Bacchus and Sanderson (Deceased) (36 page)

              In broad terms, the ‘why’ was straightforward. The Cortez family had murdered him. Why? What damage could an industrial chemist inflict on a leviathan like CHC Industries? What had he discovered? Something connected to a discovery that he had made while at CHC?

William’s computer pinged to announce he had received an email. Clicking the program open, he read the email. As he read he grabbed for his mobile, missed and knocked it under the desk. Crouching down he snatched the mobile and speed dialled Ben.

Without an opening greeting or a cheery ‘how are you?’ he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. The computer has just finished cracking the code and a fair copy is on its way to you now.” William heard the click of the keyboard key being struck and then heard the ping that indicated a new email.

“I’ve got it. I’m opening it up and bingo it’s all their. I need to read this, how many pages is it?” Ben said,

“Ten pages of single spaced A4. It documents everything from carbon based fuels to bioethanol and Charles’s and his father’s history in the cocaine business. From the early days supplying legal coke to a soft drinks manufacturer to use by the smart set during the twenties and thirties right up to when he died. Enjoy. Call me when you’re finished as we have other things to discuss.”

William put the iPhone down and sat in his leather recliner chair. Placing the MacBook on his lap, he began to read.

              The first page was a covering letter to his fiancée Penny Morton and his brother Ernest, apologising for the elaborate methods he had had to use. He explained that he had sent her an exact copy of his diary and had left another one with his family solicitor to be given to his brother on his death. He would be adding to both documents from time to time and would send dated amendments to each set of documents. He apologised for the coding of the material, but she would appreciate the reason why when she had decoded it and read it. She, of course, knew the key. He would be grateful if she passed the decryption key to Ernest in the event of his death. He told her he loved her and would see her in two days time in Cambridge when he would be free from the shackles of CHC Industries.

              William paused looking up from the MacBook and considered the letter and a final request to Penny to share the decryption key with Ernest. Penny Morton’s rage and grief; which he had seen was directed solely at Ernest, had allowed the Cortez family to continue for almost forty years unchecked by the authorities. Her overwhelming grief at the loss of Jonas had caused her to stick her head in the sand and continue her life cloaked in denial. Jonas, he thought, must have been quite a man. To have evoked such unswerving love and devotion, not just in life, but for more than forty years beyond their last words was seldom seen. Turning back to the computer he clicked and began reading the diary that Jonas had taken such pains to protect.

***

              Ernest and Juanita sat immobile behind William while he read through the notes that Ben had emailed to him. Ernest smiled to himself as he read the analysis of CHC Industries, the structure and the evaluation of the future of petroleum and of plant based alternatives. He had identified all of this and used it as the basis of his own research. Good to know he had been on the right track, well the same track as his brother. Continuing to read his smile turned to a frustrated frown as he realised how much he had missed. The transportation method he thought they were using, the identification of the most suitable means of transportation, the chemistry to achieve this and the marketing ability of the Cortez’s.

Juanita tapped his arm as William read the final last and pointed at the document on the screen.

“Is that enough to get a person killed? Ben could go onto the Internet and get access to the majority of that in half an hour.”

Ernest smiled at the naivety of his guide.

“Some of it perhaps. What about the discovery of the solubility of Cocaine hydrochloride in water? The realisation that with a design modification during construction the liquid could be transported in their tankers. Tankers that had legitimate reasons to go to countries all over the world…”

Juanita interrupted,

“You’re missing my point. There’s nothing there. Ben guessed the transportation method and the modification. I know Jonas didn’t have the internet or Wikipedia to help him, but he wouldn’t have had enough here to blow the whistle on anyone and he would have known that. Charles Cortez and his granddaughter Felicity are terrified that William will work out whatever it is that Jonas knew. They had you killed to stop you and you were a long way from even this amount of information.”

Ernest thought for a moment, muttering under his breath to himself. He looked at her and nodded,

“Jonas died because they thought he knew something, but weren’t sure if he realised what he had discovered. I died because I was on the right track, but hadn’t connected all of the dots. The discovery of the solubility of cocaine in water was just chemistry, irrelevant. The conversion of tankers at the construction stage proved nothing, easy to pass off as a flawed innovation an experiment to improve the safety of transportation of a volatile liquid. Venting? Or was it a deliberate smokescreen? What is so vital to their operation that it warrants multiple deaths?”

Juanita stared at the screen that William was transfixed by.

“In his letter to you and Penny, Jonas said he would send dated updates to you both as new information became available”

Ernest nodded,

“Yes, and he did. This latest version that I have here is dated 30
th
November 1972.”

“And the previous two updates?”

Ernest thought before answering,

“About two weeks and four weeks before that. It’s along time ago though, so I can’t be sure. Why?”

“And when did Jonas die?”

Ernest looked puzzled,

“You know that better than anyone”

“Humour me.”

“19
th
February 1973”

Juanita looked at Ernest and said,

“Don’t you think it’s odd that you had been receiving regular updates until the end of November and then nothing.  Also, if he hadn’t been active since the previous November why would the Cortez’s have waited to kill him? They didn’t need a special occasion to kill a mild mannered scientist.”

Ernest sat looking confused for a few moments and then his expression cleared as though a curtain had been drawn and everything was clear.

“Penny?”

Juanita shrugged,

“Jonas wouldn’t have given it to anyone else”

“William needs to know, he’s working on this being the complete story.”

“You didn’t get all of the copies did you?” The tone was withering, loaded with contempt and malice. Charles shrugged.

Hannah swirled around Ben’s bedroom where they had been observing the decryption of the diary and the guessing Ben and Jemima had been begun relating to cocaine distribution.

“Jemima.”

Charles waited for her to continue, but got no further information from her.

“Jemima? What about her?”

Hannah stopped looked at him and groaned shaking her ethereal head and then shouted at him,

“Think for Hades sake, think you fucking half wit. Am I going to have to kill Felicity to get some company up here with more than a shared brain cell? THINK!!”

              Turning away from the incandescent Hannah, he floated across the room to the bed that she had been sharing with Ben and stared down at it. It was obvious that she was untrustworthy; even weak. Her actions had proven that her overriding concern was self-fulfilment. Her behaviour was perverse and unnatural. That, he thought, he could have accepted if she hadn’t flaunted her girlfriends. Kissing and fondling them in public. A live porn film. He had tried to educate her, but she had lain there like a sack of shit, not moving or making a sound. Now she had seen the light, but with a cripple for pities sake. That she had abandoned her family and was consorting with the enemy was humiliating, but not dangerous, as she knew nothing. As soon as he had realised that she would never be good for anything other than shopping and lunching he had cut off her access to any information on the business and the family. She had an obscene income each month from her trust fund and was given an honorary six-figure salary to stay away from the office. She wasn’t dangerous, just disgusting.

“She’s not dangerous to us. She kno
ws
nothing and can’t tell the cripple and the rest of them anything.”

Hannah looked at him and nodded, encouraging him as one would with a child.

“And? So?”

Charles realised he was losing his edge. Shit, think. Charles stopped floating and smiled a smug victorious smile.

“If she’s not a problem to us, why don’t we use her as a distraction. It’s about time she earned her keep, even if she doesn’t know she’s doing it.”

***

              William sat in his leather recliner and stared into the distance. The decrypted copy of Jonas’s diary had been a revelation. The details on the future of fossil fuels had been decades ahead of its time and the hunch that a biofuel would be the way forward had helped CHC corner the market in palm oil plantations and rapeseed farms. Annabel’s decision to focus on his CHC years was logical, but flawed. If they had known he had studied the pharmacology of addiction in psycho-stimulants, specifically cocaine, in the final year of his bachelo
r’
s degree at Cambridge they would have seen the connection immediately. It explained why Jonas had known of their involvement in cocaine. As William continued to consider the breakthroughs the Cortez’s had made in disguising cocaine to enable them to move it to an ever increasing and appreciative audience, Annabel arrived. The first he realised she had come into the room was when she slid her hands down his chest from behind and nibbled his ear lobe.

“Hi,” Annabel said, “is this the diary?” She pointed at the screen of his MacBook Pro.

“Yes it is.”

The voice came from behind her and to her right. Without turning or showing any outward signs of surprise she said,

“Ernest, good evening. Is Juanita with you?”

Ernest said to Juanita,

“Very cool isn’t she? Not shocked by us appearing in the midst of a conversation.”

Juanita smiled and said,

“Good evening, Annabel; William. You keep your computer screen very shiny and reflective William, it must be a great help reading all of these documents with such a clear, bright screen.”

Ernest looked a little irritated and ignored Annabel and Juanita and spoke to William.

“We are here with a purpose. The document you have is incomplete and missing key information that could have an impact on your next move. If you look up until November nineteen seventy two Jonas was updating his diary and new batches of pages were added to the copy he wanted me to have. In November, the updates stopped. So why did everything come to an abrupt halt? Did he stop? Or did he stop sending updates to my copy, but continued to send them elsewhere? Did Penny have anything to do with this? Is that possible?”

“Or,” William interrupted, “did he send the updates to your copy, but they were removed either before or after Jonas’s death.”

“No,” Annabel said, shaking her head. “The diary is in code. Unless they had cracked the code, a two part code, then they would have had to remove everything to be sure Ernest received nothing of any value.”

Juanita and Ernest said in unison,

“Penny Morton.”

Ernest continued speaking,

“Jonas trusted her more than anyone else on earth. If he left the missing sections of the diary to anyone, it would be to her. That though does leave us with a problem. She hated me as you know and anyway I’m dead. William has tried to reason with her, again to no avail because of his connection to me. Annabel seemed to be having more success, but with William with her she was also blocked.”

“I can go back by myself,” Annabel said,

“She might open up to me without anyone connected to Ernest with me. We need her copy of Jonas’s diary.” She stopped to think and then with a half smile forming on her face said,

“Do you think she would respond so someone younger as well as me? Ben perhaps? He is related to Ernest, but his youth, good looks and disability would make him far less threatening than William. We could ask…”

“NO” The shouted response from Ernest made his feelings clear and unequivocal.

              Annabel continued, unsure if Ernest’s anger was at her for suggesting Ben as a possible conduit to Penny or because he wanted to protect Ben in general.

“We could ask Ben if he wanted to meet Penny and reason with her. We can’t stop what the Cortez’s are doing and will do in the future, unless we know how they manage it.”

“No” repeated Ernest, “Not Ben”

“Why not Ben?”

              The voice came from behind them, by the door. William and Annabel wheeled around at the sound of Ben’s words. Shock washed across their faces as they stared at Ben lounging against the doorframe, crutch on his left side and laptop backpack hanging from his right hand. Annabel looked across to Ernest and Juanita and saw the surprise on Juanita’s face and the fear on Ernest’s.