Trail of Greed: Fighting Fraud and Corruption... A Dangerous Game (20 page)

I soon dozed off. By the time we got back to the farm it was early evening. The grandchildren had been recovered by their mother and Heather, Oliver and I had the evening to ourselves.

We ate companionably around the large pine table in the kitchen. I was at last able to take a mental step back from all that had happened over the last few days. Heather’s beef casserole, the wine and cheese did wonders for my wellbeing. Thoughts of Maggie didn’t do any harm either.

During the meal I went over the whole story again to let Oliver in on the situation.

“Sounds like Pierre has brought you a bunch of trouble,” was his comment. “I can understand what you’ve done to Purdy and I hope all these people he screwed appreciate it but you’ve now got this man Dewar trying to exterminate you. That is pretty serious isn’t it?”

“Well, he hasn’t succeeded. He won’t know that yet but, even if he did, he can’t possibly know where I am now. I’ll just lie low for a few days, if you guys don’t mind. Is it OK if I call Pierre and Mike and get them to come down tomorrow so that we can decide what we’re going to do about him?”

Heather replied, “Of course it’s alright, but aren’t you going to go to the police?”

“We’ll see. Not yet. Anyway I’ve got absolutely no proof against Dewar and, as for Purdy, as far as I am concerned that problem is resolved.”

I made my two phone calls. I apologized that I had not been able to be in touch for the last two days but I would explain everything if they would come over to Heather’s tomorrow for lunch.

Then I had another thought. It would perhaps be a good idea if Mac and Doug came as well. They’d been watching Dewar and might have some insight that would be useful. I asked Heather and suggested that we could do a barbecue and thrash out the whole thing together.

“Fine,” said Heather.

“We’ll be eight then,” I said. “How come eight?” she asked. “I make it seven – us two, you and Pierre and Mike and his two cowboys.”

“Just cater for eight,” I said and went off to phone Mike to get him to get Doug and Mac to come over as well.

The next morning was fortunately bright and sunny. The farm was a haven of peace. Well set back from the road and on a rise, we had a beautiful view in all directions. Hills to the east, mountains in the far distance to the north and the brooding edifice of Stirling Castle, erstwhile guardian of all routes north, perched on its rock – its role in Scottish history assured forever.

Oliver and I dug out the barbecue and trundled it over to the flat patch of ground at the side of the pond. The ducks didn’t seem to mind. I presume they knew that they weren’t going to be the object of our cooking.

Oliver soon had everything organised and the charcoal would be hot enough in half an hour. We had time to take a break and share a glass while Heather was treating the steaks with some secret recipe she had that would result in something wonderfully succulent and delicious. I had several times tried to persuade her to tell me what she did to them but, so far, she had refused to share her secret.

We had just sat down with our glasses when Heather came out of the kitchen to check that Oliver and I were doing something useful. We thought we were but she didn’t and we were immediately ordered to get the table set, find enough chairs, check the heat, set up a table over there and go in and cut the bread. We looked forlornly at our glasses of wine, which remained untouched, and got up to follow instructions.

Pierre arrived a few minutes later and after greeting Heather with Gallic flourish came out to join us. I was still walking rather gingerly on my injured feet. He watched me for a moment and asked what had happened.

“Tell you later,” I said, “When the others arrive.” In the middle of this hive of activity we heard two more cars drive up to the front of the house and Mike, Sophie, Mac and Doug came round the side to join us.

I sat down again and at last managed to have a drink. I looked across at Mike and grinned. “I’ll leave you to do the introductions.”

Sophie, Mac and Doug were introduced to Oliver who welcomed them all.

“Where’s Heather?” asked Mike. “In the kitchen.” He put his arm round Sophie. “Coming?” he asked. “Are you guys scared of your sister, or something?” she asked with a smile.

We both nodded furiously. “Definitely.” Oliver looked on with amusement.

“Come on, Mike,” said Sophie and dragged him off to the kitchen door. That left five of us round the table, glasses in hand, to watch over the barbecue.

Five pairs of raised eyebrows greeted Mike when he came back out, on his own, a few minutes later. He came over and grabbed a spare seat. “She’s put her to work. Great. Now where’s my drink?”

The steaks were wonderful. The salad that Sophie had prepared was pure south of France. Just eating it one was transported to the sunshine of Provence. The wine was a delight. Light conversation flowed round the table. Mac and Doug were made to feel at home and somehow, without imposing his presence at all, Oliver was the perfect host. We concentrated on enjoying the food, the company, the sunshine and the setting, while the ducks paddled around making the odd comment in that strange language of theirs.

But at some time we had to get down to some serious discussion. After all, for all we knew, Dewar might still be intent on trying to eliminate me.

The last time I had seen Pierre or spoken to Mike had been Monday and it was now Friday and they still didn’t know of my hell in the mountains.

Coffee was organised and we got down to business. I started off by telling everybody of the arrangements Pierre and I had undertaken to distribute Purdy’s largesse to the investors who had been shortchanged. I then mentioned my, perhaps significant, discovery of Mr David Dewar on the investor’s list.

Doug immediately offered to follow that one up to see if he really was Bill Dewar’s father.

I then explained how I had been attacked in the garden and dumped somewhere up in the mountains.

“I’ve absolutely no recollection of how I got there. All I can remember is being in the garden, weeding the rose beds. I was attacked from behind and the next thing I knew was that I was lying in the heather in the middle of nowhere.”

Oliver and Heather had already heard the story but all the others were totally shocked. Questions came flying at me from all directions.

But . . .? How . . .? When . . .? Who . . .? I signalled to all to quieten down. “I’m back and safe and sound. No real harm’s been done except my feet and hands still need a few days to recover.”

I recounted how I’d got down to the road, been picked up and taken to Maggie’s hotel. No other details were necessary. Heather had come up yesterday and brought me back here “And, as you can see, I’m hale and hearty.”

“What we now have to do is decide what we should do about Bill bloody Dewar.”

Everybody started to speak at once. Heather and Sophie were for calling in the police. Mike was for charging over and giving the bugger a going over. Mac and Doug didn’t venture an opinion. They were willing to do whatever we wanted.

Pierre was thoughtful and didn’t yet express himself. “It isn’t easy,” I said. “Look at what we know and what we can use. This whole thing started off with our suspicion of a fraud at AIM and my stirring things up at the conference. Purdy organised a burglary at my house presumably because he was suspicious of my interest in his company and the fact that he had seen me chatting to Alice. He was scared.

“Then we managed, thanks to Sophie, to obtain proof of his scheme and we initiated the next step – getting these dozen or so people to send emails to AIM.

“Meanwhile Mac and Doug had found out about Purdy’s mistress and that he was buddies with Dewar. Dewar has an expensive house in Spain that we can’t imagine where he got the funds from to buy. Also it’s registered in his wife’s name. The only reason for that must be that he doesn’t want it known that it’s his.”

I paused. Everybody agreed. “Everything points to Dewar blackmailing Purdy. Either he knows he’s got a mistress or he knows of the fraud through his father, if that’s who David Dewar is.”

I was starting to feel that I was back up in the mountains blundering about in the mist.

“Then, my car was bombed. We now know it was Purdy because he told us – but we suspected it anyway. It couldn’t have been anyone else. So we grabbed Purdy and put him through his trial. I tend to believe what Purdy told us because he showed, when he was with us, that he’s a pretty weak character.”

Doug broke in. “I’ve been watching him and I agree with you. You can tell he’s slimy and he’s a crook – we know that – but I don’t think he’s got the guts to go for murder.”

“So we believe his story about being ordered to get rid of me?”

Several heads nodded. Pierre was still looking thoughtful.

“When Mike released Purdy he didn’t go straight home as you might expect but ran straight to Dewar. Is that right, Mac?”

“Yes.” “What kind of a conversation did it look like?” “Well I couldn’t hear what they were saying. It’s a bit difficult to describe. What was sure was that Dewar arrived in a rush. So whatever was the matter he thought it was urgent. Purdy did most of the talking. It looked like he was explaining what had happened to him. Dewar didn’t say much. To begin with he looked as if didn’t believe what he was hearing. Then Purdy got more excited and seemed to be trying to convince him it was all true.”

“How did Dewar react?”

“To begin with he just sat there and listened. Then he started to look bloody angry. My God he’s got a hard face, that bastard. When Purdy was done he leant forward towards him and looked like he was giving him instructions. Like he was ordering him to do something. Purdy didn’t like it one bit and shook his head. Dewar looked like he was insisting and Purdy kept shaking his head. Then he spat a few words at him and got up and stormed out.”

We all tried to imagine the scene. I could imagine Purdy but, because I had never actually seen Dewar, I built a picture of him in my head. Big, bulky, stony-faced – a hard man.

“Fine,” I said. “The next thing that happens is I get kidnapped in my garden, drugged and dropped in the mountains, presumably with the intention that I don’t get back. It would look like an accident. Another stupid walker who didn’t take the elementary precautions when he went up into the hills.”

“The whole thing is unbelievable,” said Heather. “Bob, you’ve got to go to the police.”

“And what does he tell them?” asked Mike. “We can’t explain the uncovering of the AIM fraud. That puts Sophie in trouble and I’m not having that.”

Sophie smiled at him and put her hand on his thigh. “And we have no proof that Dewar kidnapped Bob. They wouldn’t believe us. He’s an MP and, even if they did believe us, I don’t know how they could go about getting proof.”

There was silence for a few minutes. Then Pierre voiced his thoughts. “I don’t think we can do anything. We’ve achieved what we set out to do. We’ve stopped Purdy’s little game. It’s finished. He’s resigned. If that means that Dewar no longer has a source of extra cash, then that’s his problem. It strikes me that he reacted instinctively and in anger. When he stops and thinks he’ll realize that there’s no way that Bob could make any connection between him and Purdy. Think about it from his side. I think it was a gut reaction. He just lashed out at the guy who was the cause of him losing a lucrative source of funds. He’ll drop it. He’ll leave Bob alone because the risk of committing coldblooded murder would be too great.”

“Oliver, what do you think?” I asked. “From what I’ve heard so far I think I agree with Pierre. It’s true that you can’t go to the police. Why not just lie low for a while. Dewar doesn’t know you’ve survived. You could surface in a week or so and when you do we could ask Mac to run guard. Meanwhile Doug and Mike can keep tabs on him. I agree with Pierre. I don’t think there will be any more danger.”

“Everybody else?” No one disagreed. I was in favour as well and it was my life that had been in jeopardy.

“Right,” said Mike. “If that’s decided I’m going for an after lunch walk. Coming Sophie?”

He held out his hand to her to help her up from the chair and they went off up the track to the hills behind. We watched them go and exchanged smiles. I bent a question mark at Heather who answered “I think she’s lovely. Just what he needs. It’s about time he found someone he could stick with.”

“Pierre, you know Sophie better than any of us. What do you think?”

“The same as I have always thought,” he replied. “If I’m too old for her then I want to like whoever does get her. My half brother will do fine.”

Mike and Sophie were back in half an hour. We tidied up and relaxed in the sun for a while. Mac and Doug left and we promised we would let them know when I decided to resurface.

Then Heather got up and announced that she had to go down to check on the horses.

“Mike, Sophie, do you want to come?” I knew that Mike was scared of the beasts but seeing that Sophie was definitely keen he acquiesced and they left Pierre, Oliver and me to finish off the wine.

We watched them go over to the paddock, Heather and Sophie in close conversation and Mike looking on solicitously. There seemed to be some kind of discussion between the girls. They were too far away for us to see exactly what was going on. Heather disappeared into the stables and came out with a saddle and bridle which she proceeded to put on one of the horses. As soon as that was completed Oliver and I were astonished to see Sophie leap up into the saddle and canter off round the field, looking every inch the accomplished rider.

She wheeled round at the far end of the field and started to gallop back towards one of the practice jumps that had been set up. Oliver and I looked at each other. He knows more about horses than I do and his comment to me was “Wow, that girl can ride!”.

As she galloped up to the jump she pulled on the reins to check his speed so that he would be well placed to take off. The horse responded and sailed over the jump. Sophie rose in the saddle as they went over and leant over its neck to keep the balance right and, as the horse gathered itself on landing, she was back down with a triumphant smile splitting her face. She cantered over to Heather, jumped off and handed the reins over. Mike had been watching with obvious concern on his face.