Blood at Yellow Water (30 page)

Helen Kwang’s second article on the Land
Council corruption scandal appeared on Page Three. It stated that
the AFP had confirmed that bribes had been paid to O’Shea and had
uncovered a number of suspicious overseas bank transfers to
companies involved in the land rights negotiations. The AFP was
continuing its investigation into the death of Bert O’Shea and had
not ruled out murder as the cause of his death.

It was a sitting day of the Parliament and
the Opposition Party lost no time in using question time to badger
the P.M. on his knowledge of the rare earths contract. Crichton
categorically denied any knowledge of the contract or of having
dealings with the companies involved. He stated that he had never
met with Takaya, the owner of Mitsustrata.

Under pressure by the media for comments,
late in the afternoon the Prime Minister’s Office put out a
statement categorically denying any personal knowledge of, or
involvement in, the rare earths contract. The statement also denied
any involvement by the Government in the Land Council corruption
case. Prime Minister Crichton refused to hold interviews with the
press.

The story gathered momentum in the evening
television and radio news. Helen Kwang had numerous requests to do
television interviews but agreed to do only one, the national
broadcaster’s current affairs program, which had the best
reputation for balanced reporting. She kept her answers concise and
to the facts of her investigations. She refused to speculate as to
the possible Australian ownership of the companies involved. After
the interview she went back to her office and started writing her
next article.

Commissioner Fisher switched off his
television after watching Helen Kwang’s interview. He had arrived
at his home a few minutes before the program started and had sat
down with his wife to eat dinner in the lounge room in front of the
T.V. set. He wondered where all this was going to end. It had
become messy and he sensed some heads at the top level were going
to roll. The evidence that Helen had given to him showing that
O’Shea had taken bribes had been confirmed by his investigators.
Sam Popolo had rung him to advise that there was some evidence that
O’Shea might have been murdered. There were no fingerprints at all
on the bottle of liquid heroine he had used to inject himself and
only one set of O’Shea’s prints on the syringe. Most of the
documents in his home and work offices had disappeared and his
computer had been wiped clean.

Fisher’s team was in the process of tracking
down the list of overseas shell companies and financial
transactions that Helen Kwang had passed on. Nothing definitive had
shown up yet but someone had gone to a lot of trouble to cover up
their identity and activities.

WEDNESDAY MORNING -CANBERRA

The headline of the National’s morning edition
printed the denial from the P.M.’s office of any involvement in
either the rare earths contract or the Land Council corruption
case. Helen Kwang had a piece outlining the complicated series of
shell companies and transactions made through the Bank of Bahamas
to set up the rare earths deal. She outlined the involvement of the
mysterious company, Ruby Resources, in both the rare earths
contract and the consultancy involved in negotiation of the land
rights issue. She pointed out that efforts made to identify the
ownership of the company had proved unsuccessful to date.

But the most sensational part of the front
page were the two photographs pictured underneath the headline of
the P.M.’s denial. Helen’s article made no reference to the photos.
One showed P.M. Crichton in close discussion with Takaya, the
billionaire majority owner of Mitsustrata. The other showed the
Prime Minister leaving the Manuka Post Office carrying a large
envelope addressed in bold black letters to RUBY RESOURCES.

The two photos were instantly re-published
through social media and within an hour had received thousands of
hits on the web. There was an uproar when Parliament sat as
question after question was asked as to the Prime Minister’s
involvement in the scandals. The Leader of the Opposition called
for the Prime Minister to resign and moved a motion of
no-confidence in the Government. The motion was narrowly defeated.
Crichton stalked out of the Parliament leaving his colleagues to
face the music.

As Parliament broke for lunch, Anna Sentoro
was mobbed by ministers and back-benchers alike seeking Crichton’s
resignation. She gathered senior Cabinet members around her and
suggested they meet immediately in the Party Room. The view of the
group was unanimous that the Government would be in danger of being
brought down if the situation was allowed to drag on. It was clear
that Crichton had to go. A group of four senior ministers led by
Anna was selected to approach Crichton. They marched to his office
and requested a meeting. Crichton had no forewarning of their
arrival and immediately took a confrontational approach. He claimed
that the allegations were all lies and a plot to get rid of him. He
abused Anna for showing disloyalty. Anna explained calmly that the
party was totally unanimous in its view that either he resign
immediately or he would be voted out in the party room. The
Government was already down in the polls and would not be able to
survive a scandal of this nature. They gave him an hour to make his
decision and walked out of his office.

At a hastily called press conference on the
steps of Parliament House later that afternoon, Crichton made a
short announcement that he was resigning from the leadership and
the Parliament. He claimed that the allegations made against him
were fallacious and vicious but for the sake of the Party he would
step down voluntarily. He was completely innocent of the
allegations but he didn’t want to put his family or colleagues
through the stress of such a malicious campaign.

He was immediately besieged by journalists
yelling out questions but turned on his heels and hurried back to
his office surrounded by security officers. As soon as he left,
there was a mad scramble by the journalists to file their reports
for the evening news.

Subsequently Anna Sentoro was contacted by
several key players in the party, encouraging her to run for the
leadership vacancy. She went home and discussed the leadership
question with her husband and children.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON - CANBERRA

The Government Whip called order to the meeting of
Liberal members in the Party Room. He called for nominations to the
leadership of the political party in the light of the resignation
of Malcolm Crichton. Anna Sentoro was quickly nominated by one of
the backbenchers. The Whip called for other nominations but there
was only silence in the room. The Whip then announced that the new
leader of the Party and Prime Minister Designate would be Anna
Sentoro. She gave a short speech thanking her colleagues for their
support and vowed to work with them in overcoming the current
crisis and developing policies that improved the lives of the
Australian people.

The Chief Whip walked out of the Party Room
and announced to the waiting Press Gallery that the Party had
elected Anna Sentoro as its leader and Prime Minister Elect.

WEDNESDAY EVENING - MELBOURNE

Jake walked through Melbourne airport having just
flown in from Sydney. He paused when he saw the face of Anna
Sentoro on television in the terminal. She was giving a press
conference at a hotel in Melbourne. The commentator mentioned that
she would be the third Australian Prime Minister within a period of
two weeks and only the second woman ever to be an Australian Prime
Minister. Jake listened to her in admiration as she made an
acceptance speech in which she paid enormous tribute to Neville
Murray whose state funeral was to be held in Melbourne the next
morning. Jake had complete faith that she would make a great Prime
Minister and could create a new era in Australia’s political
history.

He walked out the terminal and caught a taxi
to take him to his sister’s place at Black Rock, a bayside suburb
of Melbourne. When he arrived at the front door he was greeted by
the fresh faces of two excited little girls who immediately jumped
into his arms calling him “Jake the Snake”. Melanie and her husband
Alex laughed as he carried the girls into the hall way.

THURSDAY - MELBOURNE

Former Prime Minister Neville Murray was farewelled
at a state funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral in Swanston Street in the
heart of the city of Melbourne. Traffic had been blocked off around
the cathedral to cater for the thousands of mourners expected to
attend. A Day of Mourning had been declared and all Australian
flags around the country were lowered to half-mast.

Jake was surprised to receive an invitation
to the memorial service and presumed Anna Sentoro’s office had
nominated him as a guest. He arrived at 10.30 a.m., thirty minutes
before the service was due to commence and was ushered to a seat in
the reserved area of the church. The cathedral was already packed
to capacity. The mourners spilled out into the adjacent Federation
Square where the memorial service was being telecast live on a huge
screen. Television crews and photographers were set up outside the
cathedral to catch the dignitaries entering the church.

Jake looked around and could see some of the
most powerful people in the country; past Prime Ministers,
ministers and parliamentarians from all sides of politics, former
governors-general, State Premiers, community and business leaders
and celebrities. Foreign dignitaries included Prime Ministers and
Presidents from Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South East Asia and
Pacific Island Nations; the Vice-President of the USA, the Chinese
Premier, the Deputy Prime Minister from Japan and ambassadors
resident in Australia. The Archbishop of Melbourne led the service
in honouring Murray’s lifetime commitment to public service, a life
tragically cut short by a terrible terrorist attack. Family members
and friends paid glowing tributes to his character and devotion to
his family. Anna Sentoro, as Prime Minister in-waiting, spoke
eloquently on behalf of the Government in paying respects to his
achievements in government, business and the wider community.

Outside the church, thousands of the public
watched solemnly as the coffin, draped in the Australian flag, was
carried out of the cathedral by family members and placed in the
back of a hearse. A large cavalcade of black cars, surrounded by
security officers, followed the hearse as it wound its way slowly
down Swanston Street, the main thoroughfare through the city, to
the Melbourne Cemetery on the edge of the city. Thousands of
mourners lined the street paying their respects as Neville Murray
made his last journey.

*

Jake left the cathedral and walked to the
Austrade office where he had meetings lined up for the afternoon.
He was struck by how such a tragedy had brought people together,
even those who previously had been critics of the former Prime
Minister. Although his heart wasn’t in it, he managed to get
through the afternoon’s appointments and arrived at Melanie’s home
by 6p.m., looking forward to a home cooked meal and a relaxing
evening.

FRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY

On Friday, Jake finished off his work commitments by
attending several meetings with businesses with interests in Japan.
Having completed his visits program, he was able to spend the
entire weekend with Melanie and her family. He strolled along the
beach with them at Half Moon Bay, watched the girls compete at
Little Athletics, ate with them at their favourite restaurant,
watched a DVD and read bedtime stories to the girls. He enjoyed
just being part of a family, something which he realised had been
missing from his life for a long time.

Melanie wanted to know everything about the
state funeral and what had happened to him over the last two weeks.
Bill had rung her to tell her of some of the story but she wanted
Jake’s version. She gasped in amazement when Jake told her about
his role in P.M. Koshi’s escape from the Chinese terrorists. She
plied him with questions about Shoni and their relationship. He was
non-committal, saying it would take time but she would be the first
to know if their relationship became serious.

On Monday morning he bade farewell to each
of them, took a taxi to the international airport and boarded a
plane for Tokyo. He dozed on and off throughout the flight but
thought a lot about his future, his career and his personal life.
Most of all he thought about Shoni.

SIX MONTHS LATER - TOKYO

Jake and Shoni had been sipping coffee from paper
cups, waiting in the arrivals area at Narita airport for nearly an
hour, before they saw the family exit from the customs area. His
sister Melanie was the first to emerge closely followed by the two
girls wearing identical backpacks and Alex dragging a trolley piled
high with luggage. Jake embraced each of them warmly and introduced
Shoni. He herded them outside the terminal to the pick-up area
where the embassy driver was waiting in a combi-van. The driver
packed their luggage into the van and they all climbed in for the
long drive to the city.

Once settled in the vehicle, Jake told them
that Bill and Lizzie had already arrived and were settled into his
new apartment. He asked them how their flight was and they all
started talking at once. The girls took an instant shine to Shoni
and started asking her questions about the wedding. Melanie tried
to shush them but Shoni was happy to outline the wedding plans.
They listened intently as she explained that she and Jake were
having a traditional Japanese wedding in the picturesque village of
Takayama where she had grown up. Her family and Jake’s family would
stay at a lovely ryokan, a Japanese inn, and the wedding would be
held in the grounds of the ryokan in a beautiful Japanese
Garden.