Brian Freemantle - Dead End

Accustomed to the legal assembly of the previous interviews, Dingley said: ‘Are we waiting for others?’

‘Who?’ frowned Grant.

‘I thought…’ said Dingley, discomfited.

‘You’re surely not implying Mr Grant requires a criminal attorney?’ said Baldwin.

‘They seem to have featured a lot during the enquiry,’ said Benton, trying to help his partner. ‘But no, of course we’re not suggesting that. It would have been Mr Grant’s right, that’s all.’

‘I don’t think there’s any risk to my rights, do you?’ smiled the white-haired man.

‘We appreciate your agreeing to help us,’ said Dingley, their customary opening.

‘I’m not quite sure how I can, but let’s get on with it, shall we?’ said Grant, a busy man with a busy schedule.

‘There are some inconsistencies in what Mr Johnson’s told us, things we can’t quite fit into the puzzle,’ said Benton. ‘You spoken directly to Mr Johnson since Ms Lang’s death?’

‘Yes,’ said Grant, at once. ‘I think he believed it was his job to do so. I agreed.’

‘How many times?’ asked Dingley.

‘Twice,’ frowned Grant, as if he had difficulty in recalling. ‘Yes, twice.’

‘Did you speak about the flight number in Ms Lang’s purse, which is the reason for FBI involvement?’

There was another frown. ‘There was some mention, I think. I can’t remember precisely what the context was.’

‘His thumb print was on it,’ said Benton. ‘He’d earlier told us he didn’t know anything about a number or why it should have been in Ms Lang’s bag.’

‘Really?’ remarked Grant. And stopped.

‘Did you and Harry Johnson specifically discuss the flight number?’ asked Benton.

‘We might have done, after it emerged in court. I really can’t remember.’

‘We’re surprised at the direct communication between you and your security chief,’ declared Dingley.

‘Why?’ demanded the man.

‘You’re the head of an international conglomerate. Harry Johnson is head of security at McLean,’ said Dingley. ‘That seems quite a divide.’

‘You a snob, Mr Dingley?’

‘I don’t believe myself to be, sir,’ said the FBI man.

‘Sounds like it to me,’ said Grant. ‘I run a different sort of organization than a lot of people – than perhaps the FBI. I want my chief executives and division heads to talk to me. That way problems get solved before they become problems.’

‘So, it’s not unusual for you and Harry to speak?’ persisted Dingley.

‘Not at all.’

‘How often would you say?’

‘Whenever it’s necessary,’ shrugged Grant.

‘How? He come up here to report to you direct? When you’re in Washington? Telephone?’

‘Whichever’s convenient,’ shrugged the president, again. ‘I always make a point of speaking to every division head in Dubette whenever I’m down there. And there’s the telephone.’

‘Did you know Harry Johnson before he joined Dubette from Metro DC police department?’ asked Benton.

‘ Before?’

‘That was my question, sir.’

‘How could I have known him before?’

‘We thought you might have done,’ said Dingley.

‘What reason do you have for thinking that?’ came in Baldwin.

‘Just an impression,’ said Benton.

‘I thought the FBI worked on the basis of evidence and facts,’ said Grant. ‘I did not know Harry Johnson before he joined Dubette.’

‘How did that come about, his joining Dubette?’ asked Dingley.

‘The previous security chief was retiring. Recommended Harry. He seemed to fit the bill.’

‘Who employed him? You personally? Or your personnel division?’ pressed Benton.

‘It would have been personnel, obviously,’ said Grant.

‘Eighty thousand dollars a year is a substantial salary.’

‘He heads what is considered an important division. Dubette is noted throughout the industry as a substantial payer.’

‘You seem well informed about how Harry Johnson came to be employed,’ said Benton.

‘I’m well informed about every senior employee at Dubette,’ said Grant. ‘Perhaps security more than most. Security is very important for a company like mine.’

‘Because of stealing and commercial theft and piracy,’ anticipated Benton.

‘Precisely,’ agreed Grant.

‘You suffer a lot of it?’

‘We take every precaution to ensure that we don’t.’

‘When was the last time?’ asked Dingley, building up to what he and his partner hoped to be the puncturing question.

There was the now familiar shrug. ‘There was some warehouse pilfering about three months ago.’

‘Did you get the guys?’ asked Benton.

‘It was a delivery driver, supplying pills to kids. He drew a year. I’d have liked it to have been more. I know the danger of drugs as well as their benefits.’

‘What about commercially?’ said Dingley.

‘Last attempt was three years ago. A competitor got an informant into McLean. Harry got him before there was any serious damage.’

‘I can’t imagine Richard Parnell would steal pills from a Dubette warehouse,’ said Benton.

‘ What?’ exclaimed Grant, astonished.

‘We can’t imagine Richard Parnell stealing pills from a warehouse,’ echoed Dingley. ‘Why was he under surveillance, Mr Grant?’

Grant looked first to Baldwin, then to the huge desk with its orderly bank of variously coloured telephones.

Baldwin said: ‘We’d like an explanation for that question.’

‘We’d like an answer to it,’ said Dingley. ‘We know of Richard Parnell being under surveillance. And of Harry Johnson being aware of it. It’s extremely relevant to our terrorism and murder enquiries and we need to know why.’

‘Are you bugging my telephones?’ demanded Grant, looking back to his desk.

‘No,’ replied Benton, honestly.

‘So, it’s Harry’s,’ said Grant, answering his own question.

‘For which I hope you have a court order,’ said Baldwin.

‘Of course we do,’ said Dingley, impatiently.

‘Harry Johnson has explained to you how his thumb print came to be on the flight number,’ said the lawyer.

‘Which you’ve doubtless told Mr Grant in detail,’ anticipated Benton. ‘What no one’s explained to us yet is why Parnell was under surveillance, with Harry Johnson’s knowledge. And yours, Mr Grant.’

‘I would have thought that would have been obvious,’ said the man.

‘Not to us it isn’t,’ said Dingley.

Grant sighed, all the condescending affability gone. ‘A valued member of my company was murdered. An elaborate effort was made to frame a senior executive for that murder, for which, as I understand it, you have no suspects. I believed that Parnell might remain in danger. I felt it justified the setting up of some protective security – having photographs taken, even, to see if Parnell might be being watched by a person or a group of people. It’s been pointless…’ The man paused, looking to the telephone bank again. ‘And, as you obviously know, I’ve spoken to Harry about it – told him to lift everything.’

‘So, you no longer fear Richard Parnell is in danger?’ said Dingley.

‘I think it would have happened, some attempt would have been made, by now,’ said the Dubette president. ‘I was being overprotective.’

‘Having Parnell under surveillance wouldn’t have actually prevented anything happening to him, would it?’ said Benton.

‘It would if it had established he was being stalked.’

‘These photographs,’ said Benton, ‘who’s been taking them?’

‘A private detective agency,’ said Grant.

‘We’d like its name,’ said Dingley.

‘Get it from Harry,’ snapped Grant. ‘I don’t know it.’