The Karl Lehman Affair

by Jonathan R Hayes

  ‘Now, we are here’ instructed Nicole pointing to a clearing in the middle of a forest. ‘The forest extends to the rear of our estate. The path from this point runs all the way to the house so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find our way.’

  ‘Do we have a rope ladder?’

  ‘Yes, it’s here,’ replied Maurice opening a hatch door on one side of the fuselage. ‘Here take this as well,’ handing Raoul a flashlight.

  ‘Merci. We’ll use it only when absolutely necessary.’

  ‘Indeed. A light can be seen for miles,’ warned Parker.

  Durand slid open the large door and jumped down in the field carrying the rope ladder, followed by Parker, then Nicole.

  ‘Maurice, we’ll keep in contact with you by mobile phone.’

  ‘Ok Raoul.’

  ‘Just one more thing,’ requested Nicole pointing to the map of the area and handing it to him. ‘If we are being pursued, can you fly the helicopter to this location here marked with an ‘X’? It’s beside the forest at the back of our estate? We’ll try and contact you and give instructions if we get in trouble.’

  Maurice focused his attention on the map. ‘I don’t see any problem with that.’

  ‘Whatever happens, wait here for an hour and a half, no longer and then take off out of here. There’s no sense in you getting implicated any further in all of this.’

  ‘Ok Nicole, I’ll wait here until ten o’clock. Good luck!’

  The three disappeared into the darkness and made their way across the field. It was a clear night with a faint glimmer of light from a half-moon to help them on their way. Once at the edge of the field they saw a fence running along the perimeter of the forest. Parker helped Nicole to climb over, closely followed by Durand. They were now in thick undergrowth as they proceeded into the woods. They struggled with the rough terrain in total darkness trying to walk in a straight line to intercept the pathway Nicole had shown them earlier on the sketch. Just as they were about to give up Nicole nudged Parker walking just in front of her.

  ‘Look over there. I think I see a clearing’ whispered Nicole.

  Durand flashed the torch for an instant and caught a glimpse of a path. They walked in the direction of the clearing and the ground gradually got firmer and started to level off.

  ‘We’re now on the forest path, ‘whispered Nicole with relief. ‘It will bring us to the back of our estate in about ten minutes time.’

  ‘Ok! Let’s all stick together,’ urged Durand.

  They walked along in single file along the path under a faint glimmer of light from the half-moon. When they got about halfway along, they heard voices in the distance. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and listened. The voices appeared to be coming towards them and sounded like adult males speaking French.

  ‘Get down,’ whispered Durand anxiously as he dropped to his knees and crawled under tall undergrowth on one side of the path. Nicole and Parker followed him. They were now huddled together hiding in vegetation, listening intently to the approaching hushed chatter. They could hear the strangers’ footsteps as dry twigs snapped beneath heavy footwear. When the group of men approached carrying torches, the leading figure in the group stopped suddenly. Parker peered through the leafy branches and could pick out four figures, silhouetted against a starry night sky, standing in front of him.

  ‘I could swear I got a scent of perfume,’ asserted the first figure.

  ‘You always have fuckin’ women on the brain,’ suggested another.

  ‘It’s probably a spring flower blossoming at the edge of the forest.

  ‘Come on you horn dogs. Let’s get these rabbits home and hung-up.’

  The trio in the bushes gave a collective but muted sigh of relief when the group moved away.

  ‘Locals out shooting rabbits,’ whispered Raoul.

  After waiting a minute or two they crawled out of their hiding place and continued their journey.

  Soon they arrived at the boundary wall at the rear of the Lehman estate. Durand unraveled the rope ladder and swung the hooked end upwards onto the top of the wall. He put his full weight on the bottom rung and the ladder held firm. He went up first and lowered himself down on the far side. Nicole followed next, then Parker.

  When all three were safely over, Nicole led the way. ‘Walk here along the edge of the lawn and follow me in towards the house behind the hedgerow. It runs all the way to the edge of the conservatory.’

  When they got close to the house, she took a key from her pocket and opened the conservatory door. They entered in turn and using her mobile phone as a light source, Nicole walked briskly towards the hall to isolate the intruder alarm. She found the panel in a small press under the stairs and entered the security code.

  ‘It’s off!’ whispered Nicole.

  She gestured to the other two to follow her upstairs. They ascended the stairs together using the same dim light of the mobile device and went into the main bedroom at the front of the house. The curtains were drawn, and the room was pitch dark. She walked across to a painting hanging on the wall and found the wall-safe hidden behind. Nicole keyed in the seven-digit code and opened the safe door.

  She looked inside and took a sharp intake of breath. ‘It’s empty!’ cried Nicole. ‘There are no CDs inside here!’

  27

  Lazare was in his 42nd Floor office in Manhattan, contemplating his next move, getting more anxious about off-loading stocks before Lehman’s iDrug hit the street.

  He had his criminal connections in New York and Marseille successfully keeping the lid on things in Europe and now with the unexpected assistance of the Swiss and French police forces chasing down Nicole Lehman, things were on a definite upward spiral.

  ‘Quite the perfect storm’.

  Controlling things at corporate level was proving much more difficult. He had been asked the previous day by the Senior Vice President (SVP) for Investment Strategy to give a detailed projection of revenues for his sector by the following Monday morning. He had to be careful. Any miscalculations would hit him in the pocket big time if he over estimated projected returns and failed to deliver. Lazare weighed up the pros and cons pondering whether he should go and deliver the iDrug bombshell to the SVP sooner rather than later.

  The company would have to move large tranches of shares out of drug stocks very quickly. He would be able to reassure his boss that he was ‘managing’ things on the ground on a day to day basis to mitigate the immediate threat until they could safely off-load.

  Lazare knew that the research data Lehman had outlined at the meeting with Westland Fitzgerald was a real winner. Lehman’s position in the international medical profession would mean that this new drug would immediately be adopted by his peers in every corner of the globe.

  Lazare was in a tricky situation compounded by the added stress of preventing Marinetti’s large equity portfolio from going south. The fact that Lehman was now dead and his widow at large trying to complete the iDrug deal while seeking revenge for her husband’s murder, more than anything forced his hand to act and make the unprecedented move to sell a significant tranche of Cordalis-MC Holdings’ drug company stocks.

  ‘Fuck this, ‘mouthed Lazare as he picked up the phone and called the SVP’s secretary. ‘Hi Loraine. I need a meeting with Bill as soon as possible.’

  ‘Bill left the office yesterday afternoon feeling unwell. His wife phoned in this morning to say he was recovering quickly. He should be back in the office, Monday. ‘

  Despite his success and his very senior position in Cordalis-MC Holdings, Bill Johnson had been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder some months back. He suffered long bouts of depression and was absent from the office for a month on that occasion.

  ‘I’ll book you in for a 10:00am meeting, Henri.’

  28

  Parker, standing close to Nicole, put his hand inside the wall-safe and felt around inside He sensed something small and flat in a corner of the safe. He withdrew his hand to reveal a key in his palm.
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  ‘Recognize this?’ asked Parker sporting a self-satisfied grin.

  ‘Yes, it’s the key to Karl’s safety deposit box in Paris. He regularly deposited valuables there. He must have moved the CDs there sometime before he died.’

  Suddenly, Durand turned his head towards the window. ‘Listen! What’s that sound?’ He heard a faint noise that sounded like a distant car engine. He ran to the window and looked down into the front court yard. To his horror he saw two police cars, blue lights flashing, following a police jeep with blinding headlamps racing up the driveway and skidding to a halt in front of the house to the sound of crunching gravel.

  ‘It’s the police,’ shouted Durand anxiously. ‘They’re right outside.’

  ‘Don’t worry.’ Nicole calmly went over to a panel on the wall beside the four-poster bed and pressed a red button on the console. Immediately the sound of heavy steel shutters could be heard all around them, sliding down and locking into position on all exterior windows and doors throughout the house.

  Durand glared at Nicole. ‘What the hell is all that about.’

  ‘This house was formally the Japanese Ambassador’s residence. The place is built like a fortress. The steel shutters are as strong as armor plating and can withstand a rocket or mortar attack. The roof is made from steel reinforced concrete. The building is virtually impenetrable.’

  The police could now be heard outside talking through a loud hailer ‘NICOLE LEHMAN, WE KNOW YOU ARE INSIDE. WE HAVE THE BUILDING SURROUNDED. COME OUT NOW QUIETLY, OTHERWISE WE WILL BE FORCED TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR AND ARREST YOU.’

  Durand looked anxiously at her ‘What do we do now?’

  She started walking about the room quite nonchalantly. ‘Wait here until I pack a few things. Remember I left my last place of residence quite abruptly. I didn’t even have time to pack a tooth brush.’

  Nicole proceeded to open presses and drawers and start packing various items into a rucksack much to the bemusement of her two onlookers.

  Parker had a perplexed look on his face. ‘What the devil are you doing? The Swiss police are outside, and you are here strutting around your bedroom, packing a rucksack like you’re going off on some surprise hiking holiday.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m nearly done.’

  He stepped out of the bedroom and walked briskly along the wide landing towards the back of the house and entered one of the rear rooms. He went quickly over to a window to see if he could see out. He found a small viewing slot in the steel shutter. He could barely see through it but could just about make out three policemen standing behind a very bright spotlight trained on the back of the house. He could also see a CCTV camera perched high on a steel pole.

  ‘We’re surrounded. It’s hopeless. We may as well give ourselves up at once. I can see the morning Newspaper headlines: Government Advisor arrested for aiding and abetting a suspected murderer. Bloody charming!’

  He walked quickly back to the front bedroom and told the other two what he had seen. ‘I guess they spotted us on the CCTV.’

  Nicole could sense his concern. ‘Don’t worry Harry. Follow me’

  She gathered up her rucksack and put it around her shoulders and left the room quite calmly, closely followed by Parker and Durand. They went down two flights of stairs to the large elegant ground floor hallway, passing dust sheeted, silent reception rooms that once were filled with the chatter and laughter of social evenings. The trio descended another flight of stairs to the basement and entered a large kitchen.

  Nicole remembered what a cozy, warm and brightly lit place this room was when she was living there with Karl. Now cold, dark and gloomy, the three stood there in the middle of the room, Durand and Parker looking completely perplexed.

  She took the flash lamp from Durand and turned it on. ‘Don’t worry guys, we’re firmly locked in and the police are firmly locked out.’

  Durand and Parker followed Nicole one after the other into a small pantry located beside the Aga stove. Inside worktops spanned both sides of the narrow room with fitted presses above and below, used to store all sorts of kitchen utensils and food preserves. A small single window on one side now covered by a steel shutter, looked out into a basement courtyard. At the far end of the room Parker could see a series of shelves on a wall where glass jars, pots and plastic containers were stored.

  Nicole moved closer to the shelves and pulled a small lever concealed under the bottom shelf. A door sized section of the wall behind the shelves started to move. She pulled the section of wall fully open. Parker and Durand looked at each other in complete amazement. They could see an escape door behind the false wall.

  ‘Good God! Where does this lead to?’

  ‘It’s a secret passage that leads outside.’

  Nicole turned the handle of the escape door and pushed the door open. Illuminated by the flash light, all three entered the dark passageway before she closed the escape door behind them. The section of wall with the shelves quickly closed automatically leaving no clue to what lay behind.

  Parker and Durand closely followed the French woman along a stone passageway.

  ‘The Embassy people had this installed when they owned the house, ‘she explained. ‘It’s built in such a way that it can only be used as an escape route.’

  The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Finally, they could see an end wall in front of them and a stairway leading up to the roof.

  ‘Look! There’s a trap door up there at the top of the stairs,’ whispered Parker.

  Nicole responded reassuringly. ‘There should be an electric push- button panel on the wall beside the trap door.’

  A thought occurred to Durand ‘Just one thing before we lift the cover. How do we know the police won’t be waiting outside?’

  ‘The exit from the tunnel is a good distance outside the perimeter wall,’ replied Nicole. ‘It is partially covered by an overhanging tree. We should be fine. Nobody knows this tunnel exists. It’s very close to the location marked with an ‘X’ on the map I left with Maurice.’

  Durand looked concerned. ‘The question then is, do police have more CCTV cameras and sensors positioned around the estate? If they’re located outside the perimeter wall, we will be quickly spotted. We could be arrested before we have a chance to get back to the chopper.’

  ‘We could summon Maurice to bring the chopper here to the location marked ‘X’,’ suggested Nicole.

  Parker quickly weighed up the situation. ‘The police would hear the chopper, and this would give our location away immediately. I don’t think we have any choice. We’ll have to take a chance, make a run for it and pray there’s no sensors outside.’

  Durand looked at his watch. ‘I’ll phone Maurice now and tell him to have the rotors spinning and be at the ready to take-off the minute we arrive, which will be in about ten minutes time.’

  Nicole looked at both men. ‘OK then, let’s go for it!’

  All three were now standing in single file on the narrow wooden stairs leading to the roof. Nicole was first in line and pressed the button on the panel. The trap door immediately started to open with a whirring sound from a small electric motor. As soon as the door was fully open she climbed the last few steps and arrived out into the field beyond the perimeter wall followed by Parker, then Durand. After a few seconds the door started to close again automatically, rotating slowly downwards.

  ‘Where are we?’ whispered Durand looking around trying to see in the dark if he recognized any local land marks.

  Parker pointed to a spot about five meters in front of them. ‘We’re beside the large Oak tree. And look over there. It’s the woodland path we followed to get here.’

  ‘Quickly now,’ urged Nicole. Let’s get to the aircraft.’

  Durand grabbed his mobile phone out of his pocket and called Maurice while he steadily jogged along behind the Englishman. They continued along the path under the light of the half-moon listening intently for any voices or footsteps behind them. Suddenly, they heard dogs barking some
distance behind. It sounded like a pack of hounds. Nobody made any comment. The three automatically quickened their pace just in case the hounds were police dogs on their trail. They then heard voices behind them and the sound of the dogs seemed to be getting louder.

  ‘How much further’ gasped Nicole breathing heavily

  ‘It could be five or six more minutes before we get to the helicopter,’ shouted Durand.

  Desperately they tried to run faster in the complete blackness of the forest to escape the hounds. She could sense that they were gaining on her as the sound of the barking was getting ever closer. Suddenly Nicole slipped on wet ground and went tumbling into the undergrowth. Parker, immediately behind her, tripped over her and went flying headlong into a bush. They both picked themselves up and started to run again. Durand was now some twenty meters in front.

  ‘Quickly’ he shouted. ‘The hounds are gaining on us.’

  Nicole thought her lungs were going to explode. She could now hear the hounds snarling and yelping behind them as they bounded towards them relentlessly. Durand was now thirty meters in front of them looking now for any sign of the helicopter in the distance.

  Two hundred meters further on and much to his relief, Durand heard the chopper’s engines. Looking to his left he could see the aircraft in the middle of the field, its navigation lights flashing and rotors spinning. All they had to do now was clear the fence and run for their lives across the field to the waiting aircraft.

  Durand momentarily stopped and shouted to the following two. ‘Hurry up the chopper is in sight.’

  Nicole couldn’t believe her ears. ‘Thank God!’ she exclaimed. She was about to drop with exhaustion.