‘After examining them, I realised that neither of them were the ones missing from the collection. It posed another mystery, which meant that we’, he looked down at Bede, still nestled in his arms, ‘needed to head to Paris. I needed to talk to Laurent in person, and I needed to find out where those two books came from. They were a puzzle because they should have been part of the family collection, but obviously never had been. There was also the suggestion posed by the book that Laurent may not be the legitimate patriarch.’ He got up and started to pace. ‘Then to our astonishment, Martin ran into Damian who was being pursued by those idiots trying to blackmail him into creating ice for them.’ He paused, looked across at Martin. ‘Then George and Edmondo arrived with Kamila and Jakub in tow, trying to steal James’s books.’ He turned to Justin. ‘I have to say, your arrival was a surprise too, especially Meredith’s revelations, so I think we should start with you. We need to know exactly what you know about any of the incidents that have happened.’
Martin continued the story. ‘On the surface, it looks like a whole lot of unrelated events, but in Gabe and my experience, it’s more likely to be connected to one thing. And in this case, the smuggling racket. On the surface though, it didn’t make any sense for James to be killed.’ He looked across at Gabe. ‘We think James made a few too many waves, but we haven’t been able to make any headway. We’ve had all the phone lines and James’s mobile checked for phone calls around that time.’
Gabe now took up the tale again. ‘We know where he travelled to the months before, and everyone he talked to. The last phone call he took, that Hera said he was so angry about, we couldn’t trace. It was an overseas call, but had been rerouted a couple of times, and the mobile it originated from was one of those cheap phones from America. We’ve been able to trace the call to America, which could have been innocent as your freight company ships there, but why use one of those disposable, phones and why reroute it trying to disguise the caller? Obviously, it was someone James was used to dealing with. We’ve had our people in the US checking alibis of all James’s contacts and haven’t been able to spot any anomalies. There you have it, we’re at a standstill unless’, he took a long breath then continued, ‘James was involved in the smuggling operation from the start, and there had been a falling out,’ he said this last quickly in a flat, cold voice.
Bede erupted in anger and Hera bounced to her feet, shouting in outrage, ‘How dare you suggest anything so terrible, of course James wasn’t involved in anything like that.’ Hera was standing with her hands on her hips, and her chin stuck out aggressively.
Bede was red-faced and trembling with outrage. She swung around to Gabe. ‘So this is what you meant when you said that things could get a little sticky. Well, for your information, James wouldn’t have been involved, so you can think again. Just because you think you’re so good at solving crime.’
‘Calm down, Bede.’ Gabe was on his feet and moved to take her hands. ‘It is possible, but we think highly unlikely. But we do need to keep an open mind.’
‘No we don’t, I tell you it’s not possible.’
The inspector stepped into the fray. ‘Calm down everyone, we’re going to look at all the incidents separately and together, and try to see some connection between them all. For a start, your friends, Kamila and Jakub, have a strong connection with George and Edmondo, who have a strong connection to the two thugs hassling Damian, who were trying to blackmail him into producing drugs, not necessarily the drugs that are being shipped from this location. I think we must assume that the whole thing revolves around the drug smuggling, which also I think involves Mikael who organised the initial contact for your overseas freight contract. It’s also more than feasible that the drugs are being shipped to the eastern states using your freight company. The way I see it, we just need to follow the links slowly and carefully without causing any ripples.’
Martin spoke again. ‘We’, indicating Gabriel, ‘have been speculating that all this will eventually lead back to someone within the board of directors for the Family. There has to be some one person we think that has been able to hold all the disparate groups together and make a concerted whole. It has to be one of the directors, Damian’s background is known to only a few, for instance. And although James had cut a lot of his connections with the family, he’s been involved with me and Gabe for instance in a number of investments for a few years now. He didn’t have any financial interests with anyone else within the family.’
Bede raised her eyebrows at the last statement, and scowled across at Gabe, ‘And you could suggest that James had something to do with it all.’
‘Bede, please leave it for now, we can talk about it all later, and I will explain in detail exactly what I meant. And I did not mean that I actually believed James had anything to do with this.’ Gabriel was scowling now, and she could almost feel the hostility directed at her. Bede humphed, but sat down again in an armchair across the room from him.
The inspector intervened, ‘Tell me how you Martin and James entered into business together? Is that common knowledge?’
‘No,’ Gabriel replied with a frown, while still looking at Bede. ‘We deliberately kept our connection quiet, not exactly secret, we just didn’t see any need to advertise it. James contacted me about three years ago. He had a proposal that really required information on a number of investments that both George and Lucien were involved in. We had a number of meetings, and gradually became quite friendly. I liked him, and admired his ethics. James was always secretive, and he didn’t trust many within the family. He has always trusted and liked Laurent and our father.’ He turned to Bede and continued quietly, ‘But he wasn’t being completely honest about something. That I knew even then. Over the years, I’ve become quite adapt at recognising when someone is being less than honest about his or her motives, and I was aware that James had a hidden agenda. But I was certain that it wasn’t something that would affect our arrangements. I am almost completely certain he was not involved with the smuggling. In fact, at that time, I don’t think he was aware of any of it. It was obvious to me though that something was worrying him.’
Gabriel now turned to the inspector. ‘I think you should tell us exactly what you suspect, and what you expect us to do about this.’ The inspector turned now to Mrs Robinson sitting quietly with a mug of coffee in her hands. ‘I think, Mrs Robinson, that you can help me clarify a few things, and I think we can solve at least the mystery of James’s death without jeopardising the ongoing investigation in smuggling currently being conducted by the joint police forces of several states.’
She looked at him with wide startled eyes, the colour draining from her face. ‘What do you want me to do?’
Chapter Thirty-Six
Mrs Robinson
Adeline Robinson sat quietly nursing her mug of coffee, while the family raged at each other. They had always been like this. Saying the first thing that occurred to them—even the girls when they were young—lashing out verbally, but never physically, she had to admit. There was something not quite Australian about them, and it wasn’t just the accent. She put it down to their constant travelling to Europe and other outlandish places. No stillness, no quiet contemplation in any of them. That vibrancy was very foreign, but she kept that observation to herself. Mikael hadn’t liked her comments, he’d seen it as criticism. In his own way, he was very loyal. They ignored her now, as they commonly did; she had become invisible again. They were always polite of course, and their manners impeccable. But none of them, not even Meredith, had tried to know her personally.
She sat watching and listening, collecting information. It’s what she did. The inspector was intelligent and determined. He was someone to be very careful around. He stood there quietly letting them pick at each other, his light, grey eyes were everywhere at once. She didn’t trust those eyes, they saw too much. She must be very careful, as she went over in her mind what she had actually said about Mikael.
He turned around and spoke suddenly, ‘Now, Mrs Robinson, we need your help.’
She looked up at him with wide, startled eyes, the colour draining from her face. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing too onerous, Mrs Robinson, just talk to me about the last time you saw or spoke to Mikael and where that was.’
She saw the trap immediately, and took a moment to think back to what she had said. ‘It was a few years ago when I was in Perth last.’ She paused for a moment, then turned toward Meredith. ‘I tend not to go to Perth on my days off, I prefer to go to the club or the coast here, it’s quieter. So I haven’t actually spoken to Mikael for a long time. I can’t remember exactly, but it would have been in Perth at the office, I think.’
The inspector finally moved from where he had been standing, and picking up a straight-backed chair, sat it in front of her. He turned the chair around and sat with his legs straddled and his arms crossed on the back. ‘Now, Mrs Robinson, what I have to ask you is very important and could get Mikael into serious trouble depending on your answers.’ He looked into her eyes calmly, and his expression was bland, almost mask-like.
She smiled smugly to herself while keeping her expression calm. He didn’t really see her either. ‘Yes, of course, I’ll tell you anything you want to know, anything to help catch this despicable murderer. If it turns out to be Mikael, then he should pay for his crime.’
The inspector leaned over and took both of her hands in his. ‘Now, Robby, may I call you Robby?’
She responded with a small movement of her head, and looking around, saw concerned expressions on Gabriel and Martin’s faces. Why were they frowning?
She turned back and looked again into the inspector’s pale eyes. ‘You’re starting to make me nervous, what do you want from me?’
‘I want a bit of honesty, Robby. You see, we know that you speak to Mikael every few days by phone.’ She jerked her hands trying to get free, but he kept a strong hold while continuing, ‘We know you have a satphone that Mikael gave you years ago. It’s an old model but works beautifully. You’ve kept him informed on everything that’s been happening here for years.’ His voice had taken on a chilly note. ‘We’ve been listening in, you see.’
There was a stunned silence, then Meredith spoke, ‘What are you talking about, Inspector? Why are you trying to bully Robby?’
He ignored her, and just kept his eyes on Adeline Robinson. He still had her hands caught tight in his. ‘Do you want to change your statement, Robby? You see, we know everything or just about everything.’
Adeline finally managed to drag her hands free, and jumping to her feet, took several steps back and swung to Meredith. ‘I don’t know what he’s talking about. He can’t speak to me like that. I was trying to help you all.’ Her voice was a loud whine, and while wringing her hands, she moved quickly toward Bede, standing closest to her.
She was a large woman, tall, and heavyset with big shoulders and large hands; and yet, she moved very quickly for so large a woman. Gabriel was suddenly there, pulling Bede up out of the chair and pushing her behind him, while moving to intercept Robby. She spun toward him, while pulling a small revolver from her pocket and snarled, ‘You, you arrogant little snot. Mikael warned me about you and your brother. He said you wouldn’t stop digging until you came up with answers. Well, you can have your answers, but it won’t do any of you any good.’ She swung the gun around keeping them all covered, as she backed toward the open French doors. ‘You are all so arrogant’, she snarled at Inspector Campbell, ‘you come here with your little sergeant with not even a gun between you, thinking you can just get me to confess by holding my hands for a moment. Mikael will be here any minute now with some friends in the helicopter, so stay where you are, all of you, or I’ll shoot someone, and you’ll never know which one I’ll shoot until I do it.’ She was calm now. She had known this would probably happen, so she rang Mikael as soon as she had seen the inspector and his sergeant arrive.
She kept backing carefully, making sure she didn’t bump into any furniture. She knew this room and every bit of furniture in it. She cleaned it every day. She was watching them, swinging the gun to point at each one in turn, and backed straight into Pete’s arms. He reached around and calmly took the gun from her. She reeled around swinging wildly and managed to land a stinging blow to his jaw and another to his solar plexus before Gabriel and Martin managed to throw her to the ground and subdue her. She was still struggling, hissing, and cursing fluently much to Meredith’s astonishment and shock.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Resolution
It was some hours later, and again, they were in the living room. The inspector and his sergeant had left taking Adeline Robinson with them in a police helicopter. She had said enough in her fury and panic, while struggling to implicate both herself and Mikael in James’s death. Inspector Campbell was hopeful of obtaining more details on how they had arranged the assassination. Gabriel expressed his hopes just before they left that the inspector would manage to get a name from her that would point to the committee member involved. Mikael, they knew, was having his own problems at the moment. The arrests by the joint task force into the smuggling operation had finally come together at about the same time as Adeline was being taken away. The message she left for Mikael had been intercepted and precipitated the arrest.
Bede was sitting on the lounge with Gabriel’s arm around her shoulders. She spoke quietly as she jabbed him in the chest with a very sharp finger. ‘Okay, so start from the beginning. When did you first suspect Robby? I want details, none of this seeming to pull it out of the air stuff.’
Gabriel clutched his chest with one hand. ‘Ow, that hurt,’ then grinned and tightened his arm briefly, and leaning in, kissed her unselfconsciously full on the mouth. ‘You’re right, you all need to know exactly what happened, or what we think happened. For a start, it was Adeline Robinson who arranged with Mikael’s help to take out a contract on James. He was getting far too close to all the details on the smuggling racket. The smuggling was her idea from the start, you know, and it was Mikael’s contacts from Europe that arranged most of the details. There is a connection to someone within the executive committee. We know that there are some who would like to take the Family back to the old ways. That’s another reason we needed to confirm Laurent’s status. These men, and they are all men, enjoyed a great deal of power years ago. Laurent will not countenance drug smuggling or murder. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been so slow to confront her or Mikael. We were hoping that either Mikael or one of the others would slip and make a mistake. Mention a name. And make it easier for the police.’
‘When you say one of the others, who exactly do you mean Gabriel? George, Edmondo, Justin, Lucien, Jakub, Kamila, Josephine, Marina, or is there anyone else I’ve forgotten?’
Hera was pacing around the room. She was furious. The last few days had been one surprise after another, and she was fed up. She felt unconnected somehow; drifting as if everything she knew about her life was a chimera.
Justin was on his feet immediately shouting. ‘Hera, I told you I had nothing to do with the smuggling. I had nothing to do with James’s death, will you stop insinuating that I did?’ Taking a calming breath, he continued more quietly, but still obviously very angry. ‘You would probably like to make me the scapegoat, make me responsible for everything that’s happened, but you can’t. We have all been duped in one way or another. I still don’t know how George was involved with this, or why he was killed.’ He took her hands gently and led her back to a comfortable chair. ‘Sit down, Hera, and let Gabriel and Martin try to explain what’s probably been happening, although I suspect even they don’t really know everything.’
Hera looked up at him, frowning, and looking slightly embarrassed. She let her head droop to her breast. ‘I’m sorry everyone’, she mumbled, then looked across at Gabe and shrugged, ‘please continue, I’ll try not to
interrupt.’
Gabriel grinned at her, ‘Hera, both Martin and I need to apologise as well. We’ve suspected Mikael for some time, but there were so many other things going on it’s been like an octopus with waving arms going in all directions. There was the personal aspect involving Meredith, Justin, and Damian. There were the two books that George was trying to steal. We still don’t know how James came to have them. Then there were the drugs involving perhaps Damian again, but definitely Mikael, and possibly James.’ He held up his hand. ‘Just wait everyone.’ He moved across the room to stare out of the window then turned back and continued, ‘Then there is the still unanswered question about George’s death, and Josephine, and Marina.’ He looked pointedly at Meredith. ‘I believe, Meredith, you can shine some light on their involvement?’
Meredith contemplated him in silence for several moments. ‘No, Gabriel, I can’t comment at all. I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Both Bede and Hera snorted in unison.
‘Meredith, I think it’s time that you stopped playing games. We’re all aware’, he indicated the room around him, ‘that you’ve been doing some manipulating of your own for quite some time. Josephine and Marina have been feeding you information for years, I suspect, about George’s movements. I’m not sure why, unless it’s that old business from years ago when he tried to seduce you?’ He raised his left eyebrow in what Bede privately thought an arrogant expression.
A Conundrum Page 24