The Allegation: A John Mackworth novel

by Tony Davies

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  Mack looked across his desk and smiled at Lindy. One of the things he enjoyed about his work was the variety and complexity of cases he took on. No two cases were ever identical and he enjoyed fresh challenges. Whilst Lindy kept reminding him about cash flow, he could to some extent pick and choose what to work on and when something like the Stephen Chan case came along he could indulge himself even if the fee was minimal. In this case the fee was likely to be considerable, so at least Lindy would be happy.

  He had just told Lindy about his earlier conversation with Don Taylor. The autopsy report on Stephen was inconclusive. Death was by drowning but there was nothing to confirm foul play. There was a high level of alcohol in his blood, and since Chinese generally have a lower tolerance to alcohol Stephen would certainly have been extremely drunk when he entered the water. Whether this was sufficient to cause a strong swimmer to drown or whether he was forcibly held under water would never be known unless someone confessed to the latter.

  The autopsy report meant that without additional evidence to support foul play the police would not pursue it further. Don’s attitude was that his resources were already stretched with budgetary constraints and belt tightening by the hierarchy so whilst there was obviously more to Stephen’s death, unless something concrete came up his people would not pursue it.

  Which did not mean Mack wouldn’t. His curiosity had been aroused and anyway, he had a client called Westminster. The CD wouldn’t affect Don’s decision since it proved nothing more than Stephen was a homosexual. Lindy had felt it was safer to tell Don anyway, but Mack felt otherwise.

  His thoughts were interrupted by Lindy.

  “He won’t be happy if he finds out later that you withheld information from him. The CD may not be seem relevant now, but if later it becomes so you will be asked why you didn’t mention it earlier.”

  She was wearing a pink and white striped shirt with black trousers and had tied her hair in a bun, secured by a pen rather than a pencil this time. Mack thought she looked quite business like, well for Lindy anyway.

  “Don’t worry about it. I am not about to start feeding Don every piece of information we come across. If I think it is relevant later I will tell him. Different story had the autopsy report indicated foul play.”

  Before Lindy could respond he said “Now tell me where we are up to with the review of the Morton case.” He knew Lindy would take the hint that he didn’t want to discuss Don further.

  An hour later Mack was sat alone his room. His coffee cup was empty again but he was not tempted to refill it. He had drunk enough coffee for one day. The review of casework with Lindy had gone well and they were more or less on target for all their work. It was important not to let cases drag on and the clients feel they weren’t making progress.

  Not that it was possible to keep every client happy. Being firm with them was sometimes necessary, although how firm depended on the circumstances and the client. It was something he was still learning and he wondered whether he would ever master it. He liked running a small, hands on operation and didn’t see himself as a corporate animal pandering to the needs of shareholders or institutional clients.

  Weston and Bent had just arrived and were sat in his boardroom He got up and walked across the corridor and entered the room with Lindy. After the obligatory greetings had been completed and they had refused coffee from a beaming Lindy he said “Gentlemen, I want to show you some photographs and then a CD.”

  He laid the photographs out on the table and then played the CD on his laptop. No‐one spoke until the CD had finished. Bent was the first to respond.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “I can’t answer that. I can tell you it once belonged to Stephen and was intended for me if anything happened to him.”

  “What do you mean you can’t answer that!’ responded Bent indignantly. “Why not! We are paying you and we have every right to know.”

  Before Mack could answer Weston intervened.

  “It is okay Paul, we can address that later. At least it proves the allegation. What are your thoughts Mack?”

  “Well, someone certainly wants us to think that way. In terms of the allegation the CD proves nothing. It may look like Lee Wai, but we can’t be certain it is him.

  “The photographs also prove nothing more that they had coffee together on several occasions, which can be explained away through their tennis connection.

  “Another way of looking at it is they do confirm that a member of your firm was meeting the chief government negotiator for a major project you are involved in. If both the photographs and CD were released to the press it would certainly be a field day for them.

  “Lee would have to explain his relationship with Stephen, but as I said, there would be a plausible explanation for that. The government would have to stand by Lee until it was proven it was him in the CD. Remember, Hong Kong is not a democracy and the government, in theory at least, doesn’t have to pander to either the media or the so called ‘electorate.”

  “The government will not want to set a precedent that unproven allegations can force the departure of one its own. Even if he wanted to resign he would be persuaded not to, as to do so would be seen as either an admission of guilt or that the government forced him to as a result of media pressure. He would be suspended from the negotiations though.” He left the last comment floating in air in the hope of securing a response from Weston.

  Weston merely nodded and when he didn’t reply Mack went on “I think whoever has the photographs, and presumably the full CD, has probably come to the same conclusion. Neither you nor the government would want them released, but they may not be strong enough on their own to derail your project. Which of course, brings up back to the core issue, what is the purpose of all this?

  “The ultimate goal may be to embarrass you, Lee Wai, the government or simply to see the project stopped. I doubt it is only to see the government embarrassed, they don’t normally need any help in that regard as it happens often enough.

  “I doubt Lee Wai is the specific target, He is only a government servant and probably hasn’t an enemy capable of this sort of thing. That means the allegation is intended to harm either you or the project.

  ‘The CD clearly moves the whole thing into a different league and I don’t see a group of greenies being involved in that. That leaves us with one of your competitors or someone with a motive such as greed or revenge.

  “The fact we can easily identify Stephen, but we can’t be certain it is Lee Wai causes me some concern. If it was him the caller would have left no doubt in our minds. We only received a short clip and maybe that is not the case and someone is trying to cobble something together to make it look as if it is.

  “Whether Stephen is a party to the deception and knew he was being filmed is another question. I think he had a copy of the CD for protection, but the circumstances under which it was made and he got hold of it would certainly help us get to the bottom of all this.

  “The police have concluded there is insufficient evidence to support foul play and an open verdict is likely to be recorded. Unfortunately, the timing of his death is so suspicious that, despite the police’s view, I don’t think foul play can be ruled out.

  “At this stage the allegation can’t be substantiated but as we have covered, there is enough evidence to embarrass you and de-rail the project if it all became public. Of course, the worst case scenario is that the allegation is true. If that is the case, your PR people will have to dig you out of a big hole, a very big hole indeed. But that is not for me to worry about. My job is to prove whether the allegation is true.”

  Mack paused to allow Weston or Bent to speak. Weston was the first to react.

  “We haven’t heard the last of the caller and I don’t want to give in too easily if he turns out to be a blackmailer and we are being squeezed for money. We need to find out
who is behind all this so we can decide how to handle him.

  “We will, of course, distance ourselves from Chan and his actions, whatever they may have been. My own view is rapidly becoming that if this gets out the project is dead and the government will blame us, however irrationally. I doubt we would do business with them in the near future, but we can live with that. The real downside is the effect it would have on our clients. Again, as you have said previously, they like their anonymity and having the media crawling all over us is the last thing they would want and some of them would almost certainly steer clear of us in the short to medium term. We can survive that, but it is not something I would welcome.”

  Weston seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment as he considered the impact of the CD. He knew there was no way of knowing what the final outcome would be if everything became public. He had been in the game a long time and knew he had to be careful how much he divulged to Mack. To a lesser extent the same applied to Bent, although he could at least be controlled.

  For a fleeting moment he wondered whether Mack could ever be persuaded to work as part of Bent’s team, but he immediately discarded the thought. Mack wasn’t the sort to take orders. Besides, he doubted he had Bent’s ability or desire to go for an opponent’s jugular and that was necessary if he was ever going to be part of Westminster’s inner sanctum.

  Mack responded by saying “As I said, the Police believe there is insufficient evidence to prove Stephen Chan was murdered. I don’t think the CD change will change that view so I am not inclined at this stage to advise them we have it.”

  “Mack, I appreciate the police may not be interested in Stephen’s death, but I certainly am. One of our employees has died under suspicious circumstances and whilst we will distance ourselves from him, we can’t simply sweep that under the carpet. We owe that much to Debbie and his family.

  “Someone is definitely playing games with us and we need to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later. We also need to be fully prepared to defend ourselves if need be. I am sure that with the efforts of you and Paul we will get to the bottom of this. Oh and I should also say your calculated and reasoned comments today have been well received.”

  Mack smiled inwardly at the compliment. Whilst he had long ago become immune to such remarks from people like Weston, they sometimes did strike a chord. His immediate concern was why Weston had mentioned Debbie’s name. Perhaps it was to let him know he knew how he had got hold of the photos and the CD. Perhaps it was impress him that he knew who Stephen’s relatives were.

  Weston interrupted his thoughts when he said “Paul mentioned you had asked him about the La boheme club. Let me say first that I have never heard of the place. Is it connected with Stephen’s death?”

  “I doubt it. It seems to be a blind alley, but you never know. How are your negotiations going with Lee Wai, or shouldn’t I ask?”

  “Slowly. I am sure we will get there eventually. The project is good for Hong Kong and good for our client. I am sure the politicians and bureaucrats will realise that in the end.

  “I appreciate you have your hands full with investigating Stephen’s death, but if you could spare the time there is something else you can help us with. We are in the business of putting deals together and we have one we are working on which you may be able to help us with. A large American private equity operation which we have had some minor dealings with in the past, is interested in investing in this region for the first time. At the same time we have a client in the media sector, which is well managed and needs capital to expand. The principals are prepared to let someone come in as a majority shareholder, so we think there is a deal there.

  “We haven’t told them of the Americans’ interest yet, but the Americans have looked at the numbers and are interested in providing the funds. The stumbling block is the level of due diligence they want us to do. Since this is their first deal in Asia they are especially concerned it doesn’t go wrong. So they want us to ensure the client has no skeletons in the cupboard when it comes to their senior management. They do not want to find out later that the financial controller has a drug problem or that the marketing director is having an affair with the chairman’s wife. No PR disasters please.

  “Paul has heard some vague rumors about our client’s Managing Director keeping a mistresses on the payroll. As a private company they can do what they like, but we do need to know if they have any dark secrets hidden away. We need someone to review their key people in Hong Kong and their regional offices and report accordingly. We could use one of the big boys to do it, but we don’t need a brand name to sign off the due diligence.

  “If we do it ourselves it could be seen as a conflict of interest. We just need to satisfy ourselves and be able to re-assure the Americans. I have no doubt you are up to the task. This is a good opportunity for us bring the Americans into our fold and for us to move our relationship forward. They are big hitters and if we can perform for them we should do very well.”

  “Thanks for mentioning the opportunity. What’s the time frame for this?”

  “We need it wrapped up within two months. I appreciate you must be concerned that if you take this on it may interfere with Stephen’s case. We don’t want that to happen, but if you are going to expand your operation you will need to determine priorities and allocate resources to where they are most needed. It is what will ultimately help determine whether you are successful or not with the big hitters in town. Multi-tasking is not easy, but it can be rewarding. Anyway, take a couple of days to think it over and then let me know. As for the rest, let’s wrap up here and we will let you get on with what you have to do.”

  Chapter twenty eight

  Introspection

  After he left the meeting with Westminster, Mack headed for Starbucks on the second floor of Alexandra House. The coffee shop was crowded with its usual mix of office workers and corporate animals and he looked to see if he recognized anyone.

  He drew a blank and focused on the queue waiting to order their drinks. There were five people in line and since he didn’t need a caffeine fix he sat down at an empty table with a half filled cup of coffee on it He pulled the cup towards him to signify ownership and again surveyed the room.

  Hong Kong seemed to be becoming more and more transient he thought to himself. In years gone by people came to the colony and found jobs and careers with the government and the HSBC. Now that had changed and the place seemed to have been taken over by investment bankers on three year contracts whose sole aim was to make as much money as they could before moving back overseas. Most of them seemed to be Americans, or at least Asians who had been educated there, which didn’t help matters.

  Not that he had anything against Americans. They were the same as most nationalities, some good people, and some bad people. Over the years he had found occasionally that their friendliness was superficial, but they were easy enough to deal with and most of them were good company in social situations.

  He looked around the room again and wondered whose fault it was that Hong Kong was selling its soul to Mammon. The British had ruled the colony with a benign, almost benevolent approach, similar to a parent with an adolescent child that couldn’t quite be trusted to seek its own path in life. Capitalism had flourished, but it was based on survival in a harsh economic climate. With no natural resources other than its Chinese work force and immigrant ‘professionals’, the colony was no place for the weak or lazy.

  All that seemed to have changed in the last ten years. For some people it was still a struggle to survive, but for many the emphasis seemed to be on the accumulation of more wealth. The desire for designer labels, overseas holidays and investment properties seemed to dictate their very existence. He wondered where it was all going to end.

  He thought back to the time of the handover to the Chinese in 1997. Everyone was expecting things to change, but it was still very much business as usual. The big property developers and the HSBC still ran the place and fears that communism wou
ld find a toehold in the colony had been ill founded. The opposite had happened. Chinese are natural entrepreneurs and businessmen and those from Hong Kong had thrived in Shanghai and other cities in China. The net result was a reverse takeover, with capitalism and greed gradually infiltrating even the most remote corners of China. Chairman Mao must be turning in his grave.

  One of the Starbuck’s crew passed by his table and smiled at him. She was in her mid-twenties and had her hair tied back to reveal pink earrings in the shape of a heart. Mack couldn’t decide if the smile was to signify she knew he hadn’t bought a coffee or if she was just following the company’s policy of being friendly to the patrons. He decided it was the former so he smiled back.

  His thoughts turned to Lindy and her comment when Westminster had first approached them that it could mean a lot of corporate work down the line. Weston’s offer of doing background checks on senior management wasn’t particularly exciting, but it did help cover the overheads and he could bring in a couple of extra hands to help him if need be.