Trail of Greed: Fighting Fraud and Corruption... A Dangerous Game (27 page)

With my hunger suitably satisfied I made myself as comfortable as I could, moving my limbs very gently, and tried to snooze.

I assumed that Bob Davis or one of his men would be round to visit to get my version of yesterday’s events but, in fact, my first visitor was Pierre. He had got my message at the hotel and he came round mid-morning.

I was delighted to see him. I had been wondering how he had managed his Seventh Cavalry stunt and I was desperate to ask him. He enquired after my well-being. I assured him that I was OK and that according to the doctor I would be out in a few days and my wounds would be healed up.

I now felt sufficiently safe to be able to unburden myself. So first I explained to Pierre how I had suspected what had been going on.

“It was weird. If you remember we had worked our way back to the lawyer, Reid, and the only person I knew who knew him was Keith McDowell. That in itself didn’t help me much, but suddenly I remembered the article I had read about the death of Dewar in the mountains. You probably didn’t notice it but it mentioned that he had been chairman of the Committee for Urban Planning. It was that that got me wondering. So I called my journalist friend in Edinburgh who did a little digging for me. He managed to find out that McDowell’s Group is sitting on about twenty plots of land around the country which, if he could get planning permission for building more of his bloody supermarkets, would be worth a fortune to him. That got me wondering if he had been feeding money to Dewar through Reid and Purdy’s crooked scheme at AIM in order to get planning permission pushed through more quickly. You know how difficult it is to get these things approved nowadays.

“It made some kind of sense. When we blew the AIM thing apart and Purdy disappeared he couldn’t bribe Dewar any longer and keep far enough in the background to be safe. He could have tried to set up some other way of channelling money to Dewar but that would have been difficult without creating a fairly direct line between them. He must have decided to cut his losses and get rid of any chance that anyone could trace anything back to him. So he got Gavin Reid and his henchmen to eliminate me and Dewar.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Pierre. “It seemed a bit far fetched at first. I wanted to find out more. I was going to tell you when I was sure. That’s why I invited McDowell for that game of golf. I thought I might be able to steer the conversation a bit and confirm my theory. One big mistake. He must have already decided that he needed me out of the way. But he also needed to be sure that I hadn’t spoken to anyone else. He wanted to know how much I knew or had guessed. Which explains all this.”

“What the hell did they do to you?” I explained briefly what had happened in that room and Pierre was very concerned and apologetic that they hadn’t got there in time.

“I presume your three helpers were Mike, Doug and Mac? But how did you know where I was?”

He then told me how he had been worried the last time he had seen me and when I hadn’t explained to him my thoughts he had had a chat with Mike. They had decided to put Mac and Doug on my tail for a few days just in case I was in any danger.

“They saw the kidnapping at the golf course but hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Doug followed the car and Mac got in touch with Mike and me. When Doug saw you tied to the chair in that front room he sounded the alarm. We got organized as soon as we could but, unfortunately, not fast enough to save you from all this. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. I’ll recover and there’s no way any of these guys are going to wriggle out now. Kidnapping is one thing but kidnapping and torture is another. Bob Davis, the policeman, will make sure they go down for a very long time.

“Look Pierre, you’d better clear off now. I’m pretty sure the police will be round sometime today to take a statement from me and you’d better not be around when they come. I told them I had no idea who rescued me and I’ll stick to that. I don’t see any way they could guess. In fact they probably won’t want to. I’ll call you when they let me out and we’ll fill in all the other bits then.”

Pierre left, promising to thank the lads from me and to tell them I was more or less OK.

Bob Davis sent a sergeant round to take my statement in the early afternoon. I explained to him the bare facts – my kidnapping, a reasonably detailed account of Reid’s torturing, the arrival of Keith McDowell, the presence of Firkin and MacLean. I kept to the facts. I told him that there was no way I could identify my rescuers as they had been masked. I also told the sergeant that I would explain to his Inspector what the reasons were for the whole thing but I would prefer to wait a couple of days until I was more fully recovered.

“That’s alright, sir,” he said “This should be enough for us to be able to keep them in custody for the meantime. Inspector Davis asked me to tell you that he wished you a speedy recovery. The hospital told us that you would probably be allowed out the day after tomorrow.”

“Thanks, officer. Just tell Inspector Davis from me a couple of things which are not in my statement – that the death of the SMP Bill Dewar in the mountains is related to this whole business and it was not an accident. It was deliberate murder. It was ordered by Keith McDowell and carried out by Firkin and MacLean via Gavin Reid. If he puts a bit of pressure on them I think one of them will confess. As soon as I’m mobile I’ll come in and tell him all I know.”

The sergeant left. I was, I admit, a bit tired after my two visitors and looked forward to a quiet afternoon’s rest. The nurse gave me some more painkillers with my lunch and I was able to settle down for a relaxed snooze. I had a visit from the doctor who examined my wounds and assured me that, if I wanted to, I could probably leave the next day. There was no infection which was the thing he had been most concerned about.

I was woken up an hour or two later by a knock on the door and my friendly nurse popped her head round as she opened it.

“Got another visitor for you, Mr Bruce.” I wondered who this might be and tried to struggle up into a sitting position.

My first reaction was complete surprise but it was followed instantly by the realisation that this was just the visitor I wanted. She came a little tentatively into the room, her mouth shaped in a nervous smile and her eyes wide open with concern.

She made the few short steps across to my bed and took the outstretched hand that I raised to greet her.

“Lie still, Bob. You don’t need to move.” She sat down on the chair beside my bed, still holding my hand. “I came as soon as I heard. What’s happened to you? Are you going to be alright?”

Her eyes took in my strapped up arm and the cage across my thighs.

I was still so surprised that I hardly heard and didn’t answer her questions straight away.

“How did you get here? Who told you where I was?” Maggie relaxed when she heard my voice. “Don’t worry about that just now. I’m here – if that’s alright with you.”

“More than alright,” I answered with genuine feeling. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see. But how did you find out?”

“Your sister, Heather, phoned me as soon as she heard. She told me that you had been hurt and, if I wanted to see you, I should speak to a Pierre Collard at Fernie Castle Hotel and he would explain everything. So I just closed up the hotel and came as soon as I could.”

“But why did Heather . . .?” “I met Heather, if you remember, when she came to pick you up the last time you got yourself in a mess. She guessed that I would want to know and she guessed also that you would probably be fairly happy to see me. Was she right?”

I smiled at her. “She’s too bloody smart, that woman.” “The doctor told me that you can get out tomorrow so, if you like, I’ll come and take you home.”

“And look after me like you did the last time?” “Maybe,” she replied mischievously. “Depends on how these wounds of yours are.”

“They’ll heal,” I said.

“Yes, they’ll heal.”

Inspector Davis came round to see me the next morning rather than me having to travel into Cupar.

He had read about the resignation of Purdy from AIM but the real reason behind it had never been made public. Relying on his discretion I told him the whole story. I also explained that I had been to see the new management and made them aware of what had been going on. He considered that not to be any of his business and I promised I would let him know what they decided to do about the redistribution of the trust fund. He didn’t ask me for any details about the “meeting” with Purdy which had led to his resignation.

I also explained how Keith McDowell had confirmed my suspicions about his use of AIM as a conduit for paying off Dewar for his work in helping to push planning permission through on the various supermarket projects he had stacked up.

I told him only what was relevant to his enquiries. He had evidence and proof of what he had found at McDowell’s house although he admitted that he had no idea who had called him to warn him to get round there as fast as possible.

“I suppose I’ll just have to put that one down to ‘an anonymous tip off ’,” he said. “But how can I nail McDowell for Dewar’s murder if you’re sure that’s what it was?”

“He admitted it to me – and in front of the three others who actually carried it out. My guess is they took him and dumped him using McDowell’s helicopter. If you announce to the other three that you know maybe you can get them to turn Queen’s evidence and be a witness for you.”

He thought that was a tactic worth trying and thanked me for my help. I promised to be available for him if he needed anything else.

“I suppose you won’t tell me who your three rescuers were?” he asked, on leaving.

“Sorry, I can’t. I couldn’t recognize them – perhaps they were buddies of the anonymous telephone caller. Anyway, they did do you a service, didn’t they?” I said.

He looked at me closely “I’m bloody sure you do know, but I don’t suppose I’ll ever get it out of you – and, as you say, they did do me a service. I don’t suppose they are a danger to the general public.”

Ian McLeish called me to inform me that the Board of AIM had decided to be open about all of Purdy’s misdeeds and that they would announce a wrapping up of the company and a distribution of an exceptional dividend to all the investors in addition to the net value that they realised.

He agreed to give an exclusive interview to Steven who, when I told him, was delighted.

The arrest of McDowell and the others was made public a few days later. A liquidator was appointed to manage his Group’s business when it became clear that it was in a perilous financial position.

Firkin turned prosecution witness in exchange for a slightly reduced sentence. Keith McDowell was found guilty on two accounts of attempted murder and was locked away for a considerable time and Gavin Reid pleaded insanity and was committed to a mental institution for an indeterminate period.

As for APA Consulting – it still exists. We had a board meeting a couple of weeks later at the farm with Heather, Oliver and the rest of the family which now included Sophie and Maggie, as well as our new half-brother Pierre.