Dick Francis - Crossfire

Martin Toleron stopped some ten feet from the gates.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Just to talk," I said.

"Are you from the tax authorities?" he asked.

I thought it a strange question, but perhaps he was afraid I was going to hand him a summons.

"No," I said. "I was at the same dinner party as you, at Jackson and Isabella Warren's place last week. I sat next to your wife."

He took a couple of paces towards the gates and squinted at me.

"But what do you want?" he said again.

"I want to talk to you about Rock Bank Ltd and the investment you have just made with them in Gibraltar."

"That's none of your business," he said.

I didn't reply but stood silently, waiting for curiosity to get the better of him.

"And how do you know about it?" he asked, as I knew he would.

"I think it might be better for us to go inside to discuss this rather than to shout a conversation through these gates where anyone could overhear us. Don't you agree?"

He obviously did agree, because he removed a small black box from his pocket and pushed a button. The gates swung open as I returned to Ian's car.

I parked on the gravel drive in front of the mock-Georgian front door and pillared portico of his modern redbrick mansion.

"Come into my office," Martin Toleron said, leading the way past the grand front door to a smaller one set between the main house and an extensive garage block. I followed him into a large oak-paneled room with a built-in matching oak desk and book-cases behind it.

"Sit down," he said decisively, pointing to one of two armchairs, and I glimpsed for the first time the confidence and resolution that would have served him well in his business. I resolved to ensure that Martin Toleron became a valuable friend rather than a challenging enemy.

"What is this about?" he said, sitting in the other chair and turning towards me, jutting out his jaw.

"I believe that you have recently sent a large sum of money to Rock Bank Ltd of Gibraltar as an investment in a hedge fund."

I paused, but he didn't respond. He just continued to stare at me with unfriendly eyes. It was slightly unnerving, and I began to question if coming here had been a mistake. I suddenly wondered whether Toleron was, in fact, part of the conspiracy. Had I just walked into the lion's den like a naive lamb to the slaughter?

"And I have reason to believe," I went on, "that the investment fund in question does not actually exist, and you are being defrauded of your money."

He continued to sit and look at me.

"Why are you telling me this?" he demanded, suddenly standing up. "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing," I said.

"You must want something." He was almost shouting. "Otherwise, why are you here? You didn't come here to give me bad news so you could simply gloat. Is it money you're after?"

"No, of course not," I said defensively. "I came here to warn you."

"But why?" he said aggressively. "If, as you say, I have already invested money in a fraud, your warning would then be too late. And why is it you believe I'm being defrauded anyway? Are you the one who's doing it?"

Things were not going well.

"I just thought that you would like to know so that you didn't send any more," I said, again on the defensive. "I am not involved in the fraud other than being the son of another victim. I had hoped that you might have some information that would be helpful to me in trying to recover her money. That's all."

He sat down again and remained silent for a few seconds.

"What sort of information?" he asked eventually, and more calmly.

"Well," I said, "with respect, my mother is no financial wizard, far from it, and I can see how she was duped, but you…" I left the implication hanging in the air.

He stood up from the chair again and went to the desk. He picked up a large white envelope and tossed it into my lap. It contained the glossy offering document for what it called the "opportunity-of-a-lifetime investment." I skimmed through the brochure. It was very convincing, and certainly gave the impression of being from a legitimate organization, with photos of supposed business offices in Gibraltar and graphs of past and predicted investment performance, all of which moved in the right direction, and with wonderful glowing testimonials from other satisfied investors.

"Why do you think it a fraud?" he asked.

"I know of two separate cases when people, including my mother and stepfather, after investing through Rock Bank Ltd, have lost all their money. They were both told that the hedge fund in which their money had been placed had subsequently gone bankrupt, leaving no assets. I have reason to believe that the funds never actually existed in the first place and the money was simply stolen."

I flicked through the glossy brochure once more.

"It's a very professional job," he said. "It gives all the right information and assurances."

If they were after "investments" in million-dollar chunks, it would have to be a professional job.

"But did you check up on any of it?" I asked.

He didn't answer, but I could tell from his face that he hadn't.

"Why didn't your mother complain to the police?" he said. "Then there might have been a warning issued."

"She couldn't," I said, without further clarification.

I thought back to his strange question at the gate about me being from the tax authorities, and his rather belligerent attitude towards me since. "Mr. Toleron," I said. "Excuse my asking, but are you being blackmailed?"

As in my mother's case, it wasn't the loss of his money that worried Martin Toleron the most; it was the potential loss of face because he'd been conned.

If I thought he would thank me for pointing out that his investment was a fake, then I was mistaken. Indirectly, he even offered to pay me not to make that knowledge public.

"Of course I won't make it public," I said, horrified by his insinuation.

"Everyone else I know would have," he said, with something of a sigh. "They would gleefully sell it to the highest bidder from the gutter press." He may have been a highly successful businessman, and he had clearly made pots of money, but he'd obviously been accompanied by precious few real friends on the journey.

He was not being blackmailed, at least he denied he was to me, but he did admit that someone had recently tried to extort money from him, accusing him of falsifying a tax return that stated he was not a tax resident in the UK, when in fact he was.

"I told him to bugger off," he said. "But it took me a lot of time and money to get things straightened out. The last bloody thing I want is an audit by the Revenue."

"So you are fiddling something, then?" I asked.

"No, of course not," he said. "I'm just sailing close to the wind, you know, trying it on with a few things."

"VAT?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes," he said. "Is that why your mother didn't go to the authorities and complain?"

"Is what why?" I asked.

"She was being blackmailed."

I simply nodded, echoing my mother's belief that in not saying anything out loud, it somehow diminished the admission.

"Did you know someone called Roderick Ward?"

"Don't you mention that name here," he said explosively. "Called himself an accountant, but he was nothing more than a damn bookkeeper. It was thanks to him that I nearly copped it with the Revenue."

I wondered how on earth a captain of industry had become tangled up with such a dodgy accountant.

"How did you come to know him?" I asked.

"He was my elder daughter's boyfriend for a while. Kept coming round here and telling me how I could save more tax. I should've never listened to the little bastard."

Oh! What a tangled web he weaved, when first he practiced to deceive!