Cyanide Games: A Peter Tanner Thriller

by Richard Beasley

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Sounds intriguing.’

  ‘I’ll do you a note setting out a series of facts tomorrow. Some we can prove. Others we can’t. All of them true.’

  57

  Tanner scheduled the meeting for three pm, in a conference room at the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai. He’d been told Citadel’s and North Shanxi’s lawyers would be there, but not their Chinese directors.

  The day before, Tanner had contacted Dennis Jackson to find out where he was staying. By nine on the day of the meeting, Tanner had couriered to him two large folders of documents. The document behind tab one in the first folder was the report by Anne Warren on the spill into the Tovosevu River from the tailings dam of Citadel’s gold mine on the island. Tab two contained a report from Gabriella Campbell on the probable water impacts of the proposed gold mine near Bageeyn River. The documents that followed were confidential Citadel internal documents concerning both reports.

  Behind tab twenty-eight were newspaper clippings reporting the death of Elena Mancini, and the trial and acquittal of Justin Matheson. Tab twenty-nine contained press reports about Anne Warren’s death, and tab thirty covered the overdose of Nikki Richter.

  The last document was a draft class action proceeding, which nominated unnamed investors and shareholders as plaintiffs. The defendants were Citadel Resources, North Shanxi, their various directors, Hendrik Richter, John Richter and the one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven partners of the law firm Bloomberg Butler Kelly.

  Lisa Ilves had divided the draft claim into various chapters. The first listed the pending applications that Citadel and North Shanxi had, in joint venture or separately, for mining project approvals around the globe. These included Bageeyn River, the Upper Hunter Valley, and proposed CSG mines in northern New South Wales and Queensland. The next chapter outlined all of the public statements the companies had issued concerning the projects, and what they meant for their financial futures.

  The third chapter of the pleading was headed in bold ‘Cover-Up And Non-Disclosure Of Cyanide Spill At Tovosevu Gold Mine’. Lisa used Warren’s report to outline the spill, and the damage done to the river. The section ended with an allegation linking Citadel with Warren’s death.

  The fourth chapter was headed ‘Bageeyn River Project’. It detailed the burying of Campbell’s report, and the corrupting of other experts in order to deceive various government departments in the process of seeking project approval for a gold mine.

  The fifth chapter pleaded a conspiracy to have Joseph Cheung arrested and charged with a corruption offence on false grounds. It alleged that the arrest of Cheung, and the charges against him, had been made in order to ensure his silence regarding the matters pertaining to both the reports of Campbell and Warren.

  It was then alleged that Elena Mancini had been murdered by John Richter, and that Nikki Richter had been murdered by or on behalf of John and Hendrik Richter. It was alleged that partners of the firm Bloomberg Butler Kelly had aided and abetted the other defendants in the criminal activities pleaded.

  The penultimate chapter of the pleading contained a hypothetical damages claim. Each of the events particularised in the preceding chapters commencing with the Tovosevu cyanide spill were assumed to have caused all mine project applications to be rejected. This in turn caused a loss of future profits, and a decrease in Citadel’s share price, and that of its joint-venture partner. The hypothetical class of plaintiffs were entitled to damages likely to be measured in the billions as a result of the consequences of the actions of the companies, its executives and directors.

  As a footnote to the pleading, a warning was put that as the allegations were founded on dishonesty, fraud, and other acts of a criminal nature – as distinct from negligence – the pleaded events would be excluded from any insurance policies held by the directors and officers of the companies, who were also named as defendants.

  When Tanner walked into the meeting room, he found one end of the table had been left vacant. At the head of the far end, Hedley Fontaine, global CEO of BBK, sat next to Andre Visser, Hendrik Richter’s long-serving lieutenant. Next to Visser was Robert Spry, Citadel’s global general counsel, and opposite him was BBK’s Australian CEO, Dennis Jackson. There were six other lawyers seated at the table. Four of them were from two large American firms, who were acting for North Shanxi and XinCoal. The other two were lawyers for the same companies from Chinese firms. Lastly, sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room, but not at the conference table, was Yinshi Li.

  ‘You’re not joining us, Mr Li?’ Tanner said when he sat down.

  Li stood, and almost bowed. ‘Thank you for the documents, Mr Tanner,’ he said. ‘I have not read them.’

  Tanner smiled. ‘There’s plenty of room at my end of the table, Li.’

  Li shook his head and walked to the door. ‘For this meeting,’ he said softly, ‘it will be best if I’m not here.’

  ‘How did you get these documents?’ It was Hedley Fontaine who began. He had a commanding voice: deep, with a hint of gravel. He’d kept his suit jacket on, and his tie was perfectly knotted. Like most men who end up CEOs, Tanner thought, he looked like he’d had a father with a very big study, and a very small heart.

  ‘I’m not telling you, Hedley,’ Tanner said.

  ‘You’ve committed a number of criminal offences already,’ Fontaine said. ‘I’m only asking once more. How did you get them?’

  ‘As criminals go, I’m the lightweight in the room.’

  ‘You’ve been involved in the theft of property which is owned by my client and my law firm, Mr Tanner. We intend to have you prosecuted for that.’

  ‘If you think that will help your client, then you’re the dumbest guy in the room.’

  ‘My client will sue you, Mr Tanner, and so will my firm. We will be unrelenting.’

  ‘I’m sure the families of Anne Warren and Nikki Richter wish your client had only sued them.’

  ‘You can entertain yourself with these ludicrous fantasies if you want. You won’t have anything soon.’

  Tanner turned his gaze from Fontaine to Visser, noticing that he was looking across the table, but not at the North Shanxi lawyer opposite him. He was looking beyond him, beyond the wall of the room. Into the near future, or the long gone past.

  ‘I’m not feeling like being entertained,’ Tanner said. ‘I don’t want to dance.’

  Fontaine narrowed his eyes. ‘You don’t want to dance?’ he said with mock incredulity.

  ‘I’m not dancing with you, Hedley,’ Tanner said slowly. ‘I’m not dancing with your client, or with the law firms of these other gentlemen. I’m not here to negotiate.’

  ‘When I said my client will –’

  ‘John Richter killed Elena Mancini. Who knows about his wife? Anne Warren wasn’t killed in a robbery. Your client had her bashed to death, and then burnt. You act for the worst of the worst, Hedley. I’ve acted for unlucky fools and deadbeats. I’ve appeared for some – some very, very sick bastards. People who don’t deserve life. I’ve still done my best for them. I’ve never known where I would draw the line. I know now. I’d draw the line at Citadel.’

  ‘You don’t have anything but illegally obtained –’

  ‘No elected government is going to grant a mine approval to a company that just flushed a few hundred thousand litres of cyanide down a river and tried to hide it. And the name Richter – that’s not a vote winner either. Here’s the future for your client. Think Richter, think killer. Think Citadel, think cyanide. It doesn’t matter how I got these reports. When people start to lose money because of your client, they won’t be looking to blame me. If you were the smartest guy in the room, you’d stop the bullshit. You’d work out what your strength is, and then play to it. I’m going to say it again because I like it – Think Richter, think killer. Think Citadel, think cyanide.’

  Fontaine stared at Tanner as a broad, false smile appeared on his face, like an animator had drawn it. ‘We won’t just sue you, Mr Tanne
r. We will be calling in investigators, the Chinese police, the FBI –’

  ‘If I was one of your client’s partners, Hedley,’ Tanner said, ‘if I was North Shanxi – I’d run a million miles from Citadel right now. I’d be blaming it for the shit everyone’s in.’

  ‘You’re not listening to me. We –’

  ‘Shut up,’ Andre Visser said.

  It was the first time Tanner had heard him speak. He was not making a request. He was giving a command.

  Visser looked at Tanner for the first time. ‘I’ve read the material you sent us, Mr Tanner,’ he then said. ‘Thank you for the courtesy.’

  ‘My pleasure.’

  ‘I have two questions for you,’ he said slowly. ‘What do you want? And what are you offering for it?’

  Tanner looked at Visser and smiled, before scanning the rest of the men in the room. ‘Now I know who the smartest guy in the room is,’ Tanner said. ‘Shall we send everyone else home?’

  ‘What do you want, Mr Tanner?’

  ‘I want you to speak to your Chinese partners.’

  ‘And what do you want me to tell them?’

  ‘I want them to speak to the government. And I want the government to speak to its prosecutors.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And I want Joe Cheung here, with his passport, before the flight to Sydney leaves tomorrow night.’

  Visser raised his eyebrows just a fraction. A look of vague amusement came over his face. ‘Is that all?’

  Tanner shook his head. ‘He bought his wife a watch before you arranged to have him deprived of his liberty. I’d like that too.’

  Visser took in a deep breath, and sighed. A look that simultaneously conveyed respect and contempt came over his face. ‘What are you offering us?’

  Tanner smiled, and shook his head. ‘I haven’t finished telling you what I want, Andre,’ he said. ‘When I’m done, I’ll tell you what I’m offering.’

  58

  ‘We just got back from the playground,’ Melissa Cheung said after kissing Tanner on the cheek. ‘Joe’s out the back.’

  He followed her inside and out to the kitchen. He could see Cheung playing with his youngest child on the lawn, pretending to mow it with a plastic mower.

  ‘Who mowed the lawn when Joe was away?’ he asked.

  ‘The same guy who did it before he left,’ she said. ‘Joe’s dad.’

  The sliding doors opened, and Cheung walked in, but the child stayed outside to complete her mowing.

  ‘Summer’s here,’ Cheung said, wiping his brow.

  Melissa put a plate of biscuits on the table.

  Tanner picked one up and looked at it. ‘Tim Tams,’ he said. He looked at Cheung. ‘Did they have these in Qingpu?’

  Cheung smiled faintly and shook his head.

  ‘I meant to ask you last time,’ Tanner said, looking at Melissa’s hand as she poured some tea. ‘Did you get the watch back?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did BBK give you a gold one as a retirement gift?’

  ‘They’ve put my money in our account,’ he said. ‘We can live without the watch.’

  ‘You’ve signed all the documents?’ Tanner asked.

  Both of them nodded.

  ‘I hope not being allowed to say the word “cyanide” for the rest of your lives won’t cause a problem?’

  Cheung sighed. ‘My memoir about my year in a Chinese prison could’ve been a bestseller.’

  Cheung had not been released by the night following the meeting at the Grand Hyatt. There was a bureaucracy to get through, so it took three weeks. The prosecutor’s office released a press statement when he was freed, which came out by prior agreement with government officials from both sides only after Cheung’s flight back to Australia had landed in Sydney. Due to a change of witness testimony, the charges of corruption against Australian citizen Joseph Cheung will no longer be pursued, the statement said. No further explanation was given. Cheung’s Chinese lawyer, Yinshi Li, had no comment to make, other than he was pleased that his client would now be reunited with his family.

  BBK put out its own statement, welcoming the news, and saying Mr Cheung would be taking a leave of absence while he recovered from his ordeal. The Australian Government was only able to say that it had been provided with no information from Chinese authorities beyond that contained in the press statement issued by the prosecutors, and that it would be seeking an apology on Mr Cheung’s behalf if he requested such assistance. Compensation wasn’t necessary – Tanner had seen to that during the meeting.

  ‘Have you thought more about what you’ll do?’

  Cheung shook his head slowly. ‘I don’t want to go straight back to the law. I need to – this will sound strange – maybe it’s because I was confined for a year, but I feel like I need to do something physical.’

  Tanner nodded. ‘You could join Dennis Jackson’s cycling group.’

  Cheung smiled. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘I’m planning on running him over soon anyway.’

  As he spoke, there was a cry from outside. Lily had started mowing the brick pavers under the pergola, and had fallen over and banged her head. Melissa ran out to inspect the damage.

  ‘I still want to know what you did, Peter,’ Cheung said.

  ‘I told you,’ Tanner said. ‘I pleaded with the Chinese that corruption in relation to the grant of mining approvals in Australia was compulsory. I said your actions were based on cultural misunderstanding.’

  ‘I’d like to know, Pete. For my own piece of mind.’

  ‘I agreed to keep my mouth shut, Joe. It’ll cost me if I don’t.’

  ‘I’m only asking you to tell me.’

  ‘You weren’t an exclusion.’

  ‘I got Gabriella sacked,’ Cheung said. He looked out through the glass, at his wife comforting their child. ‘And I got Anne Warren killed.’

  ‘That’s crazy talk –’

  ‘I told Citadel Gaby had gone outside GreenDay. Anne sent her report to me. I told them they had to disclose what had happened as part of their new applications for mines. I warned them that Anne would disclose it herself if they waited much longer. She was dead soon after.’

  Tanner leant forwards. ‘I’m the lawyer who’s entitled to assume my clients are killers, Joe.’

  Cheung shook his head. ‘I should have spoken out myself.’

  ‘You would have,’ Tanner said. ‘That’s why they had you arrested.’

  ‘I let them go ahead on Bageeyn River with Gaby Campbell’s report buried in my files,’ Cheung said, a sad smile on his face. ‘Do you know when it occurred to me that was the wrong thing to do?’

  ‘Joe, you can’t –’

  ‘Do you?’ he said, his voice louder. ‘It was when I was in prison, Pete. That’s when I realised I was guilty. Not of what they were saying I’d done. Of something worse.’

  ‘Joe –’

  ‘Everything okay?’ Melissa returned, Lily in her arms, the tears now quelled.

  ‘Joe was thanking me again,’ Tanner said. ‘I told him he has to stop it. Besides, I’ve been paid.’

  ‘Paid?’ she said.

  He nodded.

  ‘By who?’

  ‘I sent a bill to BBK.’

  ‘Is that the truth?’

  ‘It covered disbursements. It was part of my private discussions with Visser.’

  ‘Are you surprised? That they paid?’

  Tanner shook his head and looked at Joe Cheung. ‘The really guilty should have to pay, don’t you think?’

  59

  ‘Why did you insist on here?’ Lisa asked when she sat down. They were at a café in Queens Park that stood on one side of the various fields that hosted soccer games and cricket matches.

  ‘I’m working at home today,’ Tanner said.

  She nodded, but didn’t smile. She hadn’t kissed him hello. ‘You didn’t return my calls last week.’

  ‘You got my texts?’

  ‘I’m not a sixteen-year-old girl,�
� she said sharply.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I had some issues to work through with Joe. His partnership exit, what releases he had to sign, that kind of thing.’

  Her expression stayed blank. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s happening?’

  Tanner leant back while the waitress put down his coffee. Then he met Lisa’s eyes. ‘We can’t use Anne Warren’s report,’ he said. ‘And we can’t use Gaby Campbell’s.’

  Her face showed not so much surprise, as expected loss. He thought that she must have feared he’d say those words. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘They’re going to scale back the gold mine. They’re cutting production each year until they work out how to use less water. They won’t kill the river.’

  She pushed her cup out of the way and leant forwards. ‘They poured cyanide and heavy metals down a river. We can’t just let them –’

  ‘They’ve cleaned a lot of that up. They’re going to stop using cyanides.’

  ‘Are you their spokesman now?’

  ‘I understand you’re going to be upset. You have to –’

  ‘You understand?’ Her voice cracked a little as it rose. ‘Those reports weren’t just going to stop Bageeyn River, they can stop all their mines.’

  ‘Someone else will dig that gold up if it’s not them.’

  She shook her head, and her mouth contracted in anger. ‘We can stop this company.’ The café was nearly full, and the people at the tables near them stopped talking and looked over.

  ‘You can’t,’ he said.

  She glared at him for a few moments. Tears welled in her eyes.

  ‘I had to give those reports up,’ he said. ‘They were what I had. To get Joe, I had to give them up.’

  ‘You used me.’

  ‘We weren’t in court, Lisa. There is no winner and loser. I settled with these people. We reached a compromise. I got Joe. They got their reports. I had to give something.’

  ‘Fuck you,’ she said, and as she spoke two slow tears were replaced by many more. ‘You can’t stop me, Peter. You can’t shut my clients up. You can’t . . .’ She put a hand to her mouth, and used the other hand to shield her eyes.