S Bolton - Sacrifice

Case number Xcr56381 opened up. It was a folder containing a number of files. As I scanned down the list something heavy and cold started to grow in my chest.

The first file was named Missing Persons. Sub-files covered Shetland, Orkney, Scotland and UK. The second file was named Babies. Sub-files were called Franklin Stone Deliveries, and Tronal Deliveries. Then came Financial Records. In that section was a series of names: some I didn't recognize, several I did. Andrew Dunn, Kenn Gifford, Richard Guthrie, Duncan Guthrie, Tora Hamilton. Not Stephen Gair, though; he had a file section all to himself, with a sub-file for his firm, Gair, Carter, Gow.

'Spouse is always the first suspect,' said Helen, opening up the files on Gair. 'Dana wouldn't neglect the basics.'

There were a few personal details; his education, early years practising; the dates of his two marriages, to Melissa in 1999 and then to an Alison Jenner in 2005. Most of it, though, was work related.

We looked first at a summary of information about Gair's firm of solicitors: Gair, Carter, Gow, based in Lerwick but with offices in Oban and Stirling. Most of their business seemed to come from handling commercial contracts for the larger local oil and shipping companies. I noticed, with a pang of alarm, that Gair acted for Duncan's company and, with no real surprise, that they were legal advisers to the hospital. They also had departments that dealt with family law, conveyancing and trust and probate.

A pulse behind my left temple was threatening to become painful as we slowly ploughed through page after page of statements from the First National Bank of Scotland. Gair, Carter, Gow had numerous accounts. Each of its three branches had both a commercial account and a deposit account; after a few minutes it was clear the firm held substantial reserves. There were also six client accounts, sorted according to type of client.

'How the hell did Dana get all this stuff?' I asked. 'I can't believe Stephen Gair just handed it over. Could she have got a warrant this quickly?'

'Unlikely,' said Helen, without looking up.

'So… how?'

'Best not to ask,' said Helen. She closed down one client account and opened up another. Then she paused and looked at me. 'Let's just say Dana wasn't as strong on procedure as she was on security. In fact it was her unorthodox approach that got her transferred from Manchester to Dundee a few years ago. I was told to keep an eye on her, make her see the error of her ways. Needless to say, I failed.'

'She got all this illegally?'

'Almost certainly. There's very little Dana didn't know about computers. She did her Ph.D. in software creation. She had a particular expertise when it came to hacking into financial institutions.'

'How? How did she do it?'

Helen sighed. 'Tora, I don't know. I really didn't like to ask too much. But my guess is that when she moved here, she would have opened accounts for herself in every bank and financial institution based on the island. She'd have visited them frequently, getting to know the staff, copying down account numbers and sort codes. She'd have tried to work out passwords by watching people type on their keyboards. When she was at your house, did you ever notice her looking at private papers?'

'Yes,' I said, remembering a time I'd seen her staring at our kitchen noticeboard where we pin our most recent bank and credit- card statements.

'She had an amazing memory for numbers. And given how much she knew about writing software, she'd have known how to bypass most security systems.'

Well, Dana the villain. Who would have thought it?

'But,' I was struggling with my knowledge of the law, 'if information is obtained illegally, doesn't it jeopardize an investigation?'

'Only if you try and use it. Which Dana would never have done. Once she knew what was going on, she'd have found proof using normal routes. OK, look, Dana has put several flags on this one client. Shiller Drilling. Heard of them?'

'Vaguely. I think it's one of the larger oil companies.'

Helen was looking at one of Gair, Carter, Gow's client accounts for the previous financial year. Dana had flagged numerous entries, all relating to Shiller Drilling.

'Law firms have to keep separate client accounts by law, you know that?' asked Helen. 'Any money the firm handles but which belongs to a client has to be kept separate from the firm's own money.'

I must have looked a bit stupid because she took a deep breath and tried again.

'If you buy a house, you hand over money to your solicitor. He keeps it in his client account until it's time to pay it to the vendor. It's supposed to ensure transparency and accountability.'

I nodded. 'This money we're looking at – it belongs to clients, to Shiller Drilling, for example, not to Gair, Carter, Gow.'

'Exactly. Looks to me like Shiller Drilling were realizing quite a lot of assets that year. Look…'

Helen pointed out the first three entries that Dana had highlighted.

11 April TRF -Shiller Drilling sale: Minnesot.ranchland -$75,000.00

15 June TRF -Shiller Drilling sale: Boston.prop -$150,000.00

23 June TRF -Shiller Drilling sale: Dubai.seafront -$90,000.00

There were more; too many to count at a glance, all apparently relating to income from land and property sales. At the bottom of the sheet, Dana had written a footnote.

NB: Total year's incomings re Shiller Drilling – $9.075 million US dollars, £5.5 million sterling (current exchange rate). Cross Reference 3.

Helen called up the search facility and typed in 'Cross Reference 3'. It took a couple of seconds and then another page of figures filled the screen. Helen flicked to the bottom of the page. 'Manganate Minerals Inc. Annual Report and Accounts.' Dana had cross- referenced Gair, Carter, Gow's client account with the annual report of a… mineral company?

Helen drummed her fingers on the desk. Then she flicked the screen back up.

'Of course. Manganate whatsit is a group holding company. Shiller Drilling is part of the group.'

She was right. Shiller Drilling was there, tucked away in the left-hand column, headed 'Income from Property and Land Sales'. Helen traced her finger horizontally across the screen. According to the annual report, Shiller Drilling had sold $4.54 million of land and property that year. Helen immediately flicked to another icon and opened up a calculator. She pressed a few keys and grinned at me. I was having trouble following. The calculator was showing 2,751,515.

And what would you expect that to be?' Helen asked.

I was catching up slowly. 'Five and a half million?' I ventured, remembering the note Dana had made at the bottom of Gair, Carter, Gow's bank statement. 'It should be five and a half million pounds sterling.'

'Clever girl,' said Helen. All traces of her weariness seemed to have vanished. 'So, Gair, Carter, Gow's client account shows some two and three-quarter million pounds of income from overseas land and property sales that does not appear on the client company's annual report. So where is that money really coming from?'

'Different accounting period?'

She looked at me sharply.

'Good point. So if it's just a discrepancy of accounting periods, you would expect to find the missing millions… where, exactly?'

I thought for a second. 'The previous accounting period? Or maybe the subsequent one?'

She nodded. 'I can't believe Dana didn't have those.' She started flicking again and in a few seconds we had bank statements for the same client account for the previous financial year. Another foot- note from Dana:

NB: Total year's incomings re Shiller Drilling – $10.065 million US dollars, £6.1 million sterling (current exchange rate). Cross Reference 2.

Putting 'Cross Reference 2' into the search facility took us to another of Manganate's annual reports and Helen, with the aid of the calculator, converted US dollars to pounds sterling. Again, the annual report showed substantially less income from overseas land and property sales than did the solicitors' client account.