Hargreaves held up his hand and waited until I had stopped protesting and had sat back down in my chair. “No Mister Cartwright. It is you that has no right. Your recording device will be returned to you as soon as D S Strong has confirmed that the whole recording has been deleted.”
We all sat in silence as Strong clicked various buttons until he turned to Hargreaves and said, “It’s clear now.”
Hargreaves nodded his head in my direction and said to D S Strong. “Okay, Give it back to him.”
Strong, with a satisfied grin flicked the recorder back to me forcing me to catch it saying. “Here, catch.”
Hargreaves also had a victorious look as he said, “Mister Cartwright, be warned. We do not look kindly on fools who think that they are smarter than us.”
I did not look him in the eye. Nor did I respond. Instead I switched the recorder back on to record and placed it on the table in front of me.
Hargreaves reacted to my subdued demeanour with a grin and sideways glances at the two detectives. Then looking back at me he said, “So getting back to the matter at hand, Mister Cartwright. Is there anything you wish to add to your two statements to the Commission?”
“No. But I do have a question.” I paused until he nodded. “The cigarette butts that I sent to the Commission. Did they pass them on to the police? Do you have them?”
“Yes. We have them but what are we supposed to do with them?”
I responded in what I hoped was a diffident tone of voice. “They were collected from the spot where the hit-and-runners waited for me to jog past. I thought that you might get some DNA from the butts for later comparison with the DNA of any suspects that you may later get your hands on.”
Hargreaves laughed. “Mister Cartwright. You have been watching too much CSI on TV. Even if we did take a suspect into custody, you have no proof that the alleged attackers were the ones that dropped the cigarette butts in the first place.”
I did not take his condescending manner well. It angered me, and I was tempted to retaliate, but it was in my best interest that he believed that he had the upper hand. “What will you do with them then?”
“Probably keep them for now anyway. What about the tyre tracks near where you collected the cigarette butts and where you claim to have been run down? Can we still get plaster casts made of them?”
I realised that he already knew the answer but I played along anyway. “No, they were washed out within a few hours of the hit-and-run. Won’t the photos of the tracks be of some help?”
“No, not good enough definition. But none of the photos that we have show track marks near the hit-and-run location.”
“Sorry, I forgot. There were no clear tyre tracks near the spot where I was run down. There were just skid marks with no discernible tyre tread marks visible. I did take some photos though just before the vehicle left the roadway and moved onto the shoulder to hit me. You already have all the photos that I took.”
If I didn’t know better I would have believed that Hargreaves was actually disappointed when he responded, “That’s a pity. We had hoped that you might have a few more photos that you hadn’t passed on.”
I shook my head. “Sorry.”
***
The remainder of the interview was almost cordial. Even so I was relieved to exit the police station. I had been worried that I might have been searched and my second digital recorder discovered. The recorder that I had placed on the table was in the nature of a decoy. I had expected that they would have refused me approval to record the meeting at all and that I would have had to rely on the hidden recorder for my verbatim record and proof of what was actually said,
The probability that the attacks on me were somehow connected with the Mount Godwin Gold Mine robbery had strengthened. It was the only connection between me and Hargreaves but I was still at a loss to imagine why I had been singled out. Hargreaves and his accomplices must believe that I am somehow a threat to them. And of course, I didn’t know if Hargreaves was actually involved in the robbery or had got involved later. Perhaps he had discovered who the robbers were and was seeking to get a share of the loot. Just as the corrupt policemen had done after the Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne.
Even though I believed that there had been a significant breakthrough, most of what I now believed to be true was still mostly conjecture. All I knew to be fact was that Hargreaves knew about the culvert and its significance in my narrow escape from serious injury.
Nothing had been said in the later part of the meeting to indicate that Hargreaves had realised his blunder regarding the culvert. A situation that I was grateful for as a confrontation would have been inevitable, and the consequences unwelcome. I much preferred that he at least have a degree of doubt that I was aware of his prior knowledge of the culvert. Even though an immediate confrontation had not eventuated, Hargreaves now had another reason to have me eliminated. Not only was there something connected to Mount Godwin that led to me being a threat to him, he now might be nervous that I was aware of his inside knowledge of the attempted hit-and-run.
***
Later that evening I composed an email to Toni Swan describing the meeting with Detective Inspector Hargreaves in Townsville and explained the significance of Hargreaves reference to the culvert. I also suggested that she have the Commission’s records checked to confirm that there had been no mention of the culvert at the scene of the attempted hit-and-run. After attaching a copy of the sound file recording of the meeting, and sending it off, I made a Skype video call to Christine. After an exchange of greetings I told her about the day’s events.
It had become a daily event for us to be in contact. I suppose that I had always been a loner and perfectly happy with my own company. Earlier that day during the meeting with Hargreaves when I had been describing the extent to which I lived my life in isolation, and been happy doing so, I had realised for the first time how much of a loner I was. Apart from Brian Clements, with whom I had a deep and enduring friendship, I had little desire for close friends. But that seemed to have changed abruptly when Christine came into my life.
***
Tuesday January 26
Townsville, North Queensland
I had caught the five thirty p.m. flight from Cairns to Townsville ten days after my meeting at the Townsville Police Station. I had not had any contact with Detective Inspector Hargreaves since that meeting. But there had been quite a bit of feedback from the Crime and Corruption Commission. It seemed that Hargreaves, Strong and Mortlock were all on the Commission’s list of persons of interest. There had been a lot of suspicion, but no absolute proof, that they were corrupt. Toni Swan had confirmed that they had no information of the culvert at the scene of the hit-and-run and agreed that Hargreaves’ mention of it was significant. She said that the evidence against Hargreaves was mounting and he was now at the top of their list of police officers suspected of being corrupt. What the Commission now needed was the apprehension of the attackers so that Hargreaves could be linked to the crime. I was pleased that the Commission was at least taking the attempts on my life seriously.
I was in Townsville for a meeting with a major sub-contractor, a steel fabricator, the following morning. One of the project’s engineers, Phil O’Brien, had been negotiating with the sub-contractor regarding his failure to complete and deliver some critical structural steelwork on time. If he did not get the steel on site early the following week then the project’s target completion date could not be met. Phil O’Brien had sent me a call for help. He was not getting the commitment from the steel fabricator that we needed.
Phil and I were both staying at the Townsville Casino and had had a pleasant buffet dinner where we had opted to eat our meals on a verandah overlooking the sea. I had decided to eat outside as we were talking work and planning our strategy for the meeting with the subcontractor in the morning. Afterwards Phil had left to check out the gaming tables while I relaxed with an after-dinner coffee. My strategy the next morning was to repeat the ultima
tum that the subcontractor had already been given but had refused to take seriously. If he did not immediately commit to working 24/7 and completing the work on schedule then I would terminate his contract as I would be entitled to do. He would not be paid for the work that he had already done and I would have a steel fabrication workshop in Cairns carry out the work. There would be no negotiation. It was more of an annoyance than a problem to me and I would not lose any sleep over it.
The tables on the verandah where I was seated were largely obscured from each other by palms in large pots. As I sat watching the view and sipping coffee I became aware of the sound of voices from the next table. At first I paid no attention, I could not distinguish the words but something about the tone of the two voices seemed to be familiar although I could not place them. A few minutes later I heard them getting ready to leave and, thinking that I might recognise them, I casually glanced up as they walked past my table towards the exit.
I didn’t recognise them immediately. It was only when both men, probably having noticed me look up at them, glanced sideways at me. Both of them instantly stopped walking and stared at me in a state of shock. I was probably just as surprised but I recovered first. I smiled and said in a conversational tone of voice. “Have you thrown anybody interesting overboard lately?”
It was one of those one-in-a-million chance encounters. Well, maybe not quite one-in-a-million, but certainly unexpected. The last time that I had heard their voices I had been lying on the afterdeck of a large launch. One of them had been talking about whether they had given me enough chloroform. The other mentioned how far away the shore was. I was in no doubt. These were the two men who had thrown me overboard and nearly succeeded in drowning me. I recognised their voices and their obvious shock at seeing me confirmed that they knew who I was.
***
For almost a minute they stood motionless, staring at me in silence. They were probably assessing their best course of action; flight or fight. Their options were to either run or deal with me in some way. Flight was definitely an option for them. They were standing about five metres from my table and could probably make it to the exit before I could stand and catch one of them. Even if I did catch up with them I would have to deal with two opponents. The best that I could hope for if they decided on flight was that I could follow them and get a vehicle registration number.
While they were deciding what to do I maintained eye contact with the man who was nearer to me while slowly moving my right hand sideways. When my hand touched the small pepper pot, that I had used previously, I enclosed it within my grasp and commenced unscrewing its cap with my thumb and index finger. I could feel the cap loosen as the nearer man, the taller of the two, decided to reject the flight option and threw himself at me. Jumping to my feet I flicked the pepper pot, top-upwards, in his direction hoping that the cap would fly off and my attacker get a face-full of pepper.
It wasn’t much of a plan but it worked better than I could have hoped for. He reeled back gasping for breath. Knowing that I had to make sure that he was incapacitated before the second man got involved, I quickly took a couple of steps, and kicked his right knee as hard as I could with the side of my right foot. There was an audible snap of a knee ligament followed by a bellow of pain as he collapsed on the floor.
The second man did not hesitate. He lunged at me, his face distorted with rage. Hoping that there was still some pepper remaining in the pepper pot I flicked it into his face at point blank range. I was lucky, there was enough pepper remaining to blind him momentarily and make him gasp for breath. As he stood gasping and pawing at his eyes, I kicked him in his left knee in the same manner that I had dealt with the first attacker. It worked equally well.
Within moments of the taller man attacking me, the two of them were lying on the floor, gasping for breath and moaning with pain.
Almost immediately a waiter appeared soon followed by guests from some of the other tables. The waiter looked to be overwhelmed by the sight of the two men lying on the floor before looking at me and stuttering. “Are… are they injured. Shall… shall I send for an ambulance?”
I patted him on the shoulder to reassure him and said, “No. No need for an ambulance. Just send for the police and tell them that we have two would-be killers waiting to be taken into custody.”
The waiter hurried off, presumably to ring the police.
As I was talking to the waiter the taller of the two struggled to his feet and tried to hobble away. I took a couple of rapid strides and quickly caught up with him. Grasping him by the shirt collar and a shoulder I flung him back towards his companion who was still trying to stand. They both fell in a heap, gasping, groaning and cursing.
***
It had all been so quick that I hadn’t yet had time to think about the possible consequences of what had happened. My first thought was that all my problems had been solved but then the thought hit me. ‘What if Detective Inspector Hargreaves handled this case.’ When the police arrived and I made a statement to them I would have no option but to mention the connection to a case being handled by Hargreaves. I didn’t see how he could make it all go away but I decided that I shouldn’t leave everything in his hands.
Once I had made that decision I walked over and stood by the two men before taking out my cell phone and asking them to smile. They refused my request but I took a number of photographs of each of them anyway. Then I stood on the right arm of the taller man, to restrain him, reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and took out his wallet. Extracting his drivers licence I photographed it before returning the licence and the wallet. I then did the same for the other man.
Then remembering that Hargreaves would almost certainly soon be involved I emailed the photographs to the cloud.
A few minutes after I completed taking my photographs, two uniformed police arrived to find a rather confusing situation. Two men were lying on the ground with damaged knees and flushed faces. Both were loudly calling for medical attention and claiming that I had attacked them without warning or provocation. On the other hand I was unharmed and calmly requesting that the two men be arrested for attempted murder and assault. When I saw that the policemen were thinking about arresting all three of us, I mentioned the connection to Detective Inspector Hargreaves, and volunteered to freely go with them to the Police Station.
After a short discussion between themselves they relented and did not arrest me.
***
After some negotiation the two attackers were driven from the casino in an ambulance accompanied by one of the uniformed police men. I did not see them again that evening.
Detective Sergeant Strong was at the Police Station when I arrived in a police car and escorted me, in surly silence, to an interview room where he left me without any explanation other than telling me to wait. I assumed that he would have been provided with a summary of my accusations against the other men and was surprised that he made no comment.
It must have been almost an hour before Hargreaves arrived. While I had been waiting I had left the interview room and walked back to the reception desk where I borrowed some writing paper which I used to write a statement of the evening’s events. After checking it carefully I photographed it with by cell phone just in case I was not given a copy later.
Hargreaves was accompanied by D S Strong when he eventually entered the interview room. I glanced at my watch, it was just after nine o’clock, barely an hour since I had been attacked at the casino restaurant.
Hargreaves did not waste time with any attempt at a polite greeting. “So what cock-and-bull story do you have for us today?”
I took my cue from the two policemen and dispensed with a polite greeting. Picking up the statement that I had just written I read it aloud. When I was finished I placed it back on the table and said, “I am going to sign this formal statement of tonight’s events. The two men that were taken off in an ambulance, presumably to get medical attention, are the two men that attempted to drown me on October 9th last
year. I insist that charges be laid against them.” Neither of the two police officers responded, so I signed the document and pushed it across the table towards Hargreaves.
Hargreaves ignored the statement and grunted. “You’ll be lucky. I have just spoken to the two men in hospital. They’ve made statements accusing you of an unprovoked attack. They claim that they have never seen you before and don’t know who you are or why you attacked them.”
I nodded and said, “So you have a ‘he-said’, ‘they-said’ situation. You are going to tell me that their story is as likely as mine.”
D S Strong leaned forward and exclaimed. “Exactly! Why should we believe you and not them?”
I responded with annoyance. “Well since you are asking me for advice on how to do your job, let me tell you. For starters, you should check their alibis for the dates of the two attempts on my life….”
Hargreaves appeared to be even more annoyed than I was and shouted. “Enough of your bloody arrogance. I am tempted to charge you if only to make you shut up for a few minutes.”
He sat silently for a few moments still simmering with rage.
My annoyance had morphed into anger at his futile attempt to bully me so I retaliated by resuming the recitation of things that they should do. “After checking their alibis you should then check their DNA with the DNA on the cigarette butts.”
Hargreaves jumped to his feet, for the moment totally out of control, and shouted loudly. “That’s it! I’ve had enough. You’re under arrest!”
I sat back and smiled. “What’s the charge? Advising a policeman how he should do his job? I was only responding to a question by D S Strong.”
My deliberately smug attitude annoyed him even further and he was going to say something when Strong touched his arm to get his attention. After a brief whispered conversation they both stood, pausing only for Hargreaves to step back to the table and pick up my signed statement, and exited the interview room. Just as the door was closing I called out. “I’d like a photocopy of my statement, please.”
Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) Page 24