active aspect of our enquiries.”
Her news was a disappointment. I’d never been confident, but had hoped that the involvement of the Comancheros would be confirmed, even if individuals could not be named and prosecuted. I was now back where I started, totally bereft of any idea of who had been responsible. I still didn’t even know why I had been attacked. There could be danger lurking out there and I had no inkling of how it might manifest itself.
The rest of the meeting was centred around administrative matters such as the eventual return of the $250,000 to Gibson Construction, after it was returned by the whistleblowers.
At the conclusion of the meeting Toni Swan had the last word. I guessed that she had been waiting throughout the whole meeting for an opportunity to refer to the YouTube video clip in a flippant manner. Flagging a moment of informality by using my Christian name she said, “Adam, please tell the whistleblowers that all will go well if they co-operate fully. But, there must be no oombarlo.”
Everyone laughed. It seemed that oombarlo might just make it into the Oxford Dictionary after all.
***
Later that afternoon, during my visit to the consulting engineer’s offices I rang Leonie Wran and gave her the news from the Commission. She was to pass on the contact information for the Commission that I had been given for the whistleblowers. It was their responsibility to make contact and arrange an appointment to visit the Commission in Brisbane next week.
The rest of the day was spent negotiating changes to the engineering plans with a bunch of office-bound engineers who had little field experience. They had limited understanding of the need of flexibility and compromise on a fast moving construction site and were hard to convince to allow me to make changes. Finally I got the concessions that I needed from them but the effort was tiring and I was glad of being able to catch a slightly earlier flight home to Cairns.
***
Friday November 6
Red Rock Project Site
It was Friday, the following week, when Gregory Taylor rang. After exchanging greetings he said, “Adam, I’ve been asked by Ewan Ryan to bring you up to date with events related to the Crime and Corruption Commission. I expect that you haven’t heard back from the whistleblowers yet. Well, even though their initial round of interrogations has only just been completed, the Commission has already confirmed that they will not be prosecuted. They should be back at work on Monday.”
I was relieved. “Good. Is anything decided about prosecution of others?”
“Yes. The paperwork is being finalised for several prosecutions. The expectation is that charges will be laid by Christmas and the trials commence about the middle of next year. I can’t give you the details but Toni Swan has told me to tell you that you can ring her if you have any questions. She will be happy to tell you what she can.”
At least some progress has been made. “What about witness protection for the whistleblowers?”
“Perhaps there will be no need. They may not be called to give evidence, even though the information that they have provided has been invaluable. They helped identify two major players who, when threatened with prosecution, and shown the evidence, wanted to negotiate a deal. Both have now been granted witness protection and have fingered a number of big time bad guys. It looks like a big win for the Commission.”
“What about the attempts on my life?”
“No news. No information received yet that might link the Comancheros to the incidents.”
It was not unexp
ected, but still frustrating, to be no nearer an answer. Someone out there has me in their sights and I don’t know who. Or why.”
***
That afternoon Jack Gilmore and I were standing on Lookout Hill, inspecting work in progress on excavation of the cutting to create a storm water channel. A team of drillers were busily engaged setting up for another blast.
In a perfect world the cutting would have been completed by the end of November as the chances of heavy rain would double in December and double again in January. Records showed that peak rainfall could be expected from January to March. December and April had half that peak and November and May half of that again. That being so I saw that completion of the cutting before December was highly desirable but, if that wasn’t achieved, then completion before January was absolutely essential. Even so there was always the chance of a heavy storm in November, particularly this year that was forecast to have an early wet season.
I could not afford to buy in the necessary resources for the cutting to be finished earlier as it was not an approved project. I had buried the costs to date by allocating the costs to the supply of concrete aggregate and relying on the mining contractors when they had time available. Total costs for the cutting were still below the budget for the supply of concrete aggregate so no questions had been asked so far. But that might not last too much longer and I needed things to go well if I was to complete the cutting without exceeding the budget for the supply of concrete aggregate.
Jack and I both believed that the designed stormwater drainage system was inadequate and that the processing plant, and the open pit, would be at risk of flooding if a major rainstorm occurred. But we both recognised that I had been ordered to construct it exactly as it had been designed.
However, while it had been implied that I should desist from excavating the cutting to form a storm water channel as I had proposed, I had not been specifically ordered to stop work on it. Driven by a belief that I knew best, I had committed to a career-risking plan to go ahead with the cutting anyway. I needed a quarry to supply concrete aggregate and road building material so I decided to make use of the material excavated from the cutting.
Developing a long thin quarry was not the most economical method of getting concrete aggregate but it was still much cheaper than if I had simply purchased it from the quarry owned by the Mareeba Shire Council.
My decision to excavate the cutting could work out one of two different ways. First, there might be a major rainstorm and the cutting saves the day. If that happens then there should be no adverse repercussions. I might even get thanked. Second, there might not be any major rainstorm before Gibson Construction hand over the processing plant etc and the need for the cutting would not be proven. In that case there could be serious repercussions especially if the budget to supply concrete aggregate was exceeded.
In any case my refusal to accept his directions might go badly with the Project Manager. In fact I was sure of it. Even if there was a major rain storm and the cutting did save the day I might still get a rap over the knuckles. But whether a major rain storm does or does not arrive before the project is completed I was confident that the cutting was the best long term drainage option.
Jack agreed with me and had done all he could to help. He had been allocating drillers and contract miners whenever possible without endangering achievement of his primary objective. He had to have the open pit developed and ready to deliver ore to the processing plant when commissioning commenced in February.
Looking down at the drillers from Lookout Hill, Jack said, “Sorry, Adam, but the drillers need to be back in the open pit first thing tomorrow morning. They could be busy there for the next two weeks at least.”
I fully appreciated the predicament that he was in. But it was not unexpected and I said, “That’s okay. It looks like there’ll be enough drilling completed by tonight to allow blasting and removal to continue. What’s your best guess as to when the cutting will be finished?”
“There’s only about three weeks of work left but I need the men and equipment in the open pit. Based on their availability to work here I think that we’ll do well to complete the cutting in six to seven weeks. I think that the best that we can do is to target finishing by Christmas. Sorry, but that’s about as good as I can do.”
I grinned wryly and clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, thanks for the heads-up. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” We both knew that it was not unusual to have a heavy rain storm before Christmas. It was almost like we were planning to fail.
As we walked back down the hill I put all thoughts of the storm water cutting on the back burner. Completion of the cutting was in excellent hands and I had other, more immediate matters, to address.
***
Every day on a construction site like Red Rock saw a new crisis. Sometimes more than one. Today it was a complaint by a subcontractor responsible for installing some pumps and electric motors in the Mill building. He claimed that the foundation holding down bolts did not fit the pumps and motors that he has supplied and had to install. It was late on a Friday afternoon and I had just been told of the problem and was on my way to check it out.
When I arrived at the Mill building I heard the subcontractor before I saw him. He was in a rage and hurling expletives around like confetti. Nervously facing him was one of my mechanical engineers, Derek Crowther. Derek was a full time Gibson Construction employee who was normally based in Brisbane. A well qualified engineer he had only been on site for a couple of weeks and had no field experience before this posting. He was accustomed to working in a clean air conditioned environment and certainly not used to an angry subcontractor shouting obscenities at him. He didn’t look like he was handling this particular experience well.
As I approached I recognised the subcontractor, his name was Bill Murray. He was tall with a strong but not overweight physique. And had a very loud voice. Being at least ten centimetres taller than Derek Crowther he was standing face to face with Crowther, glaring down at him in an effort to intimidate the engineer. And making a very good job of it. Bill Murray was a bully and Derek Crowther didn’t know how to handle the situation.
“What’s the problem?” I asked in an amiable tone of voice.
Bill Murray had not been aware of my approach and hadn’t heard my opening gambit. Turning to look at me he exclaimed in an angry tone. “What the bloody hell do you want? What’s it got to do with you?”
I smiled disarmingly and repeated my earlier question. “What’s the problem?”
Belatedly he recognised me and lowered his voice slightly. “I’ll tell you what the matter is.” Indicating a man standing nearby, presumably an employee of his, he said, “We’ve come out here today to unpack the pumps and motors and check the foundations and holding down bolts. And what did I find. They are all wrong. None of them fit. There’s been a complete balls-up. I am going to claim for lost time and extra costs. I won’t be able to bring my team out on Monday as planned and the schedule goes to hell.”
I stared at him for a few moments, pondering my next move. His attitude and tone of voice annoyed me. If there was a problem it hadn’t been caused by Derek Crowther. There was no justification for Bill Murray to be so belligerent. “Okay. There’s a problem. But there’s no need to have a tantrum.” He started to respond angrily but I held up a hand to silence him. “You have had your say. Just be quiet for a few minutes while we sort it out.” Turning to Derek Crowther I nodded my head to the side and said, “Derek, let’s walk over there and talk about it.”
After walking a short distance to be out of earshot of the still fuming subcontractor I said, “Okay. Derek, what’s the story?”
“He’s right. The holding down bolts do not fit the pump and motor base plates. I have checked, the foundations have been constructed correctly according to the plans.”
He paused so I prompted him. “And…”
“And the base plates are consistent with the equipment drawings. I have checked those too.”
I felt it necessary to prompt him again. “What have you done so far?”
“I’ve checked with the design office in Brisbane. They have found that someone forgot to advise a change of equipment selection to the section drawing up the foundations. It’s been reported to Tom Barton. We’ll find out who is responsible on Monday.”
“But what good will that do us. What will you actually do to fix this problem?”
He then made the mistake of not thinking before he spoke. “But, it’s not our mistake…” His voice trailed off as he saw me pursing my lips and shaking my head.
“So, my question still is; what will you do to fix this mistake?”
“I… I don’t know.”
I held up a hand and said, “Derek, wait a minute.” Turning towards Bill Murray I called out. “Mister Murray, this will be sorted out over the weekend. It will be ready for you to proceed without any delay when you arrive with your team on Monday.”
Muttering something indecipherable but no doubt full of expletives, he left. His employee departed with him.
“Okay Derek, how do you propose to fix this?”
He hesitated before asking, “What do you suggest?”
“I suggest that you work something out and tell me what you intend to do.”
For a brief moment I thought that he was going to surrender without even trying. But he caught himself in time and said, “Well, since you said that the foundations would be ready on Monday morning then we can’t break out the existing concrete and recast the foundations. If we did that we’d have to wait a couple of weeks for the concrete to set sufficiently.” Looking at me for confirmation, he said, “Right?”
I nodded.
“Well, we can’t re-drill the base plate on which the pumps and motors are already mounted and connected. So we…” Suddenly his eyes brightened and his rate of speech increased excitedly. “We can make new base plates to suit the existing foundation bolts and drill the upper flanges of the new base plates to suit the base plates connected to the pump and motor assemblies. It will raise all the pumps and motors by, say, 15 centimetres. But that shouldn’t be a problem.” Looking at me tentatively he asked, “What do you think?”
Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) Page 15