‘Strange! I feel sad but a lot calmer inside. Things are becoming simpler. Everybody now knows what happened. I am no longer alone with my dreadful suspicion. It’s a welcome relief it has all come to light, everything out in the open at last.’
Parker looked sympathetically at the French woman. ‘I understand how you feel.’
He avoided mentioning the threat of a warrant being issued.
‘You’ll have to talk to Swiss police sooner or later. It’s now a full-scale murder enquiry my dear.’
‘How is Raoul?’ asked Nicole deliberately changing the subject.
‘He says he’s being tailed night and day and would really like to find out who these people are. He wants to meet up with us to discuss the background to Karl’s murder. He needs to know precisely what Karl was working on. He believes this will help narrow the search for his killers.’
‘What do you think I should do, Harry?’
‘I think you need to give Raoul as much information as possible.’
Nicole thought for a moment. ‘Do you think it would be safe for Raoul to come here to the château?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can you find out how soon he can come?’
‘I’ll talk to him this morning. Don’t worry. He’ll take all necessary steps to ensure he doesn’t get followed.’
Parker returned to his room a short while later and phoned Durand using his anonymous pay-as-you-go device.
‘Raoul, how about a meeting with Nicole this afternoon?’
‘Oui, great. What country are you in?’
‘How do you propose to travel?’
‘By chopper. I’ve a client who owes me a big favor. He runs a helicopter ‘taxi’ service for corporate executives and I can trust him. I normally can get him at short notice.’
‘Perfect. I’ll give you the GPS co-ordinates of our location once you’re airborne. Ensure the pilot has a full tank of fuel’
19
When Durand got back to his office he left a message with Maurice, the owner-operator of the helicopter taxi service, telling him that he needed to fly to a secret destination that afternoon.
At lunchtime he informed his secretary Anna he would be away for the rest of the afternoon having earlier received a text confirmation from Maurice. He left his office and headed for Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. When he hit the A6B travelling south, he noticed the black Mercedes again on his tail. Durand phoned his friend, Maurice.
‘I’m being followed. I need you to have the gates at the compound open, so I can board the chopper quickly. Ok?’
‘Will do,’ replied Maurice.
‘Fill the tank. I don’t know where we’re going.’
‘Nothin’ unusual for you,’ replied Maurice with an amused grin.
When Durand got close to the airport, the black Mercedes was still on his tail. He accelerated along the motorway and swung off at the Airport exit following the road signs to the Cargo area. The helicopter apron was located right beside it. When he approached the fenced-off area near the apron, steel gates started to open.
‘Good old Maurice ‘cried Durand as he drove into the compound and pulled up quickly outside a Cargo Hanger. He jumped from the car and ran across to the chopper, the rotor blades already spinning. Durand looked over his shoulder and saw the black car screeching to a halt in front of the gates as they snapped closed in the nick of time.
‘Bravo!’ shouted the PI as he climbed on board.
The helicopter lifted-off and banked away at a steep angle leaving the black Mercedes stranded on the ground.
‘Where to now, Raoul?’
‘One minute!’ Durand took out his mobile and called Parker. With the phone to his ear, he called out the GPS co-ordinates ‘N 47° 14' 51.05’ and ‘E 4° 33' 59.22’.
‘Ok! Thanks Harry,’ replied Durand before hanging up.
Maurice keyed the co-ordinates into his instruments.
‘We’re going to Pouilly-sur-Loire, Raoul. That’s about thirty minutes flying time from here.’
Durand settled back into his seat for the short journey. ‘Ah! Très bien! I thought it was going to take us hours to get there.’
As they approached the destination, he could see a large château and gardens below.
‘This is it,’ declared Maurice above the loud noise of the helicopter engine. The chopper descended and landed on a helipad marked with a large ‘H’ inside the grounds.
Nicole, hearing the heavy drone of the helicopter’s engines, went outside to greet her close friend while Parker followed behind.
The two lifelong friends embraced each other tightly. He gave her a full body hug almost lifting her off her feet.
‘I was so worried about you Nicole.’
‘No need. I’m quite safe here.’
The three walked inside together, Nicole answering all of Durand’s questions about how she came to be in such an enchanting and secure place as Château du Zeton.
Nicole led them into the dining room where they sat down at one end of the long table. The butler came in with an afternoon tea tray of cold meat sandwiches, pastries and coffee. He placed the tray on the table and immediately left the room closing the door behind him.
‘Well I guess you are all wondering why I’m in this predicament, why I believed all along Karl was murdered and why I came to be locked away here.’
‘The thought had struck me,’ quipped Parker tongue in cheek.
‘As you both know, Karl was a renowned heart Surgeon. His surgical specialty was prosthetic valve insertions or for Raoul’s benefit, implanting artificial valves in patients with dysfunctional heart valves. Karl became all too aware early in his career that many of his patients undergoing surgery were suffering from prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). Again, for Raoul’s benefit, this means that the newly inserted artificial valves became infected during or post-surgery caused by bacterial pathogens. In too many cases people die from this condition. Karl saw that the key to treating these infections was the availability of effective antibiotics. However, the number of strong effective antibiotics is dropping steadily every year.’
‘How come? ‘Raoul asked.
‘Well, antibiotics work by attacking the mechanism by which bacteria grow and multiply. Antibiotic resistant bacteria or Superbugs as they are called, alter their method to grow and multiply and, in the process, have rendered many antibiotics useless.
‘Over prescribing of antibiotics and their use in farm animals has contributed to their decline as well,’ added Parker.
‘Correct Harry and we’re quickly running out of time to come up with new strains - we’ve had antibiotics for about eighty or more years, and even in the first ten years of use, bacteria were becoming resistant. In the seventy years since then, we haven’t managed to keep pace quickly enough with new antibiotic developments to counter the bacterial evolution. This means that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics – we are heading towards a situation where patients recovering in hospitals from surgery are picking up hospital acquired infections. Soon patients getting common urinary tract infections will have no effective antibiotics to combat these type of everyday infections,’
‘What will happen?’
‘Well Raoul, without access to effective antibiotics, routine surgeries will become dangerous. A common infection could become deadly. Unfortunately, this situation is becoming closer to a reality as time goes on. The medicine cabinet is becoming empty for many patients.’
‘This all sounds pretty bleak,’ remarked Raoul.
‘It does sound bleak but fortunately there is light at the end of the tunnel. Karl and Dr. Philips developed a game changing alternative to Antibiotics. They called it iDrug!’
20
Meyer, sitting at his desk at police headquarters in Zurich, was immersed in paperwork. His desk phone lit up.
Leaning back in his leather chair, taking the full strain of his stocky frame, he grabbed his phone. ‘Yes, who is it?’ snapped the Swis
s German CI not wanting to be disturbed.
‘Inspector Meyer?’ Replied a uniformed police sergeant animatedly. ‘One of our patrol cars was summoned to investigate a break-in at the home of the late Professor Lehman on the outskirts of Zurich.’
‘Continue!’ replied the Swiss CI now sitting up straight in his seat.
‘The burglar alarm was activated, and a patrolman went to investigate. When he arrived, the gates at the entrance had been rammed open. He drove up the driveway and started searching for intruders.’
‘Did he find anything?’
‘The place was deserted. The patrolman checked the front door and went around the side to check for signs of a break-in. Nothing appeared amiss. It looks like no attempt was made to enter the main house. The police officer then checked out the large double garage next to the house. He noticed the rear door was open. The officer went inside and checked around. Nothing appeared out of place until he saw a strange looking object in a corner, just inside the garage door, a device lying on the floor that looked like a small gas cylinder with an automatic valve on top.’
Meyer stood up out of his seat, pressing the handset against his ear.
‘It was covered in blood and the officer could see finger prints on the gas cylinder part.’
Meyer quickly finished the call, left his office and drove straight to the scene. As he drove up the driveway he could see two police cars, a large white forensics van and a smaller van parked adjacent to a taped-off area at the front of the garage. A police officer approached Meyer’s car.
‘Follow me Chief Inspector.’
Meyer was escorted into the garage where he visually inspected the device lying on the floor. ‘This looks very promising Gentlemen.’
He instructed the forensics team to bring it back to the lab for DNA testing and finger print analysis.
‘I will need these results ASAP.’
‘Done,’ replied the technician.
An hour later, Meyer returned to his office. While working at his desk, a call came through from Jean Paul, Head of Forensics.
‘Dieter! I have preliminary results. ‘
‘Good! That was quick work!’
‘The blood on the device is Karl Lehman’s. We compared the blood samples found in the garage with blood samples taken at the post mortem. We don’t have any of Nicole Lehman’s prints on record. However, the finger prints lifted from the gas cylinder device match fingerprints found all over the house, believed to be those of Nicole Lehman.’
‘Jean Paul, I believe this is strong enough evidence to get a warrant issued for Nicole Lehman’s arrest?’
The forensic scientist responded decisively, ‘Oui, most certainly, Chief Inspector.’
21
Michel entered the dining room where Nicole was still in discussion with Parker and Durand.
‘Pardonez moi, Madame Lehman, my apologies for this intrusion,’ interrupted the butler, addressing Nicole first before turning to Durand. ‘Monsieur, you left your mobile phone in your bedroom. The cleaning staff reported it has not stopped ringing for the past half hour. It appears somebody is anxiously trying to contact you.’
‘Merci Michel. I will go to my room at once.’
Durand left the dining room and went straight to fetch his phone. He checked it and saw six messages from Meyer requesting him to make contact immediately.
‘Dieter! What’s up?’
‘Where are you?’
Durand sensed impatience in the Swiss policeman’s voice. ‘I’m out of town.’
‘Have it your own way Raoul. I have secured from a Swiss district court a warrant for the arrest of Madame Nicole Lehman on suspicion of murdering her husband.’
Durand was bowled over by this disclosure. ‘That’s crazy. How did you arrive at this bizarre conclusion, Dieter?’
‘Raoul, Swiss police found incriminating evidence in Nicole Lehman’s garage, which directly connects the suspect to the weapon used to murder her husband. Therefore, we are very anxious to meet with Nicole Lehman to help us with our enquiries.
Durand shot back. ‘None of this makes sense. What possible evidence could you have implicating Nicole Lehman?’
‘For obvious reasons we cannot disclose this information. Believe me Raoul, it’s damning. We have as a matter of course, released a photo ID of Madame Lehman to the media and we are extremely hopeful of early developments in tracking her down.’
‘Dieter you are way off the track. I know she is not capable of committing such a crime. Besides she loved Karl deeply. She was hugely involved with him and his work.’
‘Raoul, the evidence is such that I have no other alternative. We have very little else to go on until we talk to Madame Lehman. The American company in contact with Lehman and Philips has been found to be completely bona fide. The motorcyclists are untraceable. They wore helmets, so they cannot be positively identified. My department is still scanning the images to see if anything can be traced. The motorcycle registration plates were obviously false. So, we really need to question Madame Lehman about her suspected involvement with these two motorcyclists and the sooner the better. ‘
Durand slowly became exasperated. ‘I can tell you NOW, Nicole knows nothing about any motorcyclists. She’s no black widow!’
Meyer quickly turned the tables on Durand. ‘How do you know? Have you been speaking with Madame Lehman recently?’
Durand did not answer.
‘Raoul, I know Nicole is like a sister to you, but she is wanted for questioning on suspicion of murder. If you conceal her whereabouts or help her to escape detection, you may be charged with perverting the course of justice. Do I make myself clear?’
Durand finished his conversation with Meyer and returned to the dining room, more than a little ruffled. Nicole looked up at Durand when he entered the room and saw bad news etched all over his face.
‘Tell me the worst Raoul,’ demanded Nicole starting to wince before Durand uttered a word.
‘Nicole Cherie, there’s no easy way to break this news. Swiss Police have issued a warrant for your arrest on the suspicion that you murdered Karl.
22
Hadley, standing in the Operations and Surveillance room at MI6 headquarters, looked at his watch and saw it was 7:00am. A mounting crisis was looming over the disappearance of the MV Asclepius. He stood at the top of the room leaning on a walking stick, immediately in front of large HD digital display screens. Intelligence Officers sitting at desktop PC's in front of him were hammering away on keyboards, carefully scanning their screens and updating top secret data bases. A seated viewing gallery extended in a semi-circle around the back of the room. A group of high ranking Special Intelligence Services (SIS) personnel were gathered there watching intently the live images and streaming data displayed on various screens located around the room. A satellite image of the Port Said docks area was projected onto a large central screen. Wearing a headset, Hadley was trying to keep the lid on things.
‘Ok No. 9 we can’t see the MV Asclepius anywhere in the vicinity. How could it have disappeared?’
‘We don’t know Sir. It just vanished into thin air!’
‘What do you mean ‘vanished’?’
‘It vanished off our Radar tracking screens, Sir. Early this morning at 4.30am the vessel broke the pilot’s strike blockade and left the docks without warning and without a pilot to steer her out of port. My men have been monitoring her 24/7. They were taken by surprise when she abruptly weighed anchor and set sail.’
‘I told you to inform me at once of all developments No. 9.’
‘Sir, the ship only left port less than two hours ago. My people were tracking it continuously while she got under way. The ship quickly disappeared off our radar screens as soon as it got outside the harbor walls. No. 2 immediately contacted me and got me out of bed. When I got to the base we ran several software routines and reconfigured the radar scanner. No joy!’
‘Did you notice anything unusual about the ship while it was docked?�
��
‘Yes. It looked like it arrived into Port Said with a fresh coat of paint, Sir. Its hull, decks, funnels everything was a dreary battleship grey color.’
‘Ah! Sounds like they have applied radar absorbing material to all external surfaces as part of Stealth Technology measures to improve the vessels camouflage against radar detection at sea.’ suggested Hadley.
‘That’s quite possible Sir.’
‘Did you observe anything else unusual, No. 9?’
‘Yes Sir! I was about to say, something even more sinister occurred. Early this morning about 2:30am, a jeep, ex-military by the look of it, arrived at the dock and parked at the ship’s gangplank. They unloaded a heavy stainless-steel cylinder onto a pallet truck. The driver and two men from the ship, all wore white Tyvek suits, gloves and full-face masks. It took three of them to wheel it up the ramp onto the ship.’
A long silence hung in the room. This was not good news. It was exactly what they feared most. Hadley looked startled. He glanced up despairingly at the stern faces of the high-ranking officials seated in the gallery in front of him knowing full well what they were thinking.
One of the senior officials, a middle-aged man with silver colored spectacles and mousy colored hair, stood up trembling with frustration, pointing his finger at Hadley.
‘Call the NATO Alliance and every friendly Naval Service in Europe and the Middle East. We must track down this ship immediately. Failure to do so is decidedly not an option, Hadley!’
The same official reached out to one of his colleagues on his left and whispered in his ear.
‘Use the hot line to the Government. The Prime Minister must be alerted at once. Tell them our worst fears may have been realized. Confirmation will follow in due course.’
He glared across the room at Hadley standing in front of the screens. ‘Wing Commander, join me in my office at once!’
The Karl Lehman Affair Page 7