The Property

by Catriona King

  Barr understood and with a shrug he began a monologue that required no prompts.

  “Farshid Lund, my younger brother Dalir and I formed The Barr Group in two-thousand-and-four with a large injection of capital from Lund. In exchange for this cash injection and Lund bringing us clients, he wished his daughter Dorry to marry Dalir one day. Her mother Sameen had left him many years before and taken the child to live somewhere in the west, which as a very strict and observant Muslim, Farshid could not tolerate. For years he had tried to find them and have them returned to Saudi, to no avail, but with us in the UK to assist in the search he saw a marriage to Dalir as a way to bring both women back under his control-”

  Liam signalled to interrupt.

  “Under his control? Did he plan to kill them?”

  Barr shook his head firmly.

  “No. Farshid’s plan then was to marry Dorry to my brother when she reached adulthood, as Dalir was considered a suitable match. We are Muslim also,” he smiled, “some less observant than others. But still Muslim in name, so both Farshid and my father approved of the match.”

  He glanced at Craig and got the nod to continue.

  “We managed to track Dorry and her mother down with the help of others at the beginning of two-thousand and six.”

  Craig made a mental note to ask him later who those others were.

  “We watched them for some months from a distance and when Dorry was some time past her eighteenth birthday Lund made an email approach.”

  He glanced down, adjusting his cuffs in what Craig knew was a displacement activity, and when Barr lifted his gaze again the detective knew why; the businessman’s eyes were heavy with sadness, and now so was his voice.

  “Unfortunately the women had a different opinion of the match. Sameen had no desire to have any contact with her husband, and then Dorry accepted the proposal of a young man she had met at university. This made Farshid and my brother very unhappy-”

  It was Craig who interrupted this time. “And your father Zafir?”

  The business magnate scowled. “He was on Dalir’s side.”

  “It sounds as if you weren’t.”

  Barr took a sip of water before he answered.

  “No, I wasn’t. I had lived my whole life in the west and my faith was weak. I stopped observing Muslim traditions completely soon after that. I drink, I don’t pray or go to mosque, and my last three female companions have all been white girls from here. My life and all that it entails is here in Ireland.”

  He shook his head suddenly and his next words came spitting out. “The idea of forcing a woman to be with a man against her will has always disgusted me. The men who do it disgust me too. It’s barbaric.”

  Craig sat forward urgently. “Help us then. Tell us exactly what happened to the women.”

  Barr sighed wearily. “I suspect that you already know, Chief Superintendent. Dalir and my father had them abducted, intending to take them both to Saudi, where Farshid would have punished Sameen severely for leaving him. But before they went, Dalir planned to marry Dorry quickly, so he arranged a small wedding at my father’s home for the twenty-second of June that year. The girl was reluctant but agreed to cooperate as long as her mother wasn’t hurt.”

  Annette had been right.

  Barr’s slumped slightly in his chair.

  “Then my father became suspicious.” He shook his head wearily. “He’s very traditional and began asking Dorry whether she had ever had sex with her white boyfriend. She said no even though he badgered her, but he didn’t believe her denials. Farshid had travelled here for the wedding and to take Sameen back with him, and he became insistent too.”

  A tortured anguish contorted the businessman’s face, and Craig knew that he was reliving the events.

  “They had her examined by a doctor...”

  Another mental note; they’d be having that doctor too.

  “...and the truth of her not being a virgin came out...”

  His voice tailed off.

  Liam gawped at him. “Where were you during all this? Why didn’t you stop them?”

  Barr’s eyes darted from one detective to another. “You must understand. I found most of this out afterwards. I wasn’t happy about the arranged marriage but I honestly didn’t believe that they would hurt the women. My father and brother had never been violent men. But back then I was still observant and it was in my tradition to obey my father, and our whole business was dependent on Farshid Lund. If I’d tried to stop the marriage we would have lost everything!”

  Liam was having none of it. “You coward!”

  Craig agreed, but he also knew that they needed Kamran Barr’s cooperation to nail the others, so when the businessman’s gaze fell to the table in shame he silenced his deputy with a look.

  When Craig spoke again his tone was cold.

  “You could have reported them to the police once you’d realised what they were intending, Mister Barr.”

  Barr’s head shot up and in his eyes was a plea to be understood.

  “I didn’t know in advance that they were going to hurt them! Just that Dorry had agreed to the match, although she wasn’t happy about it. I’d gone to my father’s house that day fully expecting to attend a wedding, but... then everything happened so quickly. My father was irritable about something but I didn’t know what; I thought he was probably just stressed about everything. And if I’d tried to leave the house or call to tell anyone of my concerns about the arranged marriage, there were at least twenty of my cousins and uncles there who would have stopped me.”

  Craig tensed. “They all knew about the murders?”

  “NO! No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you! Even I didn’t know what had happened until afterwards. Most of what I’m telling you I found out after the event.”

  “But you had concerns. About what exactly?”

  “About the arranged aspect of the marriage, and just that until I arrived that day. But when I got there the atmosphere was tense and I could tell from my father’s and Farshid’s faces that they weren’t happy, but I thought it was maybe because Dorry was getting cold feet. I honestly didn’t think the women would come to harm. You have to believe that.”

  They didn’t have to believe anything, but Craig still needed more information so he motioned the man on.

  “All I knew that afternoon was that my father and Farshid were unhappy about something and then a doctor arrived at the house so I assumed it was because one of the women was ill. Then suddenly the wedding was off and no-one knew why. The others sat down for the feast anyway, but I was getting worried for the women and when they didn’t appear after a while I asked Dalir where they were. That’s when I found out what he and the others had done.”

  Craig’s next questions rattled out.

  “They killed them there, in your father’s house?”

  “Yes.”

  “You saw the women dead? Where?”

  Barr glanced sideways at his brief and received a nod. Craig had to give it to her; Hazzard had persuaded her client to hold nothing back.

  “They were in a bedroom at the top of the house. I’d stopped Dalir as he was coming downstairs and asked him where the women were, so he took me up to show me.”

  He shook his head again, gazing past Craig with a stunned expression on his face, as if he still couldn’t comprehend what had happened that day.

  “They were lying side by side on a bed, neatly, as if they’d simply lain down together for a rest.” Suddenly Barr’s mouth twisted as if he was going to be sick. “Their eyes were closed as if they were sleeping, but then I saw the marks, red, on the front of their necks, and I knew instantly that they were dead. Strangled.”

  He shuddered violently; but Craig had no time for the man’s finer feelings, they had to know more.

  “Who killed them? Your brother Dalir?”

  “Dalir definitely, yes, but I believe that my father and Farshid held them down. They would have had to; Dalir is small. All I know is that non
e of them seemed to think that they’d done anything wrong.” A look of astonishment covered his face. “They couldn’t even understand why I was angry! And then they argued that for the good of the business I had to keep things quiet.”

  “And you did.”

  For eleven years. Craig wanted to punch him.

  A mother and her child were dead because of wounded pride and selfishness. He wanted to shout the words everywhere and force people to listen, until they understood exactly what that meant. Two women killed because of male pride, and the only comfort they’d had was that they’d been together at the end.

  Barr nodded wearily, answering Craig’s accusation.

  “Dalir returned here at regular intervals to insure that I did.”

  The unrecorded trips Dalir Barr had made back into the country.

  Barr continued, his shame making him offer up even more detail.

  “The bodies were disposed of by Dalir and my father, with chemicals first and then on the building site as you know. Farshid returned to Saudi immediately and has never returned, and the business continued to flourish-”

  Liam cut in, disgusted. “Until the discovery this week threatened to derail it.”

  The businessman sighed. “Yes. Then I was warned again to keep quiet.”

  Craig pushed him. “By?”

  “People. My father amongst them. This afternoon I told him that I’d been silent for long enough and I was going to tell you everything that I knew.” He glanced at the woman beside him. “That’s why Ms Hazzard was threatened. I’m sure of it.”

  Craig nodded. “They’re terrified of everything coming out. Except that the man who threatened your solicitor wasn’t your father. He called from London.” He decided to play dumb on the level of detail they knew. “Where exactly was he phoning from? Do you know?”

  Barr sighed again, more heavily this time. “I can guess. Farshid is a very powerful man, with contacts high in many governments.”

  “Such as?”

  “Saudi Arabian, Pakistani, Iranian and more, and while I won’t give you their names I will say that some of our best clients have come through the first two.”

  The Barr Group had been laundering money for the Pakistani and Saudi governments? Inside the UK?

  Craig seized on the words. “Exactly what did you do with their money? Did you launder it?”

  Barr tutted reprovingly. “That’s a very crude way to describe what we do, Mister Craig. I won’t say anything about finance that might incriminate me, but I will speak hypothetically.” He paused for a moment to order his thoughts and restarted. “There is a great deal of property and many businesses in the UK and Ireland, particularly in London, that have been purchased by Saudis, Russians and other foreign investors, yes?”

  He was answered by a nod.

  “But not everyone is happy about those assets moving out of British hands, so there are Westminster controls, albeit weak ones, in place to limit such purchases. Foreign investors constantly look for ways around these controls, ways that will allow them to acquire land, property and enterprises in the British Isles without anyone becoming aware. Some business people facilitate this process, and yes also, in parallel, utilise money from so-called dirty or criminal sources to produce clean profits.”

  The Barrs hadn’t just been laundering dirty money through their businesses; they’d been using it to acquire assets on overseas investors’ behalves!

  Craig’s eyes narrowed. “Illegally.”

  The businessman shrugged, reminding them once again of the arrogant man that they’d encountered two days before.

  “Who can say what is strictly legal, Mister Craig?”

  The Fraud Unit bloody well can.

  But there was no point chewing on that particular bone right now, so Craig took a few steps back.

  “If much of this money either comes from or is handled through the Pakistan and Saudi governments, would I be right in saying that they would go a long way to prevent that information getting out?”

  “You would. A very long way I should think.”

  “Because of the money... and to prevent some of the most visible participants, like Farshid Lund, from being brought into disrepute?”

  Barr nodded, the first smirk of the afternoon playing at his full lips.

  “Parts of Islamic society are very precious about reputation, so they would do anything necessary to stop an honour killing by a prominent citizen becoming public knowledge in the west. To avoid the disgrace, and of course as you say, they might lose billions in the process.”

  “So the fact that you have knowledge both of the murders and their illegal business transactions means that they want you out of the way.”

  “I imagine so, although I flatter myself that they would be reluctant. I am an asset to them, one that would be hard to replace, and without me they won’t make half as much money...”

  Barr picked a piece of lint off his suit so casually that they could have been taking afternoon tea, making Craig almost admire him for his sang-froid in the face of his impending death.

  “... However, they’ve obviously decided that it’s now time to remove anyone who could threat-”

  He stopped dead, his eyes widening.

  Craig lurched forward, understanding instantly.

  “Who else would they kill if they could?”

  Kamran Barr was ashen. “My father!”

  “But they know he won’t say anything. It would implicate him in the deaths.”

  Liam shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, boss. Not if they’ve decided to clean house.”

  As he said it Barr pushed back his chair and jumped up. “I must go to him!”

  It seemed that his family loyalty still trumped his disgust over the women’s deaths.

  Liam was on his feet as well but Craig nodded them both to sit down again.

  “You can’t leave here without putting yourself at risk, Mister Barr. Give us your father’s address and D.C.I. Cullen will have someone check on him.”

  A moment later Liam left the room, leaving Craig to continue alone.

  “I want to return to the disposal of the bodies. Talk me through it.”

  Barr’s anxiety about his father was palpable but he managed a grunt of disgust, recalling what his younger brother had done.

  “Dalir asked me to help with it but I told him to sod off, so my father helped him instead. They kept the women in the bedroom for a few days while Dalir went to one of our companies, a pharmaceutical factory in Dublin, and brought back some chemicals. Then he...”

  He shuddered, unable to finish the sentence.

  “Where did they use the chemicals on the bodies?”

  “My father’s house has some old stables in the grounds. They did it there. It took two days.”

  “Where were the bones kept and for how long?”

  “The attic of my father’s house. We’d exchanged contracts on the DoE site in the mid-June, but we wouldn’t have completion and full ownership of it until the end of July, so Dalir decided that we wouldn’t be implicated if the bones were disposed of there before then. He went to the site to see if there was some way of burying them in the foundations, on the pretext of being a future owner just wanting a look around.”

  The older brother shook his head despairingly. “He watched a lot of terrible movies when he was a boy. Anyway, while Dal was there he noticed some wet cement filling what the foreman told him was an old cellar, so he called me saying he was going to put the bones in there the next night and asked me again to assist.” His expression darkened. “But he got told to sod off again, so my father helped him instead.”

  Zafir Barr had made the phone-call that had lured Jimmy Mooney away on the night of the fourth of July.

  “You said Farshid Lund had already returned to Saudi?”

  “Yes. The night the women were killed.”

  Craig decided to ask a final question, one that he already knew the answer to. “And your brother had a key to the hoardi
ng? That’s how he let himself in that night?”

  “Yes. The morning after he saw the cement Dal visited the contracting firm and asked for a spare key, on the pretext that my father or I might wish to visit the site at different times to measure up for the renovations.”

  The information clarified something for Craig; why some of the women’s bones hadn’t sunk right down into the cement but had remained visible on top. Dalir Barr had placed the bones in the cement around ten p.m. on the fourth of July, more than forty hours after it had been laid, when it could have thickened sufficiently that time and considerable effort would have been needed to push all the bones deep into it. He’d only been one man, and a small man at that, with barely fifteen minutes to push down the over four hundred bones contained in two skeletons before the night-watchman, Mooney, had returned. In his rush Dalir either hadn’t managed to disappear them all, or had thought that he had but some had risen again later, requiring a second push that he hadn’t been there to give.

  Craig nodded, satisfied; they finally had the full details of the women’s murders. But there was still another facet to their case, two in fact, but the Fraud Unit could handle the money side. They still had to deal with the people who wanted Kamran Barr killed.

  “You realise that you’ll be charged with not reporting the murders, Mister Barr?”

  The businessman nodded.

  “And if there’s financial misconduct proven you’ll be liable for charges on that.”

  Barr shrugged. “I can cope with a few years in prison if it comes to it.” He gave a resigned smile. “That’s if I’m still alive.”

  Craig nodded and stood up. “We’ll get to that, but first let’s take a short break.” He glanced at Lavinia Hazzard. “I’ll have some coffees sent in and get an update on your daughter.”

  Knocking off the tape and nodding through the glass to Jack, Craig headed straight to the car-park where he found Liam still on the phone. After his own call to Annette to ascertain that Poppy Hazzard was safe and happy, he waited for his D.C.I. to hang up and then asked, “Well?” already knowing that all wasn’t well from Liam’s grim face.