‘How long ago was this?’
‘Oh, maybe three years ago?’
Thinking about when Patrick had sold his house to put money into the firm, that didn’t surprise me at all. ‘There were money issues already, then.’
‘I’m not sure there were issues; it could be that they’re just slow with paying. Some companies do that: try to delay for as long as they can. They were probably just like that.’
I helped myself to a portion of beef rendang.
‘I did hear about some other problems.’ He seemed reluctant to tell me.
‘Let me guess: was it about female employees?’
‘Yeah, that’s it. It wasn’t a pleasant working environment, apparently.’
‘That’s what I’ve been hearing as well,’ I said. ‘It seems it was common knowledge then.’
‘I don’t know. But the guy who got the deal wished he’d never landed it. He ended up having to replace the female project manager because she refused to go on site. He had to put a guy on the job instead.’
Chapter 33
Regardless of what Nico might have wanted us to do, Stefanie and I made the trip to Ozone. I was excited. The fact that Patrick had come here a week before his death felt significant. I didn’t know how this would tie in with his murder, but it seemed important not to leave a single stone unturned. Plus talking to this company was better than staying in the office and brooding. Or no, staying away from the office and worrying. Stefanie was intrigued by the lack of action on the plagiarism issue, and this way I might actually be helping her do her job for once rather than the other way around.
We drove into the business park on Amsterdam’s outskirts. I had expected something shabby. ‘These are nice offices for a company that stole someone else’s designs,’ I said.
‘What? Taking another firm’s bestselling products is a very handy short cut to profitability. See it as an extreme form of product research. Big companies just do it on a larger scale. The same way rich people steal on a different scale.’
My mother would call that a very cynical point of view. I could only accept the truth in what Stefanie was saying.
Ilse Regen, the director of Ozone, was about our age. She showed us into a meeting room. ‘I was sad to hear of Patrick’s death,’ she said. ‘It’s not that I liked the man, but it’s still a shock when someone you know gets killed.’
That was honest.
‘I’d heard stories about him,’ she continued. ‘A couple of people who used to work there joined us over the last years. The way he worked, the way he treated people … I don’t know, I don’t think you should behave like that.’
It didn’t seem right for this woman who had plagiarised Patrick’s products, who had helped his firm to go under, to talk like that. ‘But you used their designs,’ I said. ‘We were told that Patrick came here a week before his death because you’d won a deal with products that he had a patent on.’
‘I was quite shocked when he came here,’ Ilse said.
‘Because he’d found out?’ Stefanie asked.
‘There was nothing to find out. We won that deal fair and square. I didn’t appreciate him coming here and shouting at me. I mean, I knew the man wasn’t professional, but that was going too far.’
‘Too far? What did he say?’ Maybe he had threatened her with physical violence, but I understood why he’d been angry.
‘At first he just ranted. He kept asking how we dared do it. I thought I might have to call the police. He was very aggressive.’
‘With good reason,’ Stefanie said.
‘No,’ Ilse said. ‘There was no reason whatsoever.’ She sounded like a school teacher telling a pupil that there was no excuse for smoking behind the bicycle shed.
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘You used his designs to win a deal against his company.’ I turned to Stefanie in case I’d misunderstood something, but she nodded to show I’d got it right.
‘It wasn’t our fault we were better at producing the goods. He kept chasing the lowest cost, swapping manufacturers all the time, and the quality of his items was rock bottom. We worked with one trusted factory. We could make the product at a better quality and still cut a good deal for our clients. I think he was pissed off that he’d sold us the rights.’
‘Hold on a second,’ Stefanie said. ‘He sold you the rights?’
‘Yes. Two years ago, we bought a licence. They had accused us at a trade show of plagiarising their product. I didn’t agree, there were distinct differences, but when the opportunity came up to buy a licence at a good price, we decided that we should do that and make it all above board. Their design was better than ours and it’s worked out very well.’
‘That was a bad business decision,’ Stefanie muttered as she made a note.
‘Yeah, well, I got the impression Linde Lights was in financial difficulties, and I had no qualms about taking advantage of that. They needed the money and I thought we’d be able to do a better job than them at producing and selling those goods.’
‘So why did Patrick come here?’ I asked.
‘My guess is that he was the kind of person to blame his failures on everybody else. That he came here to shout at me instead of trying to improve his own sales process and production workflow didn’t surprise me at all.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ve seen it before.’
‘I talked to Therese Klein,’ I said. ‘She said that Patrick was upset because you plagiarised the lights.’
Ilse sniffed. ‘He should have been upset with her. The client went with us because she never followed up with them. But yes, that was one of the things he accused me of.’
‘Can I see the paperwork?’ Stefanie asked. ‘I’d like to see the licensing contract.’ She wasn’t just going to take Ilse’s word for it.
‘Sure,’ Ilse said. ‘Just wait one second, I’ll get our lawyer to dig it out for you.’
She left the room.
‘Do you believe her?’ I asked Stefanie as soon as the door closed.
‘People don’t normally get their lawyers to find paperwork that doesn’t exist. She seems very confident.’
‘So what happened? Patrick signed away the rights to their bestselling product and then forgot all about it?’ This made no sense to me. Though if he had sold the rights to get the money he needed, that explained why he’d refused to take Ozone to court. He obviously hadn’t told Nico or any of his other staff about the deal.
‘We need to read the contract,’ Stefanie said. ‘The devil is in the detail with those things. There could be a clause that says they can use the product but not in direct competition with Linde Lights. That’s what I would have insisted on if I were Patrick. Or it might exclude a certain market segment or order size. Unless you were going to go bust without this cash, you wouldn’t do a deal like this.’
‘Why not?’ I had to acknowledge that it was a good thing Stefanie was here to help me with these details.
‘Allow your competitor to sell your product in what seems to be a small market space? It’s financial suicide.’
‘It must have been where the money from the second cash injection came from.’
‘Yes, and you’ve seen what happened to the sales figures since.’
‘Because Ozone did a better job producing the lights than Linde themselves.’
‘I think Ilse was right: chasing the lowest cost didn’t work out for them. You heard what Nico said about being pulled in different directions.’
‘So maybe Patrick was angry because he’d done a lousy business deal.’
‘We’ll see,’ Stefanie said. ‘Let’s wait until we can read through the contract.’
Ilse came back five minutes later with the corporate lawyer, who introduced himself as Jan Smits.
‘I had the paperwork to hand,’ he said with a smile. ‘You’re not the first to ask me for it.’
‘Who else?’ I said.
‘Oh, Patrick van der Linde contacted me about two weeks ago. Said something about having lost a deal
and that it was plagiarism. He’d been here that morning and met with Ilse.’
‘I had no idea he contacted you,’ Ilse said.
‘I sent him a copy of the contract and didn’t hear anything subsequently.’
‘Tell us exactly what he said,’ Stefanie said impatiently.
‘He called me, said he was going to sue us; that he had irrevocable proof we’d done a deal with one of their clients using a plagiarised version of their design.’
‘Did he sound as if he was serious?’
‘Deadly.’ He leaned forward. ‘I was very surprised. We’d only signed the contract for the licence two years before. I’d worked on it myself, and there were no exclusions, so I had no idea why he would think he could sue us.’
‘Can you show me a copy?’
‘I’ll email you the electronic scanned version.’
‘That would be great. Can you also send me the details of the account you wired the money to? And the total amount?’
‘Of course,’ Ilse said. ‘We paid the money to Linde Lights directly. We’ve got nothing to hide. It was all above board.’
Stefanie nodded. ‘I think we’re finally getting somewhere,’ she said softly.
‘Leave it with me,’ Stefanie said as we stood outside the police station. ‘I’ll go through the contract and call you with what I find.’ She swiped her entry card and went inside.
I was left on the pavement. Her claim that we were getting somewhere didn’t sit well with me at all. Were we really? Sure, we’d found evidence of Patrick’s erratic and maybe desperate behaviour. We were getting somewhere if we were only interested in why Linde Lights had gone bankrupt, but that wasn’t my priority.
Right now, Arjen was still locked up – though the twenty-four hours we could question him for would run out in six hours – and there was a seemingly unbridgeable gap between me and the rest of my team. I knew that if I waited it out, Arjen would walk out mid afternoon, but there would be damaged relationships that I might never be able to repair. On the one hand, my mother would hold a grudge against me for not having done enough to help him; on the other hand, my team would resent me for having interfered.
I’d never enjoyed just waiting around. If I was in the wrong either way, why not do something? I paused for a few seconds, decided I had nothing to lose, then put my swipe card against the reader.
Chapter 34
I was surprised to find Thomas and Charlie in our office. They must be taking a break from interrogating Arjen.
Thomas looked up. ‘What are you doing here? Trying to convince us to let your ex go?’
‘This is ridiculous,’ I said. ‘We’re not competitors. We’re working together on closing this case. If Arjen murdered Patrick, we should keep him locked him up.’ It didn’t bother me all that much now to say those words. ‘It’s crazy that I’m running around trying to prove you wrong. That’s not how things should work.’
Thomas grinned. ‘Does this mean you realise I’m right and are giving up?’
‘Not funny,’ I said. ‘I can accept that something happened between the two of them; that they argued, that Arjen hit Patrick and Patrick fell and bashed his head. All of this I can picture without any problem.’
‘Good,’ Thomas said. ‘You’re halfway there then.’
‘But I have a massive problem with the thought of Arjen pushing him into the water afterwards.’ This was what I’d decided yesterday, and I hadn’t changed my mind. ‘The place is wrong too,’ I said. ‘It’s much more likely that the body went into the canal further down; not at the back of the Clipper, but along the path.’
‘They were arguing behind the Clipper, that’s what the manager said.’
‘Sure. I know that. They argued there, but that doesn’t mean Patrick was murdered there.’
‘Is that what you’ve been doing? Looking for a more convenient place for the murder?’
‘I talked to Fabrice.’ I sat down. ‘Remember that I said he had prior? I checked that out, but he’s got an alibi for the night of the dinner. He had Therese’s mother with him the whole time.’
‘So that’s why you didn’t get in touch. I wondered. Makes sense if your big hunch didn’t go anywhere.’
‘Don’t be like that.’ I was tired. ‘Let’s stop playing these stupid games. If Arjen did it, I’ll help you put him away. Convicting the right person is more important than my personal feelings. All day long people have been attacking me because they think I’m trying to lock him up out of revenge. Now you’re being stupid because you think I’m trying to keep him out of prison. Maybe you should all just accept that I want justice to be done.’
Thomas looked at me thoughtfully.
‘There are a few things you need to know,’ I said. ‘I talked to Arjen’s wife. She used to work at Linde Lights but couldn’t stand it because of the way her father treated his female staff: the affairs, touching them up. She said she told him to stop and he continued, so she got pissed off with him and went to work somewhere else. Two years ago, he asked her for money and she refused. Then he asked her again recently, said he’d alter the way the company was run and give her a fifty per cent stake. They decided that Arjen should work there for a bit, look into the strategy but also Patrick’s behaviour.’ I shrugged. ‘That evening at the Clipper pretty much proved he hadn’t changed at all. Arjen came home, told Nadia he’d argued with her father over Therese.’
‘They didn’t give him money two years ago?’
‘No, Patrick sold the patents to their top-selling product to another company. It solved the short-term financial issues but only got them further into problems.’
‘Did everybody know that?’
‘I don’t think so. Therese told me she and Nico saw the other company at a trade show and he went nuts. Said they were plagiarising the designs, even though the other company denies that. He tried to get Patrick to sue them, but I’m guessing Patrick subsequently met with them and signed a deal to keep Linde afloat.’
‘We’d been wondering where that other payment came from,’ Charlie said.
‘It was all above board, just not very smart from a business point of view.’ I had learned something from Stefanie at least. I’d even started to sound like her.
‘He probably thought Nico would just come up with something new.’
‘He put huge pressure on him to do just that.’
‘And Nico failed. So that’s why Patrick wanted to fire him,’ Thomas said.
‘He wanted to do what?’ This was news to me.
‘Arjen said it was what he and Patrick talked about before the argument.’
I thought about Nico telling me how Patrick would have realised he’d intervened with Therese for his own good. It now seemed more likely that Nico would have been sacked.
I was still trying to figure out if that meant that he had deliberately lied to us, or if he hadn’t known about Patrick’s intentions, when Stefanie burst into our office. ‘I got the document from the lawyer,’ she said. ‘He just emailed it to me. Look at this last page.’
I wondered how she’d known I was in the office and hadn’t gone home.
She opened the printout and flipped to the end. ‘This wasn’t signed by Patrick van der Linde.’
‘Who signed it then?’
‘Nico Verhoef.’
‘What? Could he do that?’
Stefanie sat down at the desk next to mine. ‘I looked into that. He was a director of the company. He was legally allowed to sign.’
‘Patrick probably didn’t know about it.’
‘Right. That’s why he went to Ozone. That’s why he was so angry. He probably wasn’t aware of the licence agreement at all; even if Verhoef had told him about it, he might not have realised the impact.’
‘That’s all well and good,’ Thomas said, ‘but it doesn’t mean Verhoef killed Patrick. I’m not going to let your ex off the hook just because of this.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘We need to keep Boogaard locked up. C
arry on interviewing him.’ I looked at Stefanie. ‘He’ll be the perfect decoy while we investigate Nico Verhoef.’
Chapter 35
Stefanie and I walked to Nico’s house. I’d convinced her that it would be quicker than driving. I had a lot of questions about him and I wanted to see where he lived.
His flat was in Amsterdam East, upstairs from what seemed to be a museum for bric-a-brac but was probably just a shop. He buzzed us in and we went up two flights of steep steps. The building was on a busy road, rather than along a canal like mine.
He opened the door and stepped back to let us in. There were no signs of anybody else living here; no photos of family. It was sparsely decorated, as if he needed all the space himself.
‘We met with the people from Ozone,’ I said. ‘We’ve seen a copy of the contract you signed giving them the licence for your design.’
‘Your decision single-handedly bankrupted the company,’ Stefanie said.
Nico flinched. ‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘You sold the rights and Ozone produced your stuff at a higher quality for less money.’
‘I wasn’t to know that. We needed the money. Patrick told me we were going bankrupt if we couldn’t come up with half a million euros.’
‘But you didn’t tell him where the money came from.’
‘After the trade show, I’d told him we should sue Ozone, but he didn’t have the cash to do that. He said he couldn’t afford the lawyers. He wouldn’t sue them, he wouldn’t sell the rights. He was sitting there doing nothing, panicking about going bankrupt. That fear seemed to have paralysed him, and I had no other way of raising the capital. I saved the company. Whatever you might think, I saved it. I didn’t bankrupt it.’
I realised that Nico hadn’t lied to us yesterday; he’d just omitted what had happened after he’d been frustrated by Patrick’s lack of action. I remembered thinking that he was keen for us not to talk to Ozone. Now I understood why: not because he wanted a job there, but because the part he’d played in destroying his own company would come out.
Death at the Orange Locks Page 24