by S G Read
‘So what do we know?’ John asked.
‘Well by listing the sudden unexplained deaths or reported murders of fine upstanding citizens of the particular country she was in we should be able to list her targets. The exception being the deaths not mentioned because the country in question sweeps the news under the carpet.’ Lorna explained. ‘And when I put all the data onto my computer program, we will be able to see if it spots any anomalies in the data.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like anything us mere mortals miss. And I know you reckon your photographic memory is infallible but I hope to prove you wrong.’
‘I will study the figures and write my notes but I may not be as quick as a computer Lorna. I will, however, get there eventually.’
They worked on as they squandered the night again, in pursuit of answers. Lorna loading data on to a progamme she had written, while John looked at his notes and compared them with other notes. It was early morning before Lorna had all the information loaded and then the computer had to do its thing.
‘I don’t know about you but I am bushed John and I am going home for a couple hours sleep.’ Lorna announced, not really worried if the computer came up with an answer immediately.
‘A good idea, even my brain is refusing to answer questions.’ John admitted.
They both went home.
‘Are they listening to music again?’ Winfield asked, still irate at John putting him in his place and refusing to do what he was told.
‘Yes Mr. Winfield.’ The operative answered.
‘I’ve a good mind to give him a piece of my mind.’ Winfield declared and the operative had to bite hit tongue lest he said the wrong thing, he had a low opinion of his boss.
‘He is probably asleep in there.’ The operative answered carefully.
‘What with all that noise going on?’ Winfield asked.
‘That is Strauss Mr. Winfield.’ The operative answered. ‘And both very listenable and very soothing.’
‘Don’t tell me you like that stuff?’ Winfield asked.
‘I do, it is better than jazz.’ A volatile answer as Winfield was into jazz in a big way.
‘Maybe I should take you off this duty as you probably listen to the music rather than do your job!’ Winfield retorted.
‘Let me see now, take me off night duty and put me back on days, would I like that? Oh yes of course I would.’ The operative declared. ‘I would get to sleep with my wife a few more times than I do now!’
As he spoke the music stopped and John stepped out of the shed yawning.
‘I told you he was asleep.’ The operative crowed.
John walked up to the house and walked inside, bolting the back door as he went. Two minutes later he was in bed and snoring.
‘Keep me posted as to what he does.’ Winfield ordered and then left him to it.
He walked back to his car and tried to start it, but without any luck. He turned the engine over and over again until the battery died then he had to phone for a car to pick him up.
Inside John smiled and dropped the part he had removed from Winfield’s engine on the floor, it had been a good night.
Lorna was yawning when John walked into the office in the morning, she was always in on time and he was invariably late but as he was her boss, she rarely said anything.
‘Anyone been on?’ John asked.
‘Not yet and no papers have arrived. I take it I carry on with the petty cash fraud?’
‘You take it right Lorna but as I am at a loose end you can bring the A’s and B’s in here and I will go through them.’ John answered.
Lorna sorted out the two sections and brought them into John’s office.
‘Is that all you plan to do?’ She asked.
‘No I thought I would look though the W, X, Y and Z’s after that.’ John answered.
‘That is funny as I started on the W’s as there aren’t many names in there.’ Lorna replied. ‘Shall I leave the Wi’s to you?’
‘No I will go through the WI’s as well, just to make sure nothing is missed. I hate people who misappropriate funds.’
A courier arrived with more papers ten minutes later. There was a note from Winfield which just said ‘papers as required’. Lorna opened the pouch and looked at the papers.
‘Less blanking out than normal John, do I leave what I am doing and start on these?’
‘What case are they for?’ John asked with a large smile.
‘I don’t really know until I go through them there is no case file or anything.’ Lorna answered.
‘Leave it then, whoever sent it will send down the case file documents in due time.’
Four minutes later the same courier was back and had a package but it was for John’s eyes only. Lorna showed him into the office and John signed for it. Then he gave the package unopened to Lorna.
‘Open that for me will you and let me know what it is about.’ John said idly as the courier left.
Lorna took the package back out to her desk and opened it. She spent some time reading where there was no blanking out before she reported.
‘It is about the fallen operative who wasn’t an operative really, that Winfield still gets himself in a mess despite all his safety protocols, doesn’t he?’
‘He does. Start on those papers and put the others into storage for now, we will get to them later when things are quieter.’ John announced.
He wrote a note on a spare piece of paper and walked out to show it to Lorna. It read ‘Winfield has something to hide in his petty cash receipts that he does not want us to read so we will keep that one going at the same time!’ Lorna merely nodded and John shredded the paper.
‘I was going go up and see Winfield later and tell him not to change the protocols that Clementine uses to collect her jobs, as she is the only one who would be able to change them her end. If she is dead they will not be collected and we will go no further, if she is still alive then I will be able talk to her about her stand in. Once I have spoken to her I will tell Winfield to alter the protocols and stop anyone else poking their nose it where it isn’t wanted. Especially if they get their selves killed doing it.’ John announced, not really talking to Lorna but talking to Winfield to make sure the protocols stayed the same for now.
‘Spearforth have you ordered that protocol change yet on Clementine’s contract?’ Winfield asked.
‘Yes Mr. Winfield.’ Spearforth answered.
Winfield always had a male secretary, he did not think women were good for an office.
‘Well rescind it immediately. I want to make sure someone does the next contract when we send it.’
‘Yes Mr. Winfield.’ Spearforth sighed and picked up the phone.
Thus an hour later when John arrived to suggest the very thing he had mentioned, it was already in hand and a new contract was being selected.
‘Keep it on ice for now, so that I can be there to talk to Clementine and try to sort this out.’ John asked politely.
‘Will do old chap.’ Winfield answered, now affable. ‘But how do you plan to do that? Clementine is a very resourceful girl and very good at her job.’
‘That I know and I plan to turn that into a fault to use to my advantage.’ John answered, not explaining his plan to Winfield, to make sure he did not usurp to use it for his own ends.
‘You will keep me informed though?’ Winfield asked.
‘I will Winfield, you can count on it.’ John answered, meaning exactly the opposite.
‘Thank you.’ Winfield answered, knowing that he would have him followed anywhere he went.
‘I’ll leave you to it then old chap.’ John said and left him sitting at his desk.
‘What did he say?’ Lorna asked.
‘Oh he wasn’t planning to change the protocols until he had discussed it with me Lorna.’ John answered with a smirk on his face.
Lorna held back the answer she felt on her lips and smiled.
‘Good for him John.’
That night
they met in Lorna’s aunt’s house.
‘I am glad it is Friday,’ Lorna complained, ‘these late night soirees are killing me.’
‘And me. Winfield was with Prentice outside my house when I returned, so I spent a little while practicing being sneaky.’ John answered.
‘What did you do?’ Lorna asked with great interest as Winfield was not her favourite person.
‘I just took this off his car.’
‘What is it?’
‘I don’t know but I could remember that it stopped it working if it was taken off.’ John answered.
‘So what did you come up with?’ Lorna asked.
‘Not much at the moment, there is something staring me in the face but I can’t see it at the moment Lorna, what did the computer come up with?’
‘These three dates.’
Lorna pointed to three dates which were highlighted on the computer.
‘This one is in Belgium, a meal purchased in a restaurant. This one is another meal purchased in a restaurant but in a different country and the time difference makes it an hour later. No one could get there to eat it having eaten the first one in Belgium. And the last one is a meal in another country and hour later.’ Lorna explained.
‘So he was helping Clementine?’ John asked.
‘That or there are three of them. These two missions were so close that the perpetrator of the first one could only have time to step off the plane, take a taxi to the target, shoot him and then come back again. As I understand it Clementine likes a week at least to research the target.’
‘Three off them! I can guess how she managed to persuade them to help her.’ John exclaimed. ‘So there is one more at least out there who we need to talk to.’
‘What now?’
‘Now we look at Winfield’s petty cash requests over the past five years. Those papers were sent down very quickly when he knew we were looking into the petty cash.’
‘That sounds like a challenge.’ Lorna observed.
They started on the petty cash receipts and vouchers. It was a boring job which took them well into the night again but with the morning free neither minded, they could go to bed when they arrived home and stay there. The incentive was to find out what Winfield did not want them to find.
Saturday came but neither Lorna nor John moved. The lack of sleep in the past two days decided that. John was not one for getting up at the crack of dawn whereas Lorna usually rose at seven and read for sometime before she left for work. She also had plants to water and her fish to feed. Today she stayed in bed, the fish and the plants could wait.
It was midday before John climbed out of bed. His stomach would no longer let him stay there, it needed feeding. He put on his dressing gown and walked to the kitchen. By the time he had defrosted the bacon and was cooking it, Winfield was ringing his door bell. John walked to the door.
‘Good morning Winfield, are you working today?’
‘Just keeping you up to date on things as they come along. I have a target and it is an as soon as possible, so I will be sending the details to Clementine tomorrow, so that she picks it up on Monday.’
‘Where is it?’
‘Buenos Aires, one of the provinces. You need to get there by Monday, she will be working on it then.’ Winfield explained.
‘She will have to fly there as I will so…’ The smoke alarm stopped him speaking and he ran to turn the bacon. Winfield followed him in. ‘If I fly out on Monday morning I should get there at the same time. I will need the location of the target. I don’t need to know who the actual target is and it is probably better if I don’t know.’
‘I can live with that.’ Winfield replied.
‘Do you want bacon Winfield?’
‘No thank you John, it is bad for your heart.’
‘I don’t think I will die from a heart attack Winfield, I make too many enemies in my job. I think a bullet when I am not looking will stop me worrying about the next case.’
‘I plan to live a long and eventful life myself and end up on a beach somewhere.’ Winfield replied.
‘I hope you have your wish granted Winfield and no one takes an exception to you having their loved ones killed.’
‘Just following orders John, enjoy your bacon.’
John watched Winfield walk out and watched as he actually closed the door behind him. Then John went back to his bacon and eggs and all the trimmings. He liked a cooked breakfast. He ate it while still in his dressing gown and then went up for a shower.
By three PM he was riding to Lorna’s aunt’s house. Lorna was not there when he arrived so he started work without waiting. He wanted to book a flight to Buenos Aires on Sunday, getting a head start on Winfield’s tail but Lorna always booked his tickets.
He had been working for an hour when Lorna arrived. She walked in and made a pot of tea before she started work and slid a mug of tea in front of John.
‘Winfield came to see me this morning, I need to get to Buenos Aires tomorrow sometime but Winfield thinks I am going tomorrow.’ John announced.
‘So under Richard Coleman then?’ Lorna asked.
‘Yes please. I want to have a look round the area and choose the right hotel to stay in before Winfield’s goons get there.’ John answered. ‘Did the computer find out any more about Winfield’s petty cash claims?’
‘I left when you did this morning so nothing more happened, as I am not about to put this stuff on my computer at home as Winfield has probably got my computer bugged as… Of course, that’s what he is afraid we’ll find, what we know already!’ Lorna replied.
‘And possibly what we don’t already know!’ John added. ‘But it will be under other expenses.’
‘He won’t fool me, will he?’ Lorna replied seriously.
‘No he won’t fool you Lorna, that’s for sure.’
They settled down to work on the receipts and vouchers, John doing others and letting Lorna do Winfield’s. They worked for four hours nonstop with the exception of Lorna booking John’s seat, as Richard Coleman.
‘Just make sure you take the right passport and the right diplomatic papers with you!’ Lorna warned when the seat was booked.
‘Yes it would be a fo pah to take the wrong ones wouldn’t it?’
Over the remainder of the day Lorna started to build up a picture of Winfield’s rather large petty cash claims, it was the best way to cover up illegal bugging by using petty cash expenses to pay for them but they could be and would be found. They did not work late as it was Saturday and John left Lorna working, although she did say she would not work on very long.
Lorna had already printed out his airline tickets and booked in on line so that he could board easily. He travelled business class this time instead of first class to keep a little under the radar. If they did not find him in first class they would look in the budget seats first as there were a lot more people there for him to hide among.
John went to bed early and slept well, he always slept well. He packed a suitcase and carried it to the shed and stood it outside between the shed and the fence for collection later then returned to cook his dinner, he liked Sunday dinner and he was not going to replace it with airline food.
He cooked a steak to go with his vegetables and sat down with a glass of brandy to eat it. He liked his food and he was looking forward to trying Argentinean food while he was over there.
He ordered a taxi and it arrived at the front of the house and took him into town with a car discreetly following. The taxi dropped him off by walkway and John walked through the walkway quickly. The car following stopped to let a man out and he followed John into the walkway. John turned the corner which put him out of sight and when the man following turned the corner, John was nowhere to be seen. There was no gate and no entry but there was another corner close enough for John to have run round so the man following ran to look round it. He was out of the walkway and in the next road. There was also a taxi driving away. Seconds later the car the man following had jumped out of pulle
d up.
‘Follow that cab, he did a switch.’ The man ordered and jumped into the car.
The driver put his foot to the floor and the car leapt forward.
John had merely gone through the fence as he would do at his house. He walked under the trees in the garden and up to the house. This was his safe house, chosen for its location and the fact that it had a garage which was accessible from the house. He walked through to the garage and unlocked the door to the garage where his car stood. This car had shaded windows and no one could know who was driving which meant no camera would give him away. He locked the door to garage and opened the big door with his remote.
He drove straight to the back of his house and picked up his suitcase, then drove to the airport. He parked in long term parking and walked to the departure lounge. He sent his suitcase on its way at the luggage drop and then made his way, slowly through security. He did not use his diplomatic papers on his way through the airport as it would have made him stick out like a sore thumb, he merely went through as a normal business man.
Two hours later his plane took off and he was on his was to Argentina. Lorna, despite saying that she would not work on Sunday was there and still working. When she had the bit between her teeth she tended to work on without looking at the clock and she had the bit between her teeth, especially when it would do Winfield no good! While John was flying to Argentina, Lorna was working to the petty cash receipts, looking for inconsistencies.
When she found one it went on a different pile for scrutiny later. She was going to have to match them up with other unexplained costs which were left when she deleted all the kosher invoices. When she found the first one she smiled, now she was enjoying herself.
John watched two films and slept on the way to Argentina and was still a little sleepy when the plane landed. He went through immigration and collected his luggage, before taking a taxi to the best hotel in Buenos Aires and took a room. He spent the rest of the day looking at other hotels until he found the one which suited his purposes. He then checked out of the first hotel and settled into the new choice of hotel.