Robert Young - Gatecrasher

He pulled the white plastic keycard from the envelope and checked the room number again, more of apprehension than uncertainty. He pushed the keycard into the slot and the light blinked green.

‘Hello?’ he said as he walked in and closed the door behind him. His view was impeded by the narrow hallway into the room and Griffin walked cautiously forward.

A smart looking man sat in an armchair near the window. At first Griffin did not recognise him in the subdued lighting of the room and he squinted as the man turned to him and stood.

‘Andrew. Thank you for coming.’

Griffin took the proffered hand and shook it.

‘Michael. How are you?’

‘Very well. And yourself? The family?’

Griffin simply nodded in response. ‘Is this all necessary?’ he said and gestured around the hotel room. ‘What is this about?’

‘I thought it better to keep things discreet. This is a sensitive matter.’

Griffin said nothing but simply waited for Horner to continue. His impatience was obvious.

‘Do take a seat Andrew. Can I get you a drink? I took the liberty of having a very good bottle of Bordeaux brought up.’

‘Mineral water please.’

‘Of course. Perhaps later.’

Griffin sat himself in the chair opposite the one that Horner had been sat in and waited for his drink. Horner appeared to be in no rush and Griffin felt his irritation climb. Pouring them a glass of water each Horner took care to position the glasses on the coasters that were set out on the table between the two chairs. He smoothed the fabric of his suit down across his lower back and eased himself down into the chair and then reached forward and sipped from his own glass.

Griffin thought he was deliberately delaying whatever it was he had to say but resisted the urge to prompt him.

‘I think I owe you an apology.’ Horner’s opening gambit was not what Andrew Griffin had expected to hear.

Griffin regarded the other man blankly for a moment. ‘I think at the very least you owe me an apology Michael. Others too.’

‘It was a very long time ago Andrew, my drives and ambitions were unfettered then by the wisdom and ethics one tends to develop with age. I was young, hungry and yes, ruthless too. I can admit that. I’m not especially proud of it Andrew but let he who is without sin cast the first, erm…’

The thought flashed through Griffin’s mind as Horner’s unfinished sentence hung in the air that the words had been carefully chosen. That he had failed to say the word ‘stone’ out loud not because he had thought better of what might be considered a reference to his shameful behaviour with the diamonds, but precisely because he wanted to put the thought in Griffin’s head. That he was mocking him.

‘Now might not be a good time to plead your innocence based on the collective guilt of mankind Michael. It insults us both and my sense of Christian charity is in rather short supply just now.’

Horner held up his hands in deference to Griffin’s simmering anger. ‘Of course I’m not suggesting that my own behaviour is in some way assuaged because others might too have strayed. I know that most people have not and would not do what I did given the opportunity. Indeed, if I had the choice to make again Andrew, I wouldn’t be so foolhardy as to repeat it.’

‘What an inspiration you are to us all. Even rats learn their lessons Michael. Now, would you mind explaining your purpose? Are you so vain as to drag me all the way here merely to attempt to convince me that you are somehow the erring child made good? That your ill-judged transgression needs only to be understood to be forgiven? Because I have to tell you Michael, I’m not in the mood to understand, let alone forgive when the future of my company, my livelihood and those of many valued and loyal staff hangs in the balance. What will you do then? When you have ruined all of us? Will you be cashing in those diamonds to help soften the financial impact on those that you showed so little regard for years ago?’

Horner barely seemed to register any response to the vitriol of Griffin’s speech. He sat in the chair with a thin smile, as if allowing the outlet of an indignant but foolish child who could not be expected to understand such matters. Griffin did not react.

‘I seek neither understanding nor pardon. It is too late for that now and in any event it’s irrelevant. Any decision you make upon which moral stance to adopt is unlikely to have any impact on the bearing of events. As you may or may not know, the real point of the break-in was the acquisition of incriminating evidence to be used as leverage in blackmailing my former partner Geoffrey Asquith, who, though innocent, would be considered guilty by association and ruined.’

‘What then Michael? You think I might be able to help? To rescue yourself and your precious wealth and reputation? You should know that that would be purely a by-product of my own self-preservation.’

‘And you Mr Griffin would be well advised to realise that this has nothing to do with your influence or your employees, both of which are negligible factors in this situation. You should not presume that Griffin Holdings is anything but a prop in this particular play. Mere scenery. Certain groups or individuals have decreed that they will manipulate Geoffrey through the results of some ill-judged folly of my youth and they will not be deterred. Do you really think they would have made such an audacious attempt at blackmailing a man in Geoffrey’s position unless they were certain of its success? I think you afford yourself a little too much credit Andrew.’

Griffin’s cheeks burned but he held his tongue. ‘Your remarkable self-regard is always a spectacle to behold but I am growing a little tired of repeating the question Michael. Perhaps you could get to the point?’

Wednesday. 6.20pm.

Campbell’s voice failed him and his legs refused to function. Force of habit compelled him to call out and invite the man in, to go to the door. Instead he stood stiff at the back of the suite and stared across toward the door.

There was a sliding sound and a click and then he heard the handle turn and light spill in from the hallway, silhouetting the figure of the man who stepped inside.

‘Is there anyone here?’ he called out.

‘In here,’ Campbell said finally but still he did not move.

The other man let the door close behind him and stepped cautiously into the room, glancing around for any signs of company.

‘Its just me,’ Campbell said.

‘And you are?’

This was it. Everything he had been building up to, each agonising second, minute, hour of the past few days had arrived in this moment.

‘Two weeks ago, a man by the name of Tony Cooper, a man with a record of criminal activity and associations, came uninvited into my home. He had been wounded fatally and he passed me something of a highly sensitive nature before I helped him into an ambulance. All of which has involved me, rather unfortunately in what I believe to be a very personal dilemma involving yourself and your old business associates.’

Campbell fell silent, unsure whether to maintain his momentum, to continue making his pitch or let the other man respond.

‘That doesn’t tell me who you are,’ the man said. ‘Nor what you want.’

‘Mr Asquith,’ Campbell addressed him directly, ‘I am familiar with Griffin Holdings Ltd and its previous incarnation, founded and run by yourself and a Mr Michael Horner. Mr Horner became involved in the smuggling of guns into Sierra Leone during the period of its civil war and involved in the smuggling of uncut diamonds out of the same country by way of payment for his services. Whether you had any involvement in that- ’