It was fairly obvious that they had planted something that would be later discovered by the police. Its purpose would be to either incriminate, or discredit, me. Either way it was not something that I wanted to happen.
Clearly I should remove the packages before D I Hargreaves, or some other police officers, arrived with a search warrant and discovered them. My first thought was to get in my vehicle and drive down to Cairns and remove the packages before sunrise. But that would only complicate matters as I would then be in possession of the packages, and whatever they contained, I was sure that I did not want them to be found in my possession.
The best course of action soon became clear. I would email the webcam clip to Toni Swan and ask if she could arrange for someone to travel up to Cairns and remove the packages from ‘Irish Mist’ before D C Hargreaves arrived to discover them.
Before I went back to bed, I sent emails to both Brian and Christine telling them of the onboard intruders. I expected a busy day and told them that I would call them the following evening. After some tossing and turning I eventually dropped off and got another couple of hours sleep. It was hard to relax and get to sleep when my brain was caught up in an infinite loop trying to comprehend why I was being targeted as I was.
***
The timing of the Hargreaves-related events could not have been worse as far as the Red Rock Project was concerned. The construction phase had just been completed and, apart from some minor issues being tidied up, the commissioning phase had commenced. Electric power was now available for the complete plant. For the next two weeks all sections of the plant would be dry run separately to test completeness of the installation and connections to the power supply. During this time the water supply and recycling pumps and pipelines would be completed which would then allow the running of pumps to test flows and pipeline reticulation around the plant.
The operating workforce was already coming on board and there were day to day hassles to accommodate the growing population on the mine site. The new Operations Manager and his senior engineering and technical staff had already taken up residence and were closely monitoring the testing and commissioning of the plant.
A substantial tonnage of ore had already been through the primary crushers and a stockpile of crushed ore was available for testing the Mill grinding circuit. Once a steady flow of finely ground ore was available, the remainder of the processing plant could be tested and fine tuned.
The demands on my time were relentless and it was impossible for me to take time off to deal with the problems generated by D I Hargreaves. So it was with some trepidation that I accepted the expected phone call from Toni Swan around mid-morning.
She got straight to the point. “Adam, we have been all blown away by the video clip from your security camera. But it has given rise to some debate as to its acceptability as evidence. We have had a top level meeting here at the Commission to decide how to respond to the video clip. There was a potential complication in that if the surveillance camera had been installed by the Commission then we could not use the video clip as evidence because we did not have approval from a Supreme Court Judge to set it up. However, after some debate, it has been decided that we can use your video clip as you are entitled to set up security surveillance of your own property. We will though require you to complete a statutory declaration later to validate the video as evidence. It just may help ensure that we do not have any legal hiccups if you confirm that you have never discussed your security surveillance with anyone from the Commission.”
I had wondered just what legal issues might arise and was thankful that sanity seemed to have prevailed and responded, “Good. No problem. Now what do you suggest about the items that were planted on my yacht? I assume that they shouldn’t be left in place for D I Hargreaves to rather fortuitously discover sometime. Should I remove them and pass them on to you? Or would you prefer that they be removed by your staff?”
“We prefer that we collect the items and identify their contents. Peter Williams and Margaret Smith are booked on the one o’clock flight to Cairns. They will probably return on the eight o’clock this evening. They will try and contact Roger Gray to see if he can meet with them before they return. With luck he might identify the two men checking out your boat a couple of months ago.” She paused and then added. “By the way, how will Peter and Margaret get on board your boat?”
“The entry hatch from the cockpit is locked with a padlock. There is a spare key for the pad lock in a bucket in an unlocked locker in the cockpit.” I laughed apologetically. “It is the boat owner’s equivalent of leaving a front door key to a house under a nearby pot plant I suppose.”
Toni Swan laughed. “Well that’ll make it easy for us to get in as well.”
I knew what she was referring to. It was careless and lazy of me and was probably how D I Hargreaves had gained entry without having to break in. I laughed again. “Yes, I know. We boaties are a trusting lot. Look, it has just crossed my mind. Your people will be much less conspicuous around the marina if they are dressed in something less formal than city work attire.”
“Good suggestion. I will let you know what we discover.”
***
It was almost five o’clock when Toni Swan called me again. I had been so busy that I had not had the chance to check the webcam feed from ‘Irish Mist’ during the afternoon and was not aware if the packages had been removed or not.
After a brief greeting she said, “I hope that you are sitting down because I have some surprising news for you.” Then without waiting to hear my response she commenced relating the day’s events. “First, Peter Williams and Margaret Smith have removed the two packages from ‘Irish Mist’ without any drama. We had members of the bomb squad in Cairns on hand to check the contents of the packages as we couldn’t bring them down to Brisbane in case there had been explosives involved.”
The thought of a bomb on board ‘Irish Mist’ horrified me, so when she paused speaking I asked, “I hope that the packages were not bombs.”
She replied, “No. They weren’t bombs, but even though they were not explosive they were still dynamite. One package was a couple of gold doré bars apparently from the Mount Godwin Mine wrapped in a plan of the Mount Godwin Gold Mine with the gold room highlighted. The other package contains what appears to be cocaine in a Ziploc plastic bag. This time the wrapping was a plan of the Mount Godwin gold room.”
I was stunned. D I Hargreaves had certainly shot himself in the foot. The cocaine would have been enough to discredit me. The Mount Godwin Gold Mine stuff was overkill and provided a direct connection between D I Hargreaves and D S Strong to the robbery and murders. Hargreaves had been playing for high stakes and he had bet big only to lose. He had been trying to link me to the robbery and murders but his ploy had rebounded. It was a classic case of being hoist on one’s own petard.
When I didn’t respond Toni Swan asked, “Well, Adam, what are your thoughts?”
“I was just thinking that if I hadn’t had a security camera in ‘Irish Mist’ I would have found myself in a heap of bother explaining away the two packages. But now it has rebounded on Hargreaves and his henchmen.”
She chuckled. “That’s for sure. By the way Peter and Margaret have arranged to meet Roger Gray before they catch the evening plane back from Cairns. Perhaps they’ll have something more to report later.”
I responded, “I have a feeling that things are falling into place. I wouldn’t be surprised if Roger Gray recognises someone in the photos.”
“I have that feeling too. One more thing, Adam, can you call me on Skype tomorrow afternoon at, say, two o’clock. We need to have a video conference.”
“Sure. Two o’clock it is.”
***
It was around seven that evening when I made a Skype call to Brian. I thought that I’d talk to him first before I had a goodnight chat with Christine. But when Brian appeared on the screen, Kate and Christine were with him.
Brian grinned when I congratula
ted him on the idea of the decoy security camera and proclaimed loudly. “Villains beware. The Hardy Boys are on the case.”
They had all watched the video clip from the onboard security camera and were very attentive when I repeated the conversation that I had had earlier with Toni Swan.
Christine had been listening in silence but eventually asked, “What do you make of the police planting that evidence on ‘Irish Mist’? It’s incredible.”
I nodded. “Yes. I agree, it’s unbelievable. There’s something gone awry with Hargreaves thinking. Using the wrapping paper to point the finger even more clearly at Mount Godwin Gold Mine doesn’t ring true. Anyone with a clear head would realise that it was an obviously phony ploy to create a link between me and the Mount Godwin robbery. Hargreaves and company must be desperate. They have panicked and were not thinking clearly.”
***
Thursday February 11
Red Rock Project Site
Promptly at two o’clock the following afternoon I made the Skype video call to Toni Swan as requested. She was sitting in a conference room with the five others that I had met on my first visit to the Commission. I waved a greeting and said, “Hi.”
They all responded with smiles and a chorus of friendly greetings.
As soon as we got down to business Toni Swan asked Margaret Smith to report on the meeting with Roger Gray. She was happy to oblige. “We met Roger Gray at his home at around six p.m. last evening. He appeared to be a stable, intelligent man who would be a reliable witness. We showed our credentials and explained that we were conducting a confidential enquiry and that you, Adam Cartwright, were not under suspicion in any way. He looked carefully at the photos that we spread out on a table. There were twenty in all, even though there were only five persons of interest. He took his time but confidently identified Harry Hawsall and James Foster.”
She paused to give me time to react. After a few moments I said, “Well, that makes sense. I couldn’t imagine any reason for any of the other three to be hanging around my boat.” I then gave a grin and added. “Unless they were thinking about planting something.” Then in a less flippant tone I asked, “Did Roger Gray have any idea of the dates that he saw them?”
“Yes. He said the first time that he saw them he intended to tell you the following Saturday as he had heard that you were onboard for the weekend. But when he went to see you early on the Saturday morning your boat was out. Then with one thing and another he didn’t get around to telling you until quite a few weeks later. Not long after he again saw the same two men back on the jetty, looking at your boat.”
As she had been talking I had been thinking. It all made sense so I said, “The only Saturday morning that ‘Irish Mist’ was out early was the time that I was thrown overboard. That means that Roger Gray saw them just a few days before the first attempt on my life. The fact that Hawsall and Foster had been hanging around my boat before the attempted drowning, and a few weeks later, supports my identification of them as the persons responsible.”
Toni Swan responded, “Yes. It’s another link in the chain of circumstantial evidence against the two of them. But now, Peter will give us a rundown on what we know about the two packages removed from your boat.”
Peter gave a slightly smug grin as he commenced his rundown. He probably thought that he had an even better tale to tell. “The white substance in package number one is Cocaine. It is only 250 grams but has a street value of at least $50,000. The second package contains two gold doré flat bars weighing about one kilogram each. Both bars have the Mount Godwin Gold Mine stamp on them and are typical of the five hundred or so bars that were stolen last year. We have yet to assay the gold content but based on Mount Godwin’s advice the total estimated value of the two bars is $50,000. There were no discernable fingerprints on the contents or wrapping of either package.”
Toni Swan nodded at Peter Williams and took over the narrative. “So D I Hargreaves and company have invested around $100,000 in their attempt to not only discredit you, but to link you to the Mount Godwin Gold Mine robbery and murders as well. But thanks to your security surveillance it has backfired.”
I was happy with how things were turning out but I did wonder what the Commission’s strategy to deal with the situation would be and asked, “What will you do next?”
“If you had asked me half an hour ago I would have said that we’d wait until Hargreaves makes his next move. But, literally just minutes ago, we were informed that D I Hargreaves has applied for a warrant to search ‘Irish Mist’. Their application for a warrant claimed that Hargreaves had received an anonymous tip that you, Adam Cartwright, possessed some items related to the Mount Godwin Gold Mine robbery and murders and had placed them on your yacht ‘Irish Mist’. They supported their application with the statement that you were a ‘person of interest’ in regard to that crime.”
Even though I had expected that Hargreaves would have had a gambit like this in mind when he planted the packages on ‘Irish Mist’, it was still a shock when it became a reality. I knew that I was innocent, but I still felt a degree of shame and was aware of a sense of embarrassment. It was not something that I wanted to have on my CV. Eventually after a prolonged silence I said, “Well, I guess that we all expected that a search warrant would be the next move by Hargreaves. So, now that it has, I hope that it will lead to prosecuting Hargreaves and the rest of them. I suppose that the Commission will sit back and wait for Hargreaves to show up at ‘Irish Mist’ with the search warrant. But what will you do then?”
Toni Swan responded, “We still need the ‘smoking gun’ that Hargreaves apparently thinks you have. But, we could arrest the five of them and question them using the Commission’s power to conduct coercive hearings that require witnesses to attend hearings and give evidence. These coercive hearings enable our investigators to override the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination. This allows us to secure otherwise unobtainable evidence, including intelligence regarding activity by criminal organisations. But the Commission is not a court. Even when it investigates a matter, it cannot determine guilt or discipline anyone. In the context of a crime investigation, we can have people arrested, charged and prosecuted. But we can’t pass judgement.”
I was already aware of the Commission’s options from my study of their website. However, what I didn’t know was how they intended to wield them and how they would handle things when Hargreaves turned up with his search warrant so I asked, “Should I be there when Hargreaves turns up?”
Toni Swan shook her head. “No. That’s not a good idea. He may arrest you and complicate matters for you work-wise.”
I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t volunteering to be there. But I don’t want them to wreck my boat maliciously. I’d like someone there.”
Toni Swan looked at Peter Williams and Margaret Smith thoughtfully before looking back at the camera and saying. “Perhaps we should have a couple of the Commission’s officers on board when Hargreaves arrives. Initially they can just say that they are friends of yours. He will not have the power to make them evacuate the boat but he can insist that they do not impede his search. That would mean that they could be obliged to quit the cabin while he carries out the search. As ordinary members of the public they might be entitled to merely retreat to the cockpit and observe things from there. But if he does insist that they disembark then it would be best for them to do so.”
As she was speaking both Peter Williams and Margaret Smith had sat up and were taking a keen interest in the conversation. I think that they were keen for another trip to Cairns. I smiled and said, “I like the idea. I can email a letter to you authorizing someone to be on board my boat in my absence. It’s common practice in the boating world.”
Toni Swan glanced at Peter Williams and Margaret Smith who both nodded before she had even asked a question. She smiled and looked back at me. “I think that Hargreaves will execute the search warrant as quickly as he can. He will have to involve the Cairn
s police but that will not necessarily slow him down. The search warrant will be issued late this afternoon. I think that he will want to wait until daylight so as to maximise any publicity. Peter and Margaret will return to Cairns this afternoon and can be onboard from first light tomorrow.”
I responded, “Excellent. I’ll email a letter of authorisation to you as soon as we finish this video conference. By the way, what will Peter and Margaret do if they are asked to prove their identity? Will they try to keep their relationship with the Commission secret?”
Toni Swan shook her head and said, “No. I expect that before Hargreaves finds out that the packages are gone he will accept their Drivers Licences as sufficient identification. Afterwards, well he might ask for further identification in which case they will show him their Crime and Corruption Commission’s credentials. By then he will know that things have become unstuck so it doesn’t matter that he knows about the Commission’s involvement. But I have a feeling that he will be so shocked that he could well just panic and escape the scene to try and work out what has gone wrong.”
“You won’t arrest him there then?”
She shook her head and politely declined to answer any more questions by saying. “Only if we think that we need to. It is a fluid situation and we will decide what to do, as and when necessary.”
I held up my hands in apology. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I appreciate that you have kept me in the loop to the extent that you have.”
***
Friday February 12
Red Rock Project Site
The following morning the first thing that I did upon waking was to check the feed from the security camera onboard ‘Irish Mist’. It was only five thirty and, as expected, there was no sign of activity. I checked it again after getting back from my run. But still no sign of activity. After breakfast though, at about seven forty five, when I next checked the webcam feed I saw Peter Williams and Margaret Smith sitting in the cabin drinking coffee. I smiled to myself, they were dressed suitably for a day out on a yacht. Shorts, tee shirts, soft soled shoes and hats. I didn’t know if they could actually sail but they sure looked the part.
Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) Page 27