By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2) (29 page)

'Good morning, Mr Mancuso.  Thank you for inviting us in.  We need to talk to you a bit more about the bombing.'

'Always a pleasure to see you, Detective Chief Inspector, but, as ever, I don't know how I can help you any further.  I've been co-operating fully with the investigation at Last Cairngorm and...'

Vanessa interrupted him. 'This is a separate but related investigation. We'll share any information you provide with the Anti-Terriorism Squad and with Special Branch.'

Mancuso tried to look unconcerned, but didn't quite manage it.  He invited the detectives to sit down, but offered no other hospitality.

'We have reason to believe that you have withheld evidence that would assist the police in their investigation of the Last Cairngorm bombing.  Not only does that impede the enquiry, it may lay you open to a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, and that's very serious.'

Mancuso remained composed. 'I have no idea what you are talking about.'

Vanessa shook her head and tried look more disappointed than angry.  'We think that you have security photographs of two men whom you suspect of involvement in the bombing.  It would be in your interests to let us have them.'

Mancuso now seemed rather less comfortable. 'We must have taken hundreds of pictures during the preview openings of the facility.  How am I supposed to know which ones you're talking about?'

Colin MacNee quickly calculated that Mancuso had probably worked out where they had got their information.   'You could start with the two that you tried to have checked against police records.  And don't even bother pleading ignorance again.  It won't wash. And we really don't have time to be pissed about.'

'They're in my office.'  He sighed, as if he accepted that it was futile to resist. 'In the filing cabinet.  We could drive out and get them.'

'We'll take your word that they're safe.  Meanwhile, we'd like you to confirm that these are the men.' 

Vanessa brought out her smartphone and Mancuso confirmed that the men in his pictures were Mathieson and MacIlwraith.

'Thank you.  Now, tell us what you know about James Michael Roskill.'

*

Andy Hanna and Ben Aaronson continued their conversation as they looked across the Thames. Andy was finding it difficult to distinguish radical polemic from research and analysis.

'I think I understand the mechanics of one fund buying an "entity" from another.  What I'm not clear about is how an "insider" could take advantage of his or position during the sale and transfer process, apart from knowing in advance that the "entity" was about to come on the market.'

Aaronson seemed to be examining something on the far bank of the river.  'That brings us back to the question of ethics.  Almost everything does. Let's assume that the insider knows that an entity is marginal in terms of profitability, could go either way, into profit or loss.  If he could find a way to nudge it towards loss, that would do two things.  It would make a sale more likely. And it would depress the price. Any insider could do that, so, at base, it's a matter of personal morality.  It's because personal morality is unreliable that insider trading in publicly quoted shares is subject to severe penalties.'

He sounded, Andy thought, like an instruction manual, or as though he were giving an elementary lecture in stockbroking, as though he was trying to keep himself in check.  Time to move on.

'Thanks for your time, Ben.  I've got to go.'

Aaronson looked puzzled.  'More than time, Andy.  I've given you quite a lot of potentially sensitive information.  I think there should be a
quid pro quo. 
Maybe an early heads-up as your enquiries into Roskill proceed?'

'No such thing as a free lunch,' Andy thought, though he had paid at the bistro.   As he turned towards the DLR station, he said. 'Not up to me, but if this goes anywhere, I'll talk to my boss.'

*

On their way back to HQ, Fiske and MacNee picked up the main Scottish Sunday newspapers.  With the exception of Aaronson in the Sunday sister of the
Financial Post
, the English-based titles had lost interest in the murders as soon as the arrests were announced.   Jason Sime in the
G & T
had followed up assiduously every detail of the murder investigations and related enquiries.  Today, his front page story had an exclusive tag, and a joint byline with the business editor:

US Firms Pull Back on Investment in Scotland

The
economic fall-out from the bombing at Last Cairngorm and the cyber attack at Mercury Fulfilment continues.  The
G & T
has learned, from sources within the companies, that both companies are reassessing their financial commitment to Scotland. 

The Last Corporation has decided to put the second phase of its Cairngorm development on hold until the economic situation in Scotland has stabilised.  The decision was, apparently, taken personally by Ewan Last, whose commitment to Scotland is known to have been shaken by the level of opposition to the Cairngorm project.

Mercury is delaying indefinitely its planned expansion in Cumbernauld and, in a move that is likely to cause even more concern to the Scottish Government, they are known to be looking at development sites in Ireland, where generous tax breaks are on offer, easily comparable with the grant aid they have received in Scotland.

All of this, together with persistent rumours that Burtonhall is looking hard at the performance of Hedelco, who manage Grampian Royal Hospital, and Ebright, who operate the Vermont One oil platform in the North Sea off Aberdeen, will make grim reading for the First Minister and her colleagues.

Vanessa Fiske handed the
G & T
to Colin MacNee as they walked across the car park.  'To use the famous headline from
Variety
, it looks as though this one will run and run.'

DCS Esslemont was waiting for them.  As soon as he heard what they had learned from Gilbertson and Mancuso, he made two calls. The first was to the Chief Constable to arrange to see him later in the morning.  The second was to Aberdeen Prison to ask that MacIver, Mathieson and MacIlwraith be brought to NEC HQ at noon.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

By late on Monday afternoon, DS Sara Hamilton and DC Aisha Gajani, working largely on information from DC Cam Ritchie, had found half a dozen people who had known Paul MacIver at university.  They  remembered him as being a member of the Scottish Freedom Club, but none thought he had been a leading member.  His views on the future of Scotland had certainly been radical - one former associate described him as a Revolutionary Nationalist - but the club had been run by two others.  One informant remembered that the organisers had been called Mathieson and MacIlwraith, at least until MacIlwraith dropped out of university.

'Useful corroboration', Sara said as they made their way up West Regent Street to a lawyers' office where one of their interviewees had told them they could find someone else who had known MacIver.  'But nothing we didn't know before.'

The offices of Campbell, Scrivener and McGlone were in a converted Victorian town house near Blythswood Square. It had once been elegant, as had most of the houses of Victorian Glasgow, but it was now functional, with a vestibule leading to a reception area indistinguishable in style from the many solicitors' offices, investment consultancies, architectural practices and public relations companies that now dominated the grid of streets that had once been home to the
haute bourgeoisie
of the city.

Sara and Aisha showed their warrant cards to the young man on reception and asked to see Kate Turnbull.   They had phoned ahead, so she was expecting them. They were directed through an internal door.  The young man led them up two flights of stairs to a small office.  The woman sitting at the desk was in her early thirties with reddish hair and a complexion that marked her out as a native of the west of Scotland. 

Sara stuck out her hand and said, 'DS Sara Hamilton. Thank you for seeing us.'  She introduced Aisha, and Kate Turnbull motioned them to the two chairs facing her across the desk.

'How can I help?'

'I believe you knew Paul MacIver at university.  What can you tell us about him?

'Is this about these murders up in Aberdeen?'

Sara nodded.

'Yes.  I knew him. We were exact contemporaries and we took some of the same courses.  We were an item for a while after Morven Trask dumped him. He was a good-looking bloke and I couldn't understand - I was just twenty - why Morven had let him go. He made a move on me and I was flattered enough to respond.  I moved into his flat and we were together for a year or so.'

'So you got to know him pretty well?'

'As well as anyone ever did, I suppose.  He wasn't easy to reach.  Too focused on what he always referred to as "The Question of Scotland". I was a nationalist, too.  Still am, I suppose. But I quite liked doing other things as well - drinking, dancing, clubbing.  After a while, politics and sex weren't enough, so we split up.'

'Who dumped who?'

'I dumped him.  I tried to make him lighten up a bit, have a bit of fun, think about something other than "the struggle".  He became very intense and tried to make me feel it was my fault for not being committed enough. I remember the moment when I realised why Morven had dumped him'.

'Did you stay in touch after uni?', Aisha asked.

'I saw him around.  You know what it's like. It takes a while to stop being a student, so I would see him occasionally in the bars we used to frequent when we were at uni.'

'Did his views change after he left university?'

Kate Turnbull laughed. 'Not so you'd notice!  Always going on about direct action, the "respectability" of the SNP, the pointlessness of elections.  I told him once that I thought he was trying to bore Scotland into independence.'

'Did you stay in touch for long?'

'Paul went abroad - Canada - a couple of years after he graduated.  He wrote to me, which came as a surprise.  I assumed he still fancied me.  But even his letters were political rather than personal.'

'In what way?

'He was in Montreal and he was spending time with a faction of the separatists.  Went on about how much more committed to Quebec nationalism they were than the Parti Québécois and how Scotland could learn a lot from them.'

Sara glanced at Aisha and then said, 'I don't suppose you kept the letters?'

Kate Turnbull smiled. 'I'm a lawyer.  I keep everything.  And yes, I'll let you see them.  Nothing passionate in them except the politics.'

*

On the train to Glasgow, DCs Duncan Williamson and Stewart Todd had agreed that Sara and Aisha should concentrate on MacIver’s university contacts while they tried to find anyone who could place either Mathieson or MacIlwraith in the company of Paul McIver.   They soon found that they had drawn the short straw.  It was very difficult to investigate the backgrounds of two men who had hardly ever had jobs, and whose interests, as far as they knew, were solitary:  surfing the Internet in MacIlwraith’s case, and playing with computers in Mathieson’s.

They started in Glasgow’s West End on Sunday afternoon, showing Mathieson’s picture around the shops and pubs, mainly Byres Road, trying to find anyone who recognised him. At first nobody did.  In the middle of the evening, just as they were about to call it a day, an Asian shopkeeper looked closely at the photograph and said that the man sometimes came in for a paper, or for milk, or bread.

‘When did you last see him?’

‘Maybe two weeks ago.   I remember because he asked me if I sold disposable mobile phones.  I sent him to my cousin down the road in Church Street.  He sells them, unblocks them, all that stuff.  Too complicated for me. I stick to pies and such.’

'Was he always alone when you saw him? Or was anyone with him?', Stewart Todd asked.

'Always alone. No girlfriend.'  He smiled to signal a joke. 'No boyfriend either.'

The detectives walked about a quarter of a mile down Byres Road and into Church Street where they found the shop run by the shopkeeper's cousin.  It was a tiny place of the sort that used to exist all over Glasgow, before they were wiped out by supermarkets and convenience stores:  "wee dairies" selling milk, bread, rolls, and little else.  Now it sold disposable phones, phone cards, phone accessories, earphones and the like, and offered services such as unlocking mobile phones and repairing broken screens.

They saw the family resemblance as soon as they went in.  The man was younger and more westernised than his cousin.  He was also more guarded in his greeting, probably because he guessed they were police officers and because he was running a business that sometimes operated on the edge of the law.  Williamson and Todd knew that this kind of enterprise worked on a no questions asked basis.

'We've just been to see your cousin up the road,' Duncan Williamson said as he showed his warrant card. 'He says that he sent this man here to buy a disposable phone.  Do you recognise him?'

The shopkeeper took the photograph and looked at it closely. 'Yes. He came here about two weeks ago. He bought two disposables and a charger.  Also, a couple of USB cables.  I remember because it's not usual for a customer to buy two phones at the same time.'

'Was he alone?'

'No, He was with another man. The other man did not say anything and he stood just by the door and not at the counter, as if he didn't want me to see him.  But I had to ask him to move so that I could get the cables, so I got a good look at him.'

'Is this him?'  Stewart Todd had taken a photograph of Paul MacIver out of his backpack and passed it over the counter.

'That's him.'

Duncan Williamson told the shopkeeper that they were investigating two murders and that they would have to ask him to make a formal statement. He looked apprehensive, but he nodded and said he would be happy to help.

*

After Sara Hamilton told him that Kate Turnbull had corroborated Morven Trask's information about MacIver's time in Canada, Detective Inspector Colin MacNee arranged to speak on the phone to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He emailed that he was investigating two murders and some other serious crimes and that a ‘person of interest’ – he did not mention that MacIver had been charged with conspiracy to murder, because he wanted to concentrate their minds on what he was coming to regard as the terrorism aspects of the case – had spent some time in Quebec.  He needed to know whether he had come to their attention.

After speaking with the International Liaison section at RCMP HQ in Ottawa, he had emailed Superintendent Pierre Vignault, head of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) in Quebec City. Now, at 1600hrs BST / 1100 hrs EDT he dialled his number.

‘Bonjour, Superintendent Vignault, je m’appelle Colin MacNee, et je suis en Ecosse …’

Vignault interrupted  ‘Detective MacNee, would you prefer if we spoke in English?’  Vignault had a strong accent, but his English was grammatically perfect.  Colin had thought that courtesy demanded that he try to communicate in French, but he was relieved to change to English, courtesy satisfied.

‘Thank you, Superintendent.  That would be helpful, if you don’t mind.'

‘Not a bit.’

‘We have a man in custody here in Aberdeen and we think he may have been involved in a bomb attack.  He spent a couple of years in Montreal, and it would be helpful to know if he came to your attention.’

‘Is this the bomb at Last Cairngorm?’

‘Yes. It is.’

‘We get intelligence on all terrorist or apparently terrorist attacks.  Mainly I just skim the headlines, but Ewan Last has a high profile here in Canada, so I took a bit more interest.’

‘The name of our suspect is Paul MacIver and we believe he lived in Montreal around 2004 to 2006.  We don’t have exact dates.  He has a history of radical separatist politics here in Scotland and it would be very helpful if you could tell me if he came to your notice.’

‘Do you have a date of birth for him, just to be sure.’

Colin read out MacIver’s date of birth.

‘OK, let’s see.  This may take some time.  Do you want to hold or call me back?’

Colin said he would hold.  It took no more than a couple of minutes, during which he could hear the click of a keyboard as Vignault interrogated the RCMP database.

'The non-parliamentary wing of Quebec separatism has been pretty disorganised since the collapse of the Front pour la Liberation du Quebec in 1970. Occasional attacks amounting to little more than vandalism, but we keep an eye on them. There's a group of ex-FLQ activists and student radicals who hang out in the bars around the Francophone universities and colleges in Montreal.  It looks as though your man began to frequent these places in late 2004.  We photographed him, ran the picture through the immigration database and identified him as Paul MacIver.  He never applied for a work permit, but he did some freelance writing and broadcasting.   Probably got paid in cash.  Seems to have spent a lot of time with radical separatists.

'When did he leave Canada?'

'May 2006.  He left Montreal on an Air Canada flight to Heathrow and hasn't been back.  Or if he has, immigration doesn't know about it.'

*

'Right.  We've also got some evidence of his activities in Quebec from the RCMP and from an ex-girlfriend found by Sara and Aisha.  I'll have to speak to the spooks.'

Vanessa Fiske had been reading an email from Andy Hanna when Colin came into her office after his conversation with Vignault.

'I was going to go to see Esslemont about going after Roskill, but this takes priority.'

She used some old contacts in the Met to get quickly to the right person in the security service.  She assured him that she was using a secure line and he asked how he could help.

'Paul MacIver.  We have him in custody on a charge of conspiracy to murder, but it looks as though he may have been involved in the Last Cairngorm bombing.  This is all pretty sensitive because until we arrested him he was a special adviser to the First Minister.  Her closest adviser, in fact. He has a history of radical separatism, including associating with extreme nationalists in Quebec, where he came to the notice of the Mounties' anti-terrorist branch.  It would be helpful to know if he has come to your attention.'