The Karl Lehman Affair

by Jonathan R Hayes

  Parker postulated, ‘I guess a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush as they say, very often irresistible to some people.’

  ‘Philips eventually decided to let things cool down between himself and Karl. So, he took holidays for a couple of weeks and it was during this time Karl’s accident happened.’

  ‘Raoul also mentioned something about other letters that were sent threatening to kidnap you.’

  ‘Yes! That was when we went to the police. We all thought this was a very sinister development. It quickly became clear it wasn’t the client of the American law firm, Westland-Fitzgerald that had sent the kidnap threats.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘I have no idea. It appears it was an entirely different entity that sent them. It didn’t fit the modus operandi of the American company. It’s still a mystery. All I know is, ultimately, whoever was responsible for arranging Karl’s accident, escalated their actions very quickly after the letters were sent, to make sure Karl’s research would never see the light of day.’

  Now full of emotion, she could not utter another word.

  Parker took a tissue from a box on the table and handed it to Nicole

  ‘Thank you. Talking about Karl makes me upset.”

  ‘I understand. You must give yourself plenty of time to adjust to all this.’

  The butler appeared at the door ‘Pardonnez moi Madame, dinner is served’

  ‘Thank you, Michel, We’re on our way.’ Nicole regained her composure. ‘Follow me Harry, let’s go and eat.’

  15

  Durand arrived back at his office off Avenue Haussmann having eventually shaken off his pursuers. Sitting at his computer he wondered who these people might be. They could be connected to any one of a dozen cases he had worked on over the last twelve months; the cheating husband and well-known TV presenter who was caught on video in a compromising position with a young man in a car near Bois de Boulogne; maybe these people were hit men hired by a ruthless loan shark Durand had exposed preying on a community of weak and vulnerable pensioners living in the Gard du Nord area of the city.

  After fifteen years in the business, Durand’s gut feeling told him this was all about Nicole Lehman and the suspicious death of her husband. He still didn’t know what Lehman had been working on. This was most likely the motive for his murder. Lehman was a straight guy, a pillar of the community involved in philanthropic work for the most part. He couldn’t imagine the Professor being involved in any dodgy deals. Durand needed to talk to Nicole sooner rather than later if he was to stand any chance of getting a lead on who these thugs were. Though he was close to Nicole, he knew many of the details surrounding Karl’s death she had not shared with him. He made a note in his diary to contact his friend and associate Dieter Meyer of the Swiss Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) the following morning to establish if he had any definite leads in the case or anything concrete to go on that might determine if Lehman’s death was an accident or cold-blooded murder.

  Durand expected Nicole would fully brief Harry Parker on all that had happened to date. For this reason, he decided to keep in close contact with the good Doctor as well. ‘I have a right to know more about this whole business especially since I’m the one being followed and probably the one that will be in the firing line before long.’

  He worked on until nine o’clock before leaving his office. He went to the window and looked down onto the street to check the coast was clear. A green Citroen car parked in a no-parking zone under a street lamp on the far side of the street looked suspicious.

  Leaving the central office lights on, Durand decided to use the rear exit and avoid any further contact with the ‘enemy’. ‘Twice in the same day was more than I wish to endure.’

  He quickly made another entry in his diary to ring Parker the following morning after he spoke with Meyer before he slipped out the rear door of the building into a laneway.

  Durand was locking the door when he instinctively looked over his shoulder and jumped with fright when he saw a man in dark cloths, concealed in a clump of bushes, standing right behind him. The shadowy figure instantly swung out with his fists and landed a punch on Durand’s chin, knocking him backwards against the door before the stranger ran off down the lane.

  Durand quickly regained his senses and set off at full speed after the assailant.

  He got to the end of the lane turned right and ran along the side of his office building and out onto the street where he saw the same dark figure in the distance jumping into the back of the green car he spotted earlier and speeding off down the street.

  ‘Bastards,’ shouted Durand. He suspected they were attempting to break into his office.

  ‘They would have found very little on Nicole. Everything on that subject is under tight wraps in my head.’

  16

  The elegant table was dressed in the finest linen table cloths. The tableware included the best silverware cutlery, bone china dinner service and Waterford crystal glasses. The recessed lights in the ceiling were dimmed, leaving three red candles to illuminate the table. Nicole sat down on one side of the long table and Parker sat opposite. At full capacity he could see the table could seat up to thirty guests quite comfortably.

  Nicole looked radiant in the soft candle light. The pastel colors of the room décor gave an ambience of serenity and tranquility. He could hardly take his eyes off this classy French woman. He studied her lips and with every word she spoke, he became increasingly infatuated.

  A waiter entered the room carrying a silver tray. He served starters of roast quail and red plum sauce. Nicole ordered a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé

  ‘I guess we can leave the discussion about Karl’s research until tomorrow. Tonight, I think I shall relax and sip some wonderful wine from the Loire valley and find out all I can about Dr. Harry Parker.’

  ‘What can I tell you?’

  ‘Oh, I suppose I’d like to know how a man like you gets so readily involved in other people’s problems. I know you are a very kind, caring person from what Karl said, always ready to step forward where others run for cover, a true philanthropist and quite clever I’m reliably informed.’

  Parker smiled and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I guess I like adventure. I’m not your typical nine to five operator, though I have been a slave to this regime of late. I find it exciting taking up a challenge tinged with a little danger; it gets my adrenalin pumping, makes me feel alive. There’s your answer. I’m an adrenalin junky.’

  Nicole laughed. She studied her subject carefully and noticed his strong chin, his wonderful smile and his charming deep blue eyes.

  Parker had perceived a certain amount of sadness in Nicole’s expression when she walked into the drawing room less than an hour earlier. But now Nicole was beginning to perk-up a little. A sunny disposition was trying to break through here and there, captured in a word or in a phrase or in the occasional nonchalant gesture like running her hands through her hair. Glimpses of the real Nicole were on show for fleeting moments, portraying her as a breathtakingly beautiful woman.

  ‘Were you always so adventurous?’

  ‘I believe so. When I was at University I raced motorcycles while promoting my uncle’s motorcycle import business. The money I earned from my uncle funded many travels to the four corners of the world.

  ‘And so, Dr. Harry Parker how come you are still a single man in your late thirties?’ Nicole asked tongue in cheek.

  His response was surprisingly vague and distant. ‘There was a woman in my life once.’ That’s all he said. His demeanor did not invite further questions on that subject.

  ‘I see,’ replied Nicole coolly while the waiter returned with the main course, roasted maple orange glazed duck and pommes de terre.

  She noticed his coyness and quickly changed the subject making a mental note to find out everything about this ‘woman’ at a time and place when it was more appropriate.

  Parker quickly put the spotlight back on Nicole. ‘And what about Madame Lehman may
I ask?’

  ‘Nothing very extraordinary I’m afraid.’

  ‘A French national champion skier of note according to Karl? You are much too modest.’

  Nicole blushed ever so slightly. ‘That was a long time ago.’

  ‘How did you meet Karl?’

  ‘I met him at a medical conference in Frankfurt. I was working for a drug company at the time and I was one of the voluntary organizers on the conference committee. My job was to look after the needs of the guest speakers ensuring everything from organizing their flights and hotel accommodation to getting their technical papers in on time ready for distributing to delegates on the day. All this on top of my normal day job.’

  Nicole laughed when she recalled her first meeting with Karl. ‘He was one of the guest speakers. His accommodation got all screwed up. It wasn’t my fault. The hotel never entered the reservation correctly on their computer. It was quite late when he arrived in Frankfurt, so I had to get him a room in my hotel. He was wonderful about the whole thing. He then invited me to have a drink with him in the lounge.’

  ‘So, it all started from there? ‘Remarked Parker.

  ‘Yes! Pretty much. My rags to riches moment you might say,’ recalled Nicole sadly. ‘And it ended eight years later in a tunnel in Switz…. ‘Nicole started to sob.

  ‘Sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you.’

  ‘You didn’t.’

  Parker picked up a paper tissue and handed it to Nicole across the table. She soon regained her composure.

  The waiter entered the room and left another bottle of white wine in the ice bucket.

  Parker filled her glass. ‘Drink this. It will ease the pain.’

  After dinner they sat on the sofa and talked until midnight. Nicole chatted about her early life growing up in Paris, next door to Raoul and the tragic death of her parents in a light aircraft accident in the South of France five years earlier.

  ‘My parents were hugely involved with an International Ski federation based in Switzerland. They were travelling to a World Ski Championships event when their plane, piloted by my father, hit a mountain in heavy fog in the French Alps.’

  ‘I’m so sorry Nicole.’

  ‘It was really tough at the time. That was my whole family, wiped out in seconds.’

  He let Nicole do most of the talking. It was good for her to get things off her chest. He realized she had no close relatives at all to support her during this grim time. He felt a fervent desire to protect and comfort her as much as he could without overstepping the boundaries.

  At this first meeting, Parker was becoming smitten by this enchanting lady. He hoped the feeling might become mutual before long.

  17

  Durand awoke at his normal time the next morning, showered and had his usual bowl of muesli and glass of orange juice before leaving his apartment just after 8.00a.m. He walked the short distance to his office and bought a copy of Le Monde on the way. He looked cautiously around him as he walked. It was becoming a matter of routine checking he wasn’t being followed. This morning the coast was clear. When he got to the office he brewed up coffee and read the newspaper while sitting at his desk. When his secretary Anna arrived in, he asked her to call his contact in the Swiss Police in Zurich. Durand was writing a report on another case when his intercom buzzed.

  ‘Dieter Meyer on Line 3.’

  ‘Dieter?’

  ‘Bonjour Raoul. I hope you are keeping well ‘

  ‘Oui, merci. Sorry to trouble you but I need some information on the Lehman case.’

  ‘You are no doubt assisting your close friend Nicole Lehman. Well there have been significant developments in the case over the last twenty-four hours, Raoul. Unfortunately, it comes in two parts; unwelcome news and very bad news for Mme. Lehman.

  Durand stood up and closed the door of his office. ‘Give me the unwelcome news first.’

  ‘A large fire broke out in the late Professor’s clinic last night. A local police unit reported the outbreak at 8:30pm. It appears everything inside the building was destroyed. A Fire Officer reported accelerants were used in the blaze which points to arson. However, the main development in our investigation, we are treating Lehman’s death as a murder inquiry. This development will be released to the media later this morning’

  ‘Mon Dieu!’ exclaimed Durand ‘What have you learnt?’

  ‘It was planned as the perfect crime Raoul. Firstly, we thought Lehman may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Then significant levels of carbon monoxide were found in his blood. The open packet of cigarettes and the carbon levels in the tunnel seemed to explain this finding. However, toxicology reports have indicated no nicotine was found in his system, which is very suspicious.’

  ‘D’accord.’

  ‘However! Get this. As a pure random piece of luck, a tunnel maintenance crew were monitoring repair works in the tunnel recess close to where the accident happened, using a CCTV camera. The camera was left running unknowingly for 48-hours and by an incredible coincidence, recorded part of Lehman’s road traffic accident. The video footage only surfaced two days ago. It shows a motorcycle pulling up alongside Lehman’s car, a pillion passenger opening the driver’s door and removing a container from underneath the driver’s seat before disappearing. Our experts think this device contained gas or a chemical substance, remotely activated by the motorcyclists following close behind the car.’

  Durand sat down at his desk. ‘Merde! So that’s how it was done?’

  ‘It appears that way Raoul. Professor Lehman would not have been aware anything untoward was happening while he drove along. He would have blacked-out relatively quickly in such a confined space.’

  ‘And the video images, can the motorcyclists be traced?’

  ‘No. The video quality is quite poor, and they kept their helmets on the whole time. The footage is being examined as we speak so there might be some leads from this when the imaging folks complete their analysis.’

  ‘What’s the Swiss police’s next move?’

  ‘Well, we are going to have to talk to Madame Lehman as soon as possible. We haven’t been told everything about Lehman’s death. We need to know what he was working on, so we can focus our investigation. We need to check out the contacts that Lehman made with the law firm in New York. We also would like to talk to Dr. Philips about what he knows of the events leading up to the Professor’s death.’

  ‘Both people have gone to ground Dieter. Nicole told me Philips went on vacation a week before Lehman’s accident.

  ‘Do you know where he might be now?’

  ‘Not a clue! I’ve no contact number for him either. I’ll try and contact Nicole and get her to call you.’

  ‘Well Raoul, we are now in a murder investigation and Ms. Lehman is holding up police work. Unless we receive that call within the next forty-eight hours, I’m afraid we’ll have no alternative but to seek a warrant for her arrest.’

  ‘I can assure you Dieter, Nicole is totally innocent and had nothing to do with her husband’s murder. She has gone to ground because she is in fear of her life. She has no alternative. It took Swiss authorities a month to establish her husband was murdered. What else could she do? Become a sitting duck while Swiss police investigate her husband’s accident?

  ‘She could have requested police protection.’

  ‘To get 24-hour Police Protection is a long drawn out process. It has already taken Swiss Authorities four weeks to pull the evidence in this case together, n’est pas?’

  Meyer started to get agitated ‘Just tell her we need to talk to her urgently.’ The line went dead.

  Durand tried to contact Nicole immediately to tell her the shocking news but got no reply. He knew she was nervous about her mobile phone being traced.

  He rang Parker and was successful. ‘Harry! Thank goodness you answered. I’m afraid I have some bad news you need to convey to Nicole. I think we all need to meet-up face to face ASAP. I’m totally in the dark about a lot of the issues leading up to Karl’s murder
.’

  ‘Murder?’ Repeated Parker.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s official now Harry, and there are more developments from Swiss police you will need to relay to Nicole.’

  18

  Hyacinth, Iris, Ranunculus and wild Daffodils, lush and bountiful with crimson, yellow and purple blossoms, evoked a most tranquil vista viewed from the south veranda of the château on this delightful mid-April morning. Nicole was seated there having breakfast alfresco when Parker arrived down from his room and joined her. Nicole engaged in small talk, careful to avoid any sensitive topics touched on the previous night. After breakfast Parker suggested they go for a walk in the splendid gardens, extending over five acres behind the west wing. As they walked, he began to relay the news he received from Durand earlier in the morning. He told her about the suspicious fire at the clinic but was quite surprised how stoic Nicole remained on hearing the outcome of the police investigation establishing Karl was murdered. It was no shock to her. She knew it. She was convinced from the very start Karl’s death was no accident.

  They walked along a path of sandstone slabs and sat down on a garden bench beneath a cherry tree festooned with pink blossoms. Nicole looking sad, gazed out across the rich green lawns surrounded by multi-colored shrubs and climbers to the distant deep purple hills beyond.