Cyanide Games: A Peter Tanner Thriller
Page 26
She shook her head and looked at Lisa. ‘I don’t want to end up like Anne,’ she said.
Lisa began to say something, but Tanner got in first. ‘You don’t think it was a gang robbery?’
She shook her head slowly. ‘I haven’t got a clue,’ she said, almost under her breath.
‘Why did Anne and Joe go to that island? Do you know?’
‘Why don’t you ask him?’
‘The hospitality of the Chinese prison system has made him untalkative.’
‘Anne was an ecotoxicologist,’ she said. ‘Why do you think she would go there?’
‘A routine visit? Can you tell us otherwise?’
‘Anne was killed,’ she said. ‘You want me to go back to Australia and call these people liars?’
‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,’ Lisa said.
Campbell picked up a piece of bread on her plate, put it back without eating it. ‘Look up Baia Mare Mine on the internet. Look up the Tisza River in Romania,’ she said.
‘If we do that,’ Tanner said, ‘what will we find?’
‘What cyanide and heavy metals can do to a river.’
‘Gaby,’ Lisa said, lowering her voice to a near whisper, ‘if Citadel had some accident at a gold mine in PNG it could seriously jeopardise its chances of approval for Bageeyn River. They’d be dead politically.’
‘How do you keep a cyanide spill quiet?’ Tanner asked.
Campbell shook her head. ‘Citadel leases the whole island,’ she said. ‘They control who arrives and who leaves. They have security forces. They pay a lot of money to government officials at every level. They control all the communications, employ all the locals. Cyanide doesn’t last long – it’s the heavy metals that become the killer – but to find them you have to do testing.’
He wanted to ask her again to come home and tell her story to someone, and then to a court. He held back for the moment.
‘Can I ask you a question?’ Campbell said. ‘Why won’t Joe tell you what happened on Tovosevu?’
‘Would you rather do twenty years in a Chinese prison,’ he said, ‘or maybe only five?’
‘I don’t follow.’
‘Citadel has a number of joint ventures with a Chinese state-owned company called North Shanxi Resources. They’re going to own thirty per cent of the Bageeyn River mine.’
He saw it dawn on her face. She rubbed at her forehead, like she was trying to remove a mark. Then she looked at her watch. ‘I have to go.’
‘Just five minutes?’ Tanner said.
She tilted her head and looked annoyed.
‘When you’d completed your report, who did you speak to?’
‘I’ve told you, no.’
‘Forget names. What kind of experts?’
‘Another hydro first.’
‘At GreenDay?’
She shook her head. ‘I wanted to run a few things by someone else about depressurisation simulations.’
‘Why?’
‘You use historical modelling. You use information you can get from previous mining, and actual results from pressure-monitoring bores. You estimate likely subsidence, and you feed it into a computer model you’ve calibrated based on the evidence. I discussed the calibrations and the modelling I was using. I got a rough peer review of my approach.’
‘Did you tell him what you were working on?’
‘I chose someone discreet. I wanted my hand held a little.’
‘Did Citadel find out?’
‘They knew I’d spoken to ecologists. My report had some pretty firm views about impacts on ecosystems that depend on the river.’
‘What happened?’
‘I’d already spoken to Shields, the government’s guy. Citadel said I’d breached my confidentiality deed. They said by talking to – they called them “outsiders” – I’d stolen Citadel’s – I don’t know, commercial information. Something like that.’
‘Who said this?’
‘The lawyers.’
‘What lawyers?’
‘They weren’t handing out business cards.’
‘Citadel lawyers, or external lawyers?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, her voice loud again, and cracking a little. ‘I was panicking. I don’t know.’
‘Pete,’ Lisa said. ‘Back off.’
He looked at Lisa for a moment. Gaby Campbell was a small woman, at least half a foot shorter than Lisa. She had fight in her though, he could see that. Citadel and its lawyers must have scared it out of her, at least for a while. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said to Campbell. He paused for a few moments to let her compose herself. ‘Do you remember any names?’ he said. ‘Even a Christian name?’
Campbell took a sip of water. ‘The one who did most of the talking was called Tony.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘He said I’d breached my deed, I’d – it was wilful misconduct, I could be instantly dismissed. They made me hand over all my notes and my laptop. They said I’d end up owing them millions – all those things. I had to give a signed statement saying my report was wrong. I had to sign anther deed about confidentiality on everything that was being discussed.’
‘Did you get a lawyer?’
‘They offered me a deal. They said if I took it to a lawyer it would be off the table, and I’d be instantly dismissed.’
‘What was the deal?’ Lisa asked.
‘I got to resign. They paid me six months of my GreenDay salary. If I went away they said they’d pay me another six, which they did. They bought my airfare to London.’
‘Do they know you’re here?’
She shrugged. ‘I said I was going away. I didn’t mention here.’ She looked at her watch again. ‘I have to go now.’
‘Will you think about what I asked you?’ Tanner said. ‘About coming back to help stop this thing?’
She looked angry. ‘You don’t think I have?’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
Tanner moved to get up, but Lisa held up her hand, gesturing for him to stay seated. ‘I’ll walk out with you,’ she said.
‘There’s no need.’
‘It’s okay,’ Lisa said, picking up her phone from the table, and following Campbell out.
PART FOUR
38
Tanner sat at a table around the corner from the fireplace in a pub in the Rocks. He was three weeks out from the Matheson trial, and had cleared his diary to focus on it solely.
Right on six he saw his guest walk in. Tanner raised his arm to attract his attention. The men shook hands without a word. Mark Woods forced a smile as he sat.
‘Let me get you a drink,’ Tanner said. He went to the bar, and returned with two pints of Three Sheets Ale, that was brewed on the premises.
‘I assume I’m not here so you can gloat?’ Woods asked. He was tall and solid. His pec muscles tested the buttons of his shirt when he breathed.
‘Gloat?’
Woods looked at him with a weary expression. ‘Tomas Alvares?’
Tanner shook his head. ‘Alvares got less than he should have.’
‘No one gets more than they should, do they?’ Woods was a detective in the drug squad of the State Crime Command. He’d been part of the team that worked with the drug importation unit of the Federal Police that had apprehended Tomas Alvares. He and Tanner had crossed paths in other cases.
‘No one?’
Woods shrugged. ‘You know I don’t like traffickers.’
‘Maybe we should legalise drugs?’
Woods smiled faintly. ‘That would do me out of a job.’
‘Only the job you have now.’
‘It would do you out of work, too.’
‘Other crooks would keep us busy.’
‘You want everyone using? The guy driving towards you on the freeway? What about the judges you appear in front of?’
‘It’d put them in a better mood.’
‘You told me you had a son, didn’t you? Do you want him on heroin or ice?’
Woods narrowed his eyes. ‘Who are they?’
‘All around us.’
‘Tourists?’
‘The people in suits. Our corporate and political elites.’
‘They’re all here?’
‘I carry them around in my bleeding heart.’
A bored smile appeared on Woods’ face. ‘What would I charge them with?’
‘The disproportionate distribution of wealth.’
‘That’s in the books?’
Tanner smiled, and put a hand on the nearly two hundred year old wall by his side. He slapped at the convict-quarried sandstone. ‘It should be,’ he said. ‘We owe it to the poor bastards that built places like this. We owe it to them to get the real crooks.’
Woods took a long sip of beer. ‘Are we here to discuss that?’
‘I’m here to provide you with work.’
‘Work?’
‘You think Tomas Alvares got a soft sentence? I can make it up to you.’
Woods put his beer on the table and leant back in his chair, a dubious expression on his face. ‘How?’
‘You want to arrest some of the elite, don’t you?’
‘What the fuck are you talking about, Tanner?’
‘We’re not talking.’
‘What are we doing, then?’
‘We’re off the record.’
Woods snorted. ‘You’re an informant now?’
‘If you like.’
‘Not many defence lawyers are informants.’
‘It’s part of my strategy in another case.’
‘What case?’
‘One that doesn’t involve you.’
‘What case?’ Woods said firmly.
‘One in which I’m acting for an innocent man.’
‘That’d be a first.’
‘I can give you a name. Someone who buys in commercial quantities.’
‘Who?’
‘A person with a big client list. Rich people looking for highs.’ Tanner took a sip from his glass. ‘Interested?’
‘I’m listening.’
‘I can let you know when this guy is taking delivery. If you arrest him, he’ll sing. This is not a man suited to prison lifestyle.’
‘He’s buying from Alvares?’
Tanner waved his index finger at Woods. ‘C’mon, detective. What sort of defence lawyer do you think I am? Alejandro Alvares and his family are my clients. This does not involve them.’
‘A rival, then?’
Tanner shook his head, nearly laughed. ‘I can’t give you them, detective. They are very bad boys. I’m giving you someone else.’
Woods brought his face much closer to Tanner’s. ‘Are you suggesting this for Alvares?’ he said, a hint of menace in his tone.
Tanner shook his head slowly. ‘The only work I will ever do for him is in a courtroom.’
Woods held his stare for a moment, then nodded. ‘Is this personal? What’s this guy done to you?’
‘I’ve never met him.’
‘Why, then?’
‘I told you, it’s part of a defence strategy.’
‘And I don’t follow that.’
‘You don’t have to. All you have to know is that if you arrest this man, you’ll be arresting someone who will cooperate. You’ll make more arrests.’
‘Our aim is higher up the food chain.’
Tanner laughed. ‘In between your busts of every Mr Big, a few small fish might be sweet.’
‘Who does he buy from?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Does he?’
‘You’ll have to ask him.’
‘Has he sold to you?’
‘That’s a very rude question, detective,’ Tanner said slowly. ‘I prefer pinot noir.’
‘Then why are you drinking beer?’
‘You don’t look like a guy who enjoys a Burgundy.’
‘You’re wrong.’
‘My apologies. Probably some prejudice on my part. If I look to you, though, like someone who dabbles in coke after a hard day in court, then you’re wrong too.’
Woods nodded. ‘Why me?’
‘I owe you a favour.’
‘What favour?’
‘You were right about Tomas. He got unders.’
‘Something else you want to tell me about that?’
Tanner shook his head. ‘Best for both of us that I don’t.’
‘You lied for him?’
‘You can’t lie if you don’t know what the truth is.’
‘What’s that mean?’
‘It means I’m doing you this favour.’
‘Just like that, eh?’
‘For a small favour in return.’
Woods smiled and held up his glass, looking at the amber ale. ‘I don’t do favours.’
‘If you do it the right way, it’ll almost be legal.’
‘What way would that be?’
‘The way I tell you.’
‘You’re giving orders?’
‘Think of it as legal advice.’
‘What is it?’
‘I’ll tell you in a moment,’ Tanner said as he stood.
‘I’m still finishing this beer,’ Woods said.
‘I’m not getting you a beer,’ Tanner said. ‘I’m buying us a bottle of wine. Then I’m telling you where you’re going to go exploring for minerals.’
39
Ten days before Matheson’s trial, Charles Porter was served with a late witness statement by the prosecutor’s office. He made arrangements for them to see their client at the remand centre urgently.
‘Who’s Deborah Edelman?’ Tanner asked the moment Matheson was brought into the interview room.
What colour was left in Matheson’s face drained from it. ‘Why are you asking me?’ he said.
‘I can tell you’re not pleased to hear her name, Justin. Who is she?’
‘She worked at Stott Ackerman,’ Matheson said softly.
‘When?’
‘About four years ago.’
‘Is she someone who’s likely to say nice things about you?’
‘She kept calling me at all hours,’ Matheson said, shaking his head. ‘She came to my fucking house late one night. I had to lie to Sarah and tell her she’d turned up about work.’
‘What made her do that, Justin? Your irresistible charm?’
‘It only happened once,’ Matheson said. ‘We did a trip together to Macau and –’
Tanner held his hand up to stop him. ‘I guessed you were fucking her when I got to paragraph two of the statement the prosecutor just served.’
Matheson slumped. ‘Can I see it?’
‘Why does she say you hit her?’
‘That’s a lie!’
‘What’s your version?’
‘She was hysterical, out of control. Screaming at me, crying . . .’
‘Did you touch her, Justin?’
‘She ran at me, trying to hit me. I had to – I had to grab her to stop her from hitting me. She was flinging her arms, she –’
‘This is in your office?’
Matheson ran a hand through his greasy hair, and drew in a long breath. ‘I had to see my boss about her. She was making work impossible. He spoke to her . . . then she came into my room after.’
‘And?’
‘Like I told you. She attacked me.’
‘Did anyone see this?’
‘No. Just right at the end. A whole bunch of people came in. Deborah, she . . . she kind of collapsed . . . you know, a sobbing mess.’
‘Well, at least she’s alive.’
Matheson glared at Tanner, anger in his eyes. ‘Fuck off, Peter.’
Tanner stared back at his client, barely stopping himself from saying something he’d regret. ‘How was her “resignation” handled by Stott Ackerman?’
Matheson exhaled slowly. ‘She threatened to sue them. They settled – paid her some
money.’
‘Did she make any allegations about you?’
Matheson closed his eyes, like he wanted to wish this part of the story away. ‘She said I hurt her when she was in my office screaming at me.’ He leant forwards, a pleading look on his face. ‘I didn’t hit her. I was only trying to stop her hitting me.’
‘Anything else?’
‘She said I’d pursued her, that I was harassing her, turning up at her apartment. Everything that happened, she had her lawyer reverse. How do they have a statement from her anyway? The settlement was confidential.’
Tanner shook his head. ‘Confidentiality agreements don’t carry much weight in criminal trials.’
‘How – how can this be admissible?’
‘Are you doing a law degree in here, Justin?’
‘But it’s not relevant.’
‘Tendency evidence,’ Tanner said. ‘Aitken will try and get it in as evidence of you having a disposition for violence against women.’
‘Nothing she said is true.’
‘Justin,’ Tanner said, ‘you’re accused of killing a young woman. The fact that another young woman you had an affair with has said you were violent is relevant, okay? That is stuff we need to know about. Are there any other incidents that you think are completely irrelevant? Have other women alleged you’ve hit them following an affair?’
‘It wasn’t an affair,’ Matheson shouted. ‘We’d been out to dinner with clients. She knocked on my hotel door and barged in when I opened it. I’d been drinking, you know?’
Tanner shook his head slowly. ‘You and booze, Justin.’
‘How can they serve this now? She wasn’t part of the committal. You can object, can’t you? This is unfair, they can’t just –’
‘They served an affidavit with the statement from a solicitor in the prosecutor’s office. It says she only just came forward.’
Matheson’s eyes were full of anger. ‘Why would she do that? Why now?’
‘We don’t know.’
‘Surely the judge won’t let them –’
‘Justin, listen to me,’ Tanner said. ‘Whether this witness gets to give evidence is my problem to deal with. What you have to focus on is telling us the truth. The whole fucking truth.’
The fire vanished from Matheson’s face as the enormity of the upcoming trial washed over him. He was drowning, and realised he might never surface.
‘Does your wife know about Deborah Edelman?’