Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) (29 page)

It was four weeks before I got an update from Toni Swan as to the status of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s investigations into the activities of Detective Inspector Hargreaves et al.

The understanding had been that she would keep me informed if something significant occurred that affected me, or challenged statements that I had provided. I was happy to let sleeping dogs lie as I had plenty on my plate to deal with the commissioning process now a twenty four hour day, seven day week operation. We had just commenced the thirty day post-commissioning trial operation of the complete plant. The operators had to achieve a number of production targets during the next thirty days or the mine owners would delay acceptance until the target were met.

The Project Manager, Tom Barton, had been visiting the project site several times a week for the past month mostly engaged either sitting in on project meetings or writing emails. When he was on site he used a spare desk in my office on which he placed a small sign stating, ‘Tom Barton, Project Manager’.

When he had first displayed the sign on the desk it did irk me, but only momentarily. Upon reflection I soon realised that if it was petty for him to display a sign like that then it would be just as petty for me to be concerned about it. But Tom Barton’s desk-top sign must have caught the eye of at least one visitor to the construction office, as one day a sign had been placed on my desk proclaiming, ‘Adam Cartwright, Construction Manager’ in slightly larger letter size than Tom Barton’s sign. I had laughed when I first saw the Construction Manager sign but I did not remove it as that would have sent an even more distorted message to Barton. I didn’t apologise for it either. I didn’t know if Barton was in any way offended by the sudden appearance of my desk top sign as he never made any comment about it. But from that point on I ensured that Tom Barton was included in all significant site meetings and tried to keep him fully informed. We were never going to be buddies but we had eventually achieved a reasonable working relationship.

When I received the Skype call from Toni Swan, Tom Barton was sitting at his desk busy on his computer. Toni Swan was calling from a conference room. Alongside her were Peter Williams and Margaret Smith so I assumed that it was important. Holding up a hand towards the camera indicating both to wait and not speak, I looked towards Tom Barton and said, “Tom, I have to take this highly confidential conference call. I have three people waiting on the line. I need privacy. Could you find something to do elsewhere for the next thirty minutes or so?”

He stared at me for a moment before closing his laptop, standing and saying rather ungraciously. “You know that this is a bit rich kicking me out just for you to take a private call.”

I gave him a what-can-I-say shrug but did not respond.

As soon as the door was closed, I looked at the camera and exchanged brief greetings with the three investigators. As usual Toni Swan quickly got down to business. “Adam, we wanted to bring you up to speed and get your agreement to appear as a witness at the Commission’s Coercive Hearing in Brisbane on Monday May 2
nd
. It is an investigative hearing and is not open to the public. Its proceedings cannot be reported in the Media.”

I thought back to the project schedule. If all went well with the current production trials then the processing plant and all contracted facilities will be handed over to the mine owners by mid April. A formal Opening of the Red Rock Gold Mine was currently scheduled for Friday April 22
nd
. I would then spend the following week in Brisbane at the head office of Gibson Construction tying up any project loose ends until my contract as Construction Manager expired on Saturday April 30
th
.

I had already told Ewan Ryan that I did not intend to seek further construction management roles with Gibsons so I would be a free agent on Monday May 2
nd
. All things being equal the date would suit me fine so I said, “Yes. Monday May 2
nd
should be fine. Just let me know where, when and what to bring.”

She smiled. “Great. Actually we spoke to Ewan Ryan regarding that other matter recently and took the opportunity to ask him about your likely work load. He suggested that anytime from Monday May 2
nd
onwards should probably suit you.”

I grinned. I should have guessed that the date of the Hearing had not been randomly selected. Wishing to get her back to her stated intention to bring me up to speed I asked, “So, are you able to bring me up to speed with the follow-up to the packages planted on my yacht?”

Toni Swan nodded. “Yes. That is the other reason for this call. It goes without saying that all of this conversation is highly confidential. First, the Commission has taken over the investigation of the Mount Godwin Gold Mine robbery and killings. I’ll let Peter walk you through the high points.”

Peter grinned and said, “Just over five hundred gold doré bars were stolen. Each is around a kilogram in weight and is estimated to assay about ninety percent gold and ten percent silver. Approximate value of each bar is around $25,000. The two bars found on your boat are definitely from those stolen from Mount Godwin. The three men were killed by nitrogen gas which was released into the lunchroom through a hole in the wall drilled from an adjacent storeroom.”

When he paused I asked, “Where did the nitrogen gas come from?”

Peter replied, “We have not proved it yet but the finger points at bottles of nitrogen gas stocked on site to inflate the tyres of the large mining trucks. There is little effort made to record and safeguard the bottles of nitrogen after they are issued by the store. They are just left standing in a corner of the repair workshops.”

The idea of three men sitting down having their lunch, perhaps playing cards, and not realising that they were being gassed did not seem credible. “Is nitrogen gas so deadly that people will succumb without realising that they are in danger?”

Margaret Smith replied before Peter had a chance to marshal his thoughts and frame his response. “The scientists tell us that nitrogen is not a poison in the traditional sense. But it presents a deadly hazard when it displaces oxygen, making the atmosphere hazardous to humans. Breathing an oxygen deficient atmosphere can have serious and immediate effects, including unconsciousness after only one or two breaths. The exposed person has no warning and cannot sense that the oxygen level is too low. In approximate terms, nitrogen is around eighty percent of air and oxygen around twenty percent. The human body is adversely affected by lower concentrations of oxygen. If the oxygen concentration falls by just four percent, to below sixteen percent, the victim will fall unconscious without warning and will need to be resuscitated if they are to survive.”

I was thinking through the various stages of the robbery. It had to be an inside job, so I asked, “Are Hawsall and Foster still suspects?”

Toni Swan responded, “Hawsall was off duty on the day of the robbery. The gatekeeper logged him out from the mine site two days earlier and he was home in his flat in Townsville. We have credit card receipts for purchases that he made in Townsville on the day of the robbery. Foster was on duty at the mine but was not seen in the vicinity of the gold room on the day of the robbery.”

There was something not quite right. Those two had to be involved somehow. “What does Foster do? What’s his job?”

“He’s a boundary rider. He regularly checks the boundary fences and gates as well as relocating the tailings pipelines as and when necessary. He gets around the site on a quad bike. Look we are confident that those two are involved but we have yet to prove it. They are not in the clear.”

“How was the gold removed from the mine site?”

Peter Williams responded quickly. “By plane. A vehicle, a 4WD Land Cruiser, usually driven by the now-dead Gold Room Supervisor was found parked by the airstrip with the keys in the ignition. We assume that it was used to transport the stolen gold to the airstrip. So far we have not identified any unscheduled flights to or from the airstrip. There were eleven flights recorded that day due to the exodus of the construction workers. That’s nine more than on a normal work day. It seems that a plane carrying the gold managed to be inconspicuous in the crowd.”

“How was the robbery discovered?”

“A phone call was made to the Townsville Police Station from the Gold Room. The only message received was a code word requesting help as a robbery was in progress. It was immediately passed on to the CIB in accordance with the standard operating procedures and D S Strong was despatched by plane to the mine site. When he arrived at the Gold Room, operating staff were outside the building waiting for his arrival. The door to the Gold Room was then broken open as the lock had been jammed. The three men were found dead and the safe had been emptied. D S Strong immediately had the crime scene secured and searched.”

“Who was with D S Strong when the Gold Room was searched?”

Peter Williams checked his notes before replying. “D C Mortlock.”

Deciding to change the subject I asked, “What did D I Hargreaves and D S Strong have to say about the packages planted on my yacht?”

Toni Swan answered hesitantly as though she was reconsidering what she should reveal to me. “Well, at first they tried to maintain the fiction about an anonymous informant. But that fell over when we played the video of them planting the packages. Then, after two days of ‘no comment’ they came up with the most bizarre explanation of all. They now claim that they were sent the packages by an anonymous informant who said that he had stolen them from the under-floor locker on board your yacht. In a fit of remorse he surrendered them to D I Hargreaves who then decided to return them from where they had been taken. Hargreaves then claimed it would have served the cause of justice for them to be discovered on your yacht.”

I was flabbergasted. Hargreaves had already demonstrated that he was not making logical decisions, but this story was truly a sign that he was on the verge of mental instability.

She watched me silently process what she had just told me before adding. “Yes, he has crossed the line. His sense of reason is so distorted that he was angry that we did not accept that his explanation was credible. I fear that his mental condition is collapsing to the point that he may not be mentally competent when we bring him to trial.”

***

The Opening Ceremony for the mine would take place today, at eleven a.m., six weeks after my conference call with Toni Swan and her staff at the Crime and Corruption Commission. The closing stages of the project had gone well. Very well in fact. All the production targets had been comfortably achieved which reflected well on the equipment design and manufacture.

Christine had flown up from Sydney on the previous evening. I had met her at the airport and had driven her to the Mantra Esplanade where we drank coffee and talked until early morning. I stayed the night on ‘Irish Mist’ for the first time in the past two months. The only other occasion that I been back since the fiasco with the planted packages was to make a quick day trip to make sure that everything was in place and secure.

This morning Christine and I caught one of the many charter flights from Cairns to the mine site carrying the influx of visitors to attend the Opening Ceremony. While we had been waiting at the Cairns airport terminal, Christine looked around at the predominantly male crowd waiting for their flight to Red Rock and asked, “Who are all these people?”

I glanced around and replied, “Well, the important looking persons being trailed by acolytes, similar to pilot fish trailing sharks, are politicians who are here for a photo opportunity. The guys moving around, working the crowd and swapping business cards, are equipment suppliers here to advertise their involvement in a successful project. The bored looking individuals are probably members of the Media resenting that they have been sent out to the back of nowhere for the day as a punishment that they didn’t deserve.”

Christine laughed, and then added in a quieter voice. “And who is the fellow who has just spotted you and is now heading towards us?”

I looked up in time to see Ewan Ryan about ten metres away, threading his way through the crowd in our direction.

Before I had time to respond to Christine he had arrived and thrust out his hand. “Good morning Adam.”

I grinned and shook his hand. “Good morning, Ewan.” Then turning to Christine I said, “Christine, This is my boss, Ewan Ryan.” Then looking at Ewan Ryan I gestured towards Christine. “Ewan. this is Doctor Christine Moore. A friend of mine from Sydney.”

Christine smiled and said, “Please call me Christine.”

As they shook hands Ewan responded, “Please call me Ewan.” Then added ruefully. “Sadly, I’m soon to be Adam’s ex-boss.” He paused, glancing back and forth between Christine and me before adding. “So Adam, I’m guessing that Christine is one of the attractions that Sydney has that Brisbane hasn’t?”

I glanced at Christine and grinned. “I think that you might say ‘the’ attraction, rather than one of the attractions.”

Looking at Christine, Ewan Ryan smiled playfully and said in a light hearted manner, so as not to be taken too seriously. “So, Christine, how would you like to come and work in Brisbane?”

She smiled graciously and shook her head. “Sorry.”

He shrugged and smiled. Then turning to me he said, “I had hoped to see you before we got to the mine. An old friend, John Segal, we go back to University days, might approach you sometime today. John is CEO of Consolidated Mines of Australia, CMA, and will be at the Opening Ceremony. He is looking for someone to head up their project development and corporate acquisition team at their head office in Sydney. It’s a senior position. One step down from the Board. I told him of your background and your outstanding performance at Red Rock. Much as I regret seeing you go elsewhere I recommended you highly.”

I felt Christine’s hand briefly tighten on my arm. Glancing at her I saw that she was smiling. I smiled at her in return, before looking back at Ewan Ryan and saying. “Thank you. If he does talk to me, I’ll be interested to hear what he has to say.”

Ewan clapped me on the shoulder in response and nodded farewell to Christine saying. “I think my plane is now boarding. See you both later.”

Watching him walk briskly away I said, “Well that was unexpected. Based in Sydney too. Maybe I won’t be unemployed for long after all.”

Christine laughed. “As if that was likely.”

***

Light refreshments had been set up in the workers’ dining room at the mine site when we arrived. It was functioning as a collection area for visitors to wait in the shade. Later we would walk about a hundred metres to the rows of plastic chairs lined up in front of a podium that had been set up by the Processing Plant. It was ten o’clock when Christine and I arrived at the dining room. We had forty five or so minutes before we needed to start walking across to witness the Opening Ceremony.

The previous weeks had been a succession of saying farewells to fellow workers. Most of those that were still on site approached me and Christine to be introduced and to say farewell. It was that anti-climatic moment in the life of a project where there are no more clearly identifiable goals to be achieved. It was like struggling and risking everything to get to the top of a mountain, and then when you achieve the peak, you suddenly ask yourself why. We all felt it to one degree or another. I was glad that Christine was there with me, otherwise I might have felt rudderless.

Feeling a little deflated or not, everyone was friendly and upbeat. Leonie Wran, Tony Payne, Lex Robertson and Heino Pops all sought us out and had kind words to say. As did Derek Crowther and Phil O’Brien. As we walked across to the seating area for the ceremony, Christine squeezed my arm and said, “It was like I was royalty. Everyone wanted to meet me….”

I interrupted and said, “That was because you are the most beautiful and elegant woman here today. Who wouldn’t want to meet you.”

Christine tugged on my arm and said, “Thank you for your compliment, kind sir, but if you will let me finish… And they all wanted to tell me how much you were respected and admired by everyone here.”

I was suddenly at a loss for words. And said nothing.

The Opening Ceremony consisted of rather long-winded speeches by both Members of Parliament, State and Federal, followed by the Chairman of Red Rock Gold Mine Limited who cut a ribbon and remotely switched on the plant. Almost immediately after the ceremony was concluded we were approached by a tanned, fit looking man in his fifties who enquired whether I was Adam Cartwright. When I confessed to my identity he smiled and held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you. I’m John Segal.” Then turning towards Christine he smiled and added. “And you must be Doctor Christine Moore from Sydney.” Seeing us exchange glances he chuckled and explained, “Ewan Ryan pointed you out to me and said who you were.”

Looking back at me, John Segal continued. “I understand that Ewan has explained that I am looking for someone to oversee CMA’s project development and corporate acquisition activities. I understand that you plan to be in Sydney within the next few weeks. If you are interested in hearing more why don’t you call me when you arrive in town and we can have a discussion over lunch.”

I nodded. “Yes. I’d like that.”

John Segal smiled and said, “Good. I’ll give you my business card. Give me a call a couple of days in advance.” Then extracting a business card from his wallet he handed it to me and added. “For your information, Ewan Ryan told me how much you have been paid while Construction Manager. I have to admit that I was surprised that it was so high but he said that you are worth every cent of it. But, if our discussions work out then I would not expect to offer you less than your current salary. It is more likely to be higher. But I have to tell you that there will be a bureaucratic hurdle to clear. All CMA personnel have to score in the top ten percentile of a range of IQ and aptitude tests before they can be offered a position.”

As he was about to say goodbye he stopped and said, “By the way, Ewan showed me Cartwright’s Cutting and told me the story behind it. I am very impressed.”

I was puzzled. “Cartwright’s Cutting?”

John Segal blinked in surprise. “You don’t know? There’s a sign by the cutting through the saddle to the north. It says, ‘Cartwright’s Cutting’.”

For a moment I did not know how to respond. My hesitation gave Christine the chance to take the initiative. She grabbed my arm and said, “Come on, Adam. Let’s go and have a look.”

As soon as John Segal left, Christine and I walked across towards the cutting. I could see a sign fixed to a post near the cutting but was not yet close enough to read it when Jack Gilmore and Ted Brennan jogged up to join us. They both had big grins. Jack called out when he was still a few metres away. “So, you’ve heard about the sign. What a pity, I was looking forward to telling you myself.” Still grinning he held out a hand to Christine. “Hi, I’m Jack Gilmore and that is Ted Brennan. We know who you are. It’s our great pleasure to meet you at last, Christine.”

Ted stepped forward and also shook Christine’s hand. Then they both led her to the sign. It was a large professional-looking notice in large black letters on a white background proclaiming ‘Cartwright’s Cutting’. The sign was painted on steel and bolted to a steel post concreted into the rock. Whoever put it there intended it to stay there.

My first response was to stand looking at the sign, grinning and shaking my head. Then I raised my hands in the air and gave a muted cry. “Yes. I’m famous at last.”

We all laughed.

After ten minutes or so of friendly banter Christine and I left, hand in hand, to walk up Lookout Hill. We were due to fly back to Cairns in about an hour’s time. Christine had to fly back to Sydney the next day as she had to be back on duty on Sunday as she had swapped a shift in order to have Friday off and make the trip to Red Rock.

Standing on the top of Lookout Hill, Christine and I looked down at the rest of the world going about its business below us. The Red Rock Gold Mine had been officially opened. The speeches were over and the photo opportunities had either been taken or were lost. It was now time for gossip and networking. The gathering had lost its sense of purpose. Or perhaps it would be better to say that its purpose had been fulfilled and the residual gathering, now lacking something to justify its existence, had degenerated into a meaningless cocktail party type collection of people.

After a few minutes silently scanning the complete panorama Christine’s eyes came back to settle on the crowd gathered around the refreshment tables. Tucking her arm back under mine, she asked in a contemplative voice. “Adam, what do you think of functions like today’s Opening Ceremony?”

I was silent for a moment before answering. I did not spend any time wondering about why she had asked the question, I opted instead to express the thoughts that had passed through my mind during the various self-serving speeches and the largely meaningless ritual of cutting the ribbon and turning the switch to start the plant operating. “I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. We were all gathered together, suitably dressed for an important occasion, pretending that the turning of the switch to start the plant had any meaning. I know that it was a symbolic gesture but it was as though we were all pretending that the plant had not been running for more than five weeks already. It’s not like the launching ceremony for a boat. Now, that would have real significance.” I hesitated momentarily before deciding to continue relating the thoughts that had occurred to me. It was something that I had wanted to say before but didn’t know how to broach the subject. “Today’s function reminded me of an all too frequent ceremony in today’s world. An elaborate wedding ceremony for two people who have been living together for some time. The couple now want everyone to pretend that the wedding ceremony was something more than just an opportunity for the bride to wear an expensive dress and for the couple to be the centre of attention for the day. The guests are expected to pretend that the ceremony marks one of the most significant moments in the couple’s lives. The point when they make the transition from a life as an individual to a life as part of a couple. As far as I can understand they had squandered their once in a lifetime chance to have such a special day. As an occasion to mark a unique milestone in their lives, it is a pretence. A sham. Just like today’s Opening Ceremony.”

I turned and looked at Christine. She stood still, silently staring at me for an extended moment before squeezing my arm gently and saying in a quiet voice. “Adam, for such a well-informed, modern man you have some old fashioned principles.” Then with tears glistening in her eyes she said, “I could not have expressed it better. I agree with absolutely everything that you have just said.”

***