Alex Palmer - The Tattooed Man

‘Ralph, do you want to talk to that?’ Trevor said.

‘Yeah, the dossier.’ Ralph moved to the head of the table. The image of the dossier’s front page reappeared on the screen. ‘We don’t know the name of the agency that owns this document, but now it’s out there in cyberspace, I’m sure they’ll find us soon enough.’

‘Stop there, Ralph,’ Harrigan said.

‘What is it, boss?’

‘What you just said. Now it’s out there in cyberspace, its owners will find us. Given what’s been put out on the net already, why wasn’t this document online as well?’

‘I’ll tell you,’ Parkin called. ‘Because it could identify them.’

‘That’s right. I think this will signal to someone out there who these people are. Okay, Ralph. What can you tell us?’

‘Mainly that this is a very long-standing document. It incorporates information from the various agencies who’ve been watching Beck since 1970. He had a long career as an illegal arms dealer dating from the late 1960s right through to the 1990s. He’s involved himself in theatres of war from South East Asia to Africa. He met du Plessis in the 1980s when he was working for the South African apartheid government. In 1990 he went back to Europe. The apartheid regime was on its last legs and he’d made too many enemies over there. By now the Berlin Wall is down. He became involved with the Russian mafia, wisely not for too long. His mother died in Berlin in 1997 and, like a dutiful son, he was there with her.’

‘You’re breaking my heart,’ Frankie murmured.

Ralph grinned. ‘That’s just one side of the story. In fact, Beck was a double agent, a very useful source of intelligence for the agencies who were watching him. He did business for himself and provided information to the British government at the same time. In exchange for which they left him alone and paid him. It’s a common enough arrangement. After his mother died, he went to London. And here the first part of the dossier is ruled off. The final note is: Minister’s direction is discontinue and hands off. It was a thirty-year connection. They closed it down without a murmur. There’s no indication they even debriefed Beck.’

‘No reasons given? Nothing?’ Harrigan asked.

‘Nothing that’s on this file,’ Ralph said.

‘Why would it go to the minister? Was Beck that important?’

‘He wouldn’t be,’ Parkin said. ‘Ministers don’t deal directly with operatives at that level. Somehow he must have drawn attention to himself.’

‘There’s no indication on file as to what he might have done,’ Ralph said. ‘Then five years ago, the dossier was reopened. Not because of Beck but because of du Plessis. Du Plessis was in London. At the time, he was wanted for murder in South Africa but the government there agreed to the agency keeping him under surveillance rather than arresting him. That warrant is still out against him. At the time, he was known to be involved in illegal diamond trading. The agency’s main concern was with the kind of activities financed by that trade, such as illegal arms dealing. The surveillance operation caught du Plessis meeting with Beck. It was the first time Beck had been on the radar for years. They met often enough for the agency to conclude they were in business together and they needed to watch Beck as well as du Plessis.

‘After this, they traced Beck to a scientific research facility in north London. At the time he’d been employed there for several years. The investigation identifies him as a manager of some kind. From this point on, the agency put an operative into that research facility to watch him. This operative is referred to by a number only. This is where Elena Calvo turns up, boss. You said she was a player. She was the CEO there, and while she was there, she had an encounter with Beck. That brings us to this series of photographs. The time and date stamp says 22:38 one night in June four-and-a-half years ago. They must have both been working late.’

Up on the screen, there flashed in succession pictures of Elena Calvo standing beside her car in an underground car park, talking to Jerome Beck. The body language made it clear there was a fierce argument going on. Towards the end he was pushing his wallet at her. She refused to look at it. The last photographs in the series showed her slamming her car door and driving away.

‘That argument went on for eighteen minutes,’ Ralph continued. ‘Pity we can’t know what was being said. Or shouted.’

‘That’s where Beck kept his photograph,’ Jacquie said. ‘It was in his wallet like that. At the front, behind a window.’

‘Did he have it with him then?’ Ralph asked.

‘If he got it from his dying mother, why not?’ Harrigan said. ‘What do we know about this research institute?’

‘So far we’ve only checked its website. There’s nothing to indicate it’s anything but legitimate. There is one significant fact. Although this is hidden behind various companies, it’s owned by Jean Calvo. The dossier traces that ownership in detail.’

‘Did Senator Edwards see those photographs of Beck arguing with Calvo? Did he know they had this previous connection?’ Harrigan asked.

‘He must have done,’ Ralph said. ‘I spoke with his adviser any number of times this last week. He told me they’d both been through the dossier in detail. Now the poor bastards are dead.’

‘Did the minister mention this to her?’ Parkin asked. ‘Did she know this dossier existed?’

‘She’s the only one who can answer those questions now,’ Trevor said. ‘Edwards told us no one besides his staff knew about it and he could trust his staff. We’ve also kept its existence confidential. Maybe the boss can add something to this. He’s spoken to Calvo.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘Her connections to the minister make her significant in this. She told me about this same incident while I was there,’ Harrigan said. ‘She was explaining it away. Beck was a drunken bum who harassed her. She hired him over here because she needed someone, then fired him almost immediately because he was a drunk. He started making abusive phone calls and she got one of her security people to watch him for her. I don’t think she would have told me any of that unless she expected me to know it from another source.’

‘Why couldn’t she be being truthful?’ Parkin asked.

‘She’s not someone who tells you things unless it’s in her interests. In my opinion, the connections here are too close to ignore. Also, Marvin had his own copy of this dossier. Which means he would have told du Plessis about its existence. Did Calvo know about it because du Plessis was working for her and he told her this information was out there? Maybe she even got her own copy that way. That’s another line of possible communication we can’t ignore.’

‘Something else for you to prove, Commander,’ Parkin replied.

‘I think it’s something anyone involved in this job has to consider,’ Harrigan said.

There was a brief silence.

‘Why would you waste eighteen minutes talking to a drunken bum late one night in a car park?’ Frankie asked, spiking the tension. ‘If he harassed you, why would you go ahead and hire him again? Only if you had to.’

‘What happened after those pictures were taken?’ Harrigan asked.

‘They kept a watching operation on Beck,’ Ralph said. ‘We get a series of weekly reports from their operative. Whoever this person was, they weren’t able to gain access to the research projects Beck was involved in. Access to the laboratories was tightly controlled and there was no public information available concerning the projects themselves. Instead the operative formed a personal connection to Beck, close enough to get a good view of his lifestyle. Whatever Beck was doing, it paid well. He liked to gamble; not always successfully, but he never seemed to have any trouble paying his debts.’