Now I have always been willing to toe the line. I have always worked to my brief, and always delivered. There have been occasions of doubt, grey areas, but never before have I been confronted with a subject who is nothing like the brief I had been delivered. I have interviewed threats to peace, brainless celebrities who think they think, hated politicians who court popularity, innovative entrepreneurs without an idea in their heads, but I have never, until now, found such a complete mismatch between independent assessment and personal reality. There has always been at least a partial fit.
In this assignment, I have now delivered on my brief, in that I have completed three interviews that address the agreed areas, press crucial points, examine practice and motive. I have dealt with origins and future in this present. I have completed the task, but I have certainly not delivered on the envisaged brief. The man simply does not fit the picture. He is no vile conspirator, no threat to our way of life, no avaricious hoarder of wealth. It is simply not true. In not complying with this aspect of my brief, I realise that I put you, Tony, in an invidious position. But I can’t avoid that, since the brief that is so patently wrong was delivered by you. I was commissioned to do this by you, to deliver what you wanted, what you needed to further your professional credibility. So now I can’t avoid landing you in the proverbial. It’s a pile of your own making, after all. You have put me in it many times over the years, so I might cite the idea of payback, but then citing examples to justify that would be worse than petty. The mess is now all yours. I wish I could say ‘good luck, Tony’, but that would be stretching politeness.
You gave me my chance. Without you, your influence and connections, my career would probably have never even started. I owe everything I have become and everything I have achieved to you. You made the contacts, you negotiated the special assignments from which all the other work stemmed. Thank you.
But you are also a selfish bastard. Everything I have done has been conceived for your own benefit. What I could do was unique, and you knew that. I was a disabled, vulnerable woman, who volunteered to be pitched into the deep ends of events, and somehow, despite my challenged-limb status, I always managed to swim to safety. And deliver, it has to be said, deliver precisely what you needed to enhance your own standing, and thus advance your career, your own rise to influence and power. But everything has its day, and perhaps ours jointly is passed. It’s a pity that things started to go wrong for you, but frankly you only have yourself to blame. The womanising alone would have made you enough enemies to ensure that one day retribution would hit you squarely in the back, but the drinking on top, especially doing it on duty, was bound to bring things to a head at some point.
Thank you for volunteering my services for this One-On-One special. I am sure your motives were sincere. You and your colleagues really were convinced that you had a mandate to save the world from tyranny. The fact that, by chance, you happened to be married to the only person in the world that the tyrant was willing to meet was pure coincidence, of course. Your exploitation of it, however, was calculated, opportunistic, selfish and cynical. Your beliefs may have been sincere, but the philosophy that generated them was corrupt. And the weapon only you could use has now backfired.
I was convinced by your sincerity, all those years ago. I was more than vulnerable when we met; I was conquered. I expected to die within the year. I had been told my chances were fifty-fifty at best. I never even expected to get to university, let alone finish it. Your support was effective and probably crucial. Thank you for that. You took me under your wing. You were obviously and sincerely attracted to me, and I am sure your motives were quite honest, even altruistic. You wanted to protect me. And there was always an element of dependency on my part, but I did not complain, at least for the first decade or so. By that time I was secure enough about my own future to believe in it. I was inextricably linked to you, personally and professionally, I was happy on both counts. It’s hard to imagine what my life might have been without you. I probably would still have become a journalist, but you set up those first few opportunities, the ones that made my name. I owe you everything, Tony, but it was all based on a lie, wasn’t it? A lie, because that night in my first term at Oxford, you lied about that man on the fence, that man who created a fracas, as you put it, that man who was calling out my name.
Tony, I can put up with the womanising. I can always lock the door and make you sleep in the spare room, so I can put up with the drinking as well. I can tolerate your selfishness and the manipulation of my abilities for your own ends, up to a point. But that lie changed our lives, for the better, you would argue, but then you always were a selfish bastard, always full of yourself, weren’t you? And ironically, if it were not for my disability, I would not have been such a marketable commodity, would I? My audience always was on my side, right from the start, and also on the right, since the left was missing! Sorry about the pun...
You knew how I could be marketed. You knew from the start how I might disarm (having been de-legged myself) those who trade in power. But I have lived a professional life like the bearded lady, or the smallest man in the world, revealed in a side-show at a funfair for the merest of glimpses when a curtain is momentarily pulled back to reveal the freak our eyes hate to view. Christine Gardiner is as much your creation as she is mine. Or should I say she is more the creation of those who run you, who deliver your orders? For you simply do as you are told, don’t you?
Tony, I don’t hold you responsible for everything that’s gone wrong. I have been a completely willing participant in the nonsense. But I was never big enough to bite the hand that fed me, even when your behaviour hit the pits. I owed you. Your callousness, your manipulation, your selfishness, your infidelity, your drunkenness... all of these I have tolerated in different measure over the years. And I tolerated them because I got the kudos. I got the assignments. I won the awards. You got the day job (and probably the bigger pay cheque!), but I got the spotlight. But One-On-One with Tom Cartwright was an assignment too far. I cannot deliver on the brief because the analysis is wrong. He is no threat. I suppose many might see him as a threat,, but Tom Cartwright is unique in that he is an idealist who can actually deliver on his promises. But if you don’t deliver on yours, Tony, you are finished. And on this job, I’m afraid you can’t deliver because I can’t deliver on your behalf. Not this time. And you have probably had too many failures in recent times. They will not be tolerant for much longer.
This time the real difference is that there is a way out. You knew I’d had enough of this game, that I wanted to give it all up five years ago, but it was you who persuaded me to take more jobs, to continue to deliver. Was it panic on your own behalf? Did you know that you were useless without me? But, of course, just like you I couldn’t resign. The option simply is not in our contract, is it?
But this time I have turned turtle. Sorry about the pun. An opportunity like this arises far less than once in a lifetime. It’s a privilege that’s afforded only by an accident of history, by happening to be alive when genius is near. He is nothing less than genius, Tony. And you now know that. I have been lucky to have had two opportunities to take up the offer. I missed out first time round, but I grasp it this time with enthusiasm. Tom and I are off to chase turtles. He wants his own life, and so do I. Together, we will stand on our own two feet and make a new life for ourselves.
I’ll leave it at that, Tony. Don’t try to reply. Goodbye. Chris.
Proposed press releases
Day 1
Christine Gardiner missing
Concern is growing over the safety of journalist and broadcaster Christine Gardiner. She has made no contact with her employers for over a week, having told them by email she was going to take a short holiday lasting two or three days at the most. Ms Gardiner, 60, is well known for her freelance reporting on political and topical issues and as host of in-depth interviews for the television programme, One-On-One. She recently c
ompleted her latest assignment for the programme on the Malaysian-Brunei border at an undisclosed location in the South China Sea, where she visited Haji Salleh Abdullah, reputedly the world’s richest man. Ms Gardiner was last seen in the port city of Sandakan in north Borneo.
Day 2
No contact with Christine Gardiner
Christine Gardiner, the award-winning journalist and broadcaster is now officially a missing person. International agencies have been alerted.
She was last seen on Tuesday 18 May when a woman answering her description boarded a private vessel in the harbour at Sandakan, north Borneo. She cleared Malaysian immigration, but thus far has not passed through any other immigration check. Ms Gardiner, who lost her left leg to bone cancer in adolescence, is an instantly recognisable figure, and so reports that she left on board a private yacht owned by Haji Salleh Abdullah can be taken seriously. She had previously been staying with Abdullah in his private home off the western coast of Borneo, a visit dedicated to recording interviews for her One-On-One television series. It remains unclear whether Ms Gardiner’s assignment was completed, or whether this observed boat trip formed part of her on-going project.
Haji Salleh Abdullah, reputedly the world’s richest man, is a Muslim convert and long-term British expatriate. He has lived in South-East Asia for over thirty years, but paradoxically he and Ms Gardiner were both brought up in the same north of England town. Both suffered from bone cancer in adolescence and both had legs amputated.
It is assumed that Adbullah and Ms Gardiner were travelling together, but it is not known where they were heading. The Sandakan port authorities, however, were able to confirm that Abdullah has made several recent journeys in the same boat, which is moored permanently in the port and maintained to seaworthiness by a full-time on-shore crew. A member of this maintenance team was quoted as saying that this latest departure of the boat seemed routine, apart from the presence of Ms Gardiner. He also was able to confirm that many of Abdullah’s recent trips had been to turtle nesting islands in the Celebes Sea, territories that form part of the Philippines archipelago.
The coastguard has been alerted, since attempts at radio contact with the vessel have not been acknowledged. Several ships sailing the waters south of the Philippines have recently been subjected to pirate attack.
Day 4
Christine Gardiner’s estranged husband found dead
Anthony Green, husband of broadcaster Christine Gardiner, has been found dead at his home in west London. The alarm was raised by a cleaner who visits the house twice a week. On Tuesday, the home help, referred to by police as Mrs C, could not gain access to Colonel Green’s house, but did not immediately suspect a problem, since Anthony Green has recently been extremely busy working on an assignment for a defence contractor. She left a note advising Colonel Green she had called. But since her visits to the property have been regular for a number of years, she judged the absence more than just surprising and decided to double-check. She thus telephoned Colonel Green on his personal number and was surprised to find that his phone was ringing inside the house, but not being answered. Mrs C then raised the alarm. She reported that she had never known Colonel Green be separated from his personal mobile, and that he was always scrupulous about switching it on and off, to the extent she had never known him miss a call. Having rung the emergency services, Mrs C then tried the front door and was surprised to find it open. She discovered Colonel Green’s body at the foot of the stairs.
Anthony Green was married to Christine Gardiner. The couple had no children as a result of complications arising from Ms Gardiner’s cancer treatment as a teenager. Both led successful careers, Colonel Green in the army, followed by defence consultancy, and Ms Gardiner in broadcasting. The couple had announced some months ago that their relationship had been under pressure. A month ago, just before embarking on her most recent journalistic assignment to South-East Asia, Ms Gardiner had moved out of the family home in what she described as a trial separation.
Ms Gardiner was declared ‘missing’ during the last week. It is not known whether Colonel Green knew of his wife’s difficulties, or whether her disappearance might have contributed to his death. Police refused to confirm whether he had committed suicide, stating merely that Colonel Green had been dead for approximately three days and that no-one else was being sought in connection with the incident.
Day 5
Christine Gardiner’s disappearance not linked to husband’s suicide
Concern mounted further yesterday for the safety of broadcaster, Christine Gardiner, who has not been seen or heard of for approximately two weeks. In a cruel twist, which is not thought to be linked with Ms Gardiner’s disappearance, her husband, Colonel Anthony Green, has been found dead at the couple’s house in Kensington. Details of Colonel Green’s death have not been released, but it is understood that he took his own life some time last weekend, having taken an overdose. There was also evidence he had been drinking heavily, his body being found at the foot of the stairs. Head injuries are believed to have been sustained in the fall.
It is assumed that Ms Gardiner, who had already left the Borneo port of Sandakan on a private yacht before Colonel Green died, knew nothing of her husband’s state of mind. There has still been no contact with Ms Gardiner, nor with Abdullah Salleh, the boat’s owner. It is believed the couple were heading for the southern Philippines.
Colonel Green, 63, was an army officer until retiring after twenty-five years service. Since then he has pursued a freelance career as a defence analyst and consultant. An only child, Anthony Green has no surviving close family. He and Ms Gardiner, married for thirty-seven years, have no children.
Day 6
Wreckage of Gardiner boat found
Fears are growing for the safety of broadcaster Christine Gardiner after wreckage of the luxury yacht in which she was believed to be travelling was discovered on a remote island in the Sulu Sea. She was a passenger on the yacht, Laut Emas, owned by Salleh Abdullah, who had been the subject of Ms Gardiner’s latest filming assignment for her One-On-One series. Port authorities in Sandakan confirm that Abdullah did lodge an itinerary with them, as was his usual practice. The document states the boat’s intended destination was the Turtle Islands, a Philippine archipelago close to the coast of north-east Borneo.
The craft Laut Emas is a recently-built luxury yacht with a full complement of on-board security and safety features. Most of the boat’s fixtures and fittings are embossed with its name and international registration data. Several items, including bathroom fittings, tableware and bedding have been discovered washed up on a beach on an island near to the boat’s declared destination. The boat’s owner, Salleh Abdullah, is also missing.
It is not known whether Ms Gardiner is aware of the fate of her husband, Colonel Anthony, Green, who committed suicide last weekend. Ms Gardiner, 60, is thought to have been researching material for a planned television programme.
Day 7
Christine Gardiner feared dead
Human remains have been found near to where fittings from Salleh Abdullah’s boat, Laut Emas, were discovered yesterday. Local fishermen found human body parts in their nets after trawling sand-beds offshore from the beaches where flotsam from Laut Emas was found. There has been no sign of bodies or indeed the wreck of Salleh Abdullah’s boat. Seas in the area are shark-infested, and currents are both fierce and unpredictable. In addition, nearby is one of the world’s deepest ocean trenches. If Laut Emas foundered in a storm, the wreck may have sunk to depths where it cannot be recovered, or even located.
Day 9
Christine Gardiner dies at sea
Human remains found in fishermen’s nets in the Sulu Sea have been confirmed as those of Christine Gardiner, the award-winning broadcaster. Two individuals were identified after the remains had been subjected to genetic analysis. There was a positive match for Ms Gardiner�
�s DNA, whose profile was available as a result of her having, just two years ago, devoted a programme to investigating the validity of using DNA profiling in criminal cases. Her own DNA was fully profiled as part of the investigation.
The second individual could not be positively identified, but the remains are assumed to be those of Ms Gardiner’s travelling companion Adbullah Salleh, who was also known as Thomas Cartwright. Salleh had been the subject of Ms Gardiner’s most recent television programmes, One-On-One interviews with reputedly the world’s richest man. No data on Abdullah Salleh’s DNA was available to local pathologists, so no positive identification was possible from the body parts retrieved.
In the absence of either a positive identification of Abdullah, or of any structural debris from his luxury yacht, Laut Emas, authorities would not speculate on events that might have led to Ms Gardiner’s death. Recently, there have been sporadic attacks by pirates on sea traffic in the area, and there have been violent storms associated with the annual monsoon. Abdullah, however, had travelled this coast many times, making regular visits to conservation sites in the region, and was thus fully aware of the dangers.
Christine Gardiner... [continues with contents of pre-prepared obituary sourced from file]
Postscript
Missing from The Green papers, of course, is any reference to Christine Gardiner’s visit to Abdullah’s estate on the mainland. What happened there is still not completely clear. We have secondhand but reliable intelligence that there was a meeting and suggesting that Ms Gardiner received a substantial offer for her cooperation and services.
The meeting definitely took place, as we are in possession of photographic confirmation of each attendee’s identity. Our secondary source is an associate of one of Abdullah’s prime backers, meaning that the provenance of our intelligence is beyond question. Equally, we have no reason to doubt its accuracy.
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