By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2) (10 page)

North East Constabulary's legal adviser, Fiona Marchmont, was both a solicitor and a member of the Faculty of Advocates.  She had been an academic lawyer, teaching at Aberdeen University, but after she had had her children, she had decided to take on something that used her talents, but on a basis that was a little closer to normal office hours than was possible at the Bar.   Vanessa had taken her to a couple of meetings of the WPNS and she had developed a very high opinion of both her legal competence and her judgment.

'Fiona, between you and me, I'm getting nowhere fast with this investigation, mainly because I'm being blocked at every stage by the Americans.   Is there anything I can do, short of a court action in Massachusetts, to force Hedelco to tell me what was in Keller's emails?

'If you go to court, you'll still be there when you draw your pension, so we need to find another way.  I think there may be a political solution to this, but it's risky and, might raise issues between the UK and Scottish governments.'

'Go on.'

'We need to get the US authorities to intervene to put pressure on Hedelco, and/or their parent company, to release the emails voluntarily.  I use the word loosely!   That will need to involve the Foreign Office and, probably, the legal attaché in Washington.  Our masters in Edinburgh won't necessarily like that, but under the current devolution settlement there's no other way.   But we might finesse it by going through the Law Officers in Edinburgh - probably the Solicitor General - and getting them to persuade the Advocate General to talk to the FO.'

Vanessa laughed. 'Who or what is the Advocate General.  Sounds like something out of Gilbert and Sullivan.'

'You should see him in full fig!'  Fiona said.  'He handles cross border legal issues on behalf of the UK government and there's an ongoing working relationship between him and the Scottish Law Officers.  Do you want me to sound him out?'

'Probably.  But I'll have to run it past my boss first.  I'll get back to you.'

*

Late on Friday afternoon, just after the end of the working day, Jack Eisner dialled the mobile number that had been texted to him the previous day.  Martin Gilbertson, a senior public relations officer at Mid-Aberdeen Council, answered with a simple 'Hello'.

Eisner was equally cautious. 'I need some information on how the police are doing in their enquiries into last weekend's two murders.  You don't need to know who I am and we don't have to meet, but we do need to trust each other.  I need to know that anything you tell me will be kosher. And you need to know that you will benefit from passing it on.  I'm sure you understand what I'm saying.'

No names; no introductions.  A simple act of collusion that, they hoped, would get each of them what they wanted.

'Use only this mobile.  Don't try to contact me any other way.  I'll deliver to you by text.  I suggest you get a disposable phone, what I think you call a burner. You'll deliver to me as I specify by text.  Do we understand each other?'

'Perfectly,' Eisner said.  'But I don't have a lot of time.'

'You'll have something by tomorrow morning, possibly by midnight tonight.  Don't turn in too early.'

Eisner already had a burner. He texted the number to Gilbertson.

*

It had been a hard and frustrating week. Just after half past six on Friday Vanessa Fiske was in Neil Derrick's flat with her feet up, drinking a glass of mineral water and watching
Reporting Scotland
on the BBC.  They had briefly reported on her press briefing the previous evening and, as she had made little progress since then, there would have been nothing to tell them even if they had shown any continuing interest.  The bulletin had just moved on to sport - Forres Mechanics had been drawn against Partick Thistle in the League Cup - when Neil came in, kissed Vanessa, poured himself a glass of wine, and slumped in a chair.

'Tough day?'

Vanessa tried to smile but soon abandoned the attempt.  'I'm getting nothing but nothing from both Ebright and Hedelco.  I'm not so worried about Ebright, because we've got Jamieson's laptop and Dongle has recovered the emails and decrypted them.  We've also got Keller's laptop, but its hard disk is missing and Hedelco say that they can't release the fucking emails because they're commercially sensitive.  I could go to court, but we'd probably be grandparents before we had a decision.  Fiona Marchmont's trying a political route via the Advocate General, but it's a mess, and I don't really know where to go next.'

'What did Dongle come up with?' Neil asked.

'Lots of technical stuff.  Jamieson kept using the phrase 'run to failure' to describe how some of the systems on Vermont One were being operated.  I think I can guess what that means but I'm not sure I understand the significance.  He also criticised the amount that was being spent on maintenance and the effect that this might have on production.'

'Anything else?'

'He said that he thought the operational managers on the rig were taking risks with health and safety.  That part of his reports was less firm, seemed to be based on impression rather than hard evidence, but he obviously thought that his concerns were serious enough to be reported to the Audit and Risk Committee.   And he said that the offshore unions were becoming uneasy about the conditions that their members sometimes had to work in.'

Neil refilled his glass and brought the Highland Spring over for Vanessa. 'That's quite a list.  I'm no expert, but if Jamieson was right there must be a risk, at least, that the rig would have failed an official inspection and would have to be shut down.  Can't see Ebright, and more importantly, Burtonhall, being very happy about that.  It's what's called a red risk, one that endangers the business, and the Audit and Risk Committee would want to mitigate it.'

'Hardly a motive for murder, though, unless you get deep into the kind of conspiracy theory that seldom explains this kind of crime.  Who would have known what Jamieson had found, except the people who read his encrypted emails?  This murder had to be committed by someone already on Vermont One, most likely "Thomas Nuttall", and if he did it, why did he do it?  As I said, I'm getting nowhere fast.'

'What about the financial expert you brought in from Strathclyde?  Anything from him?'

Vanessa sighed.  'Mainly generalities. He's been through a load of public domain stuff on the three companies and, as he put it, there's no smoking gun. He doesn't think they're making much money, but he doesn't see anything that might make Ebright pull out of the North Sea or Hedelco fail to break even, at worst, in their management contract at GRH.  Nor does he see anything illegal. Nothing hidden, no money laundering, nothing like that. He's going to see if he can get access to banking records, but he doesn't seem hopeful.'

Neil shook his head.  'They're American companies, the parent company registered in Delaware, so I'd guess he'd have as much trouble getting bank records through legal processes as you will getting Hedelco's emails.  It should be possible, though, to get a hold of the prospectuses sent out by Burtonhall to likely investors.   They're not quite public documents, but they're not secret or confidential.  Financial journalists quite often get copies.  They would give you an idea of what Burtonhall expected of the two companies.  You might mention that to him.'

'I will.  But if any of your contacts have them...'

'OK, I'll ask around.  Now, do you want to go out to eat?'

*

Jack Eisner received Gilbertson's first text message in the middle of the evening.

Police investigating fin posn of rig co, hosp co and parent co. Have emails sent from rig. Have some idea what Keller was investigating at GRH. Looking for Thomas Nuttall as prime suspect in rig murder. Contact from First Minister re commercial aspects. 

Eisner immediately called Cy Packard.

'Cy, they're digging deep into the company.  You need to tell me if they're going to find anything that might produce the kind of publicity here that I'll have to manage. Because if they are, I'll need some professional PR help.'

'Hell, no, Jack.  If they're relying on stuff that they can Google, we're in the clear.'

'Is that supposed to make me feel good?  We're not talking some hick police operation here. The detective leading the investigation is pretty smart, and she's called in specialist help.  And we need to assume that the press is digging around as well. Nobody will be relying on Google.'

'Hedelco will refuse to release the emails without a court order and if the Scottish police go to court they'll be there till hell freezes over.  And by that time, they'll have nailed somebody for the murders and we'll be home free.'

'Cy, don't be so fucking naive!   Ask yourself if you'd be happy to tell the Board that's your strategy.   If the Scottish First Minister is taking an interest, so will other politicians.  You need a better handling plan than waiting for it to go away.'

'Don’t tell me how to do my job! Just make sure we don't get any bad publicity.'

*

On Sunday, the
Globe
, sister paper of the
Financial Post,
ran, on its business pages, a piece by Ben Aaronson about the financial position of Ebright and Hedelco. Neither was making a lot of money on its Scottish operation, but there had been little sign that they would pull out.  Aaronson speculated about the murders, and about whether they were connected, given the common ownership of the two companies by what he described as the ‘highly secretive’ private equity company, Burtonhall:

Burtonhall, registered in Delaware to minimise the possibility of public scrutiny of its operations, has forecast, in its prospectuses to investors, profits from all its investments within three years of acquisition. 

This, of course, includes Ebright and Hedelco, and it implies that if profitability is not achieved within the promised timeframe, Burtonhall will disinvest to protect returns to investors.  

Vermont One, the oil platform where American engineer Harvey Jamieson was murdered a week ago on Friday, began production just under two years ago and its profitability is unclear.  Oil experts say that its financial performance has been, to an extent, shored up by the steadily rising price of Brent Crude.  Sources suggest that Jamieson was undertaking a technical audit of the rig.  If he had found anything that might adversely affect the platform’s performance, that would be a real concern to its operator, Ebright, and to its ultimate owner, Burtonhall.

The management contract for Grampian Regional Hospital, awarded to Hedelco eighteen months ago, was highly controversial politically and it is thought that Hedelco trimmed its margins very tightly to secure the contract, which runs for twenty-five years. Operational management of the hospital remains in the hands of local clinicians overseen, ‘aggressively’, according to doctors and unions, by a small team of American lawyers, accountants and contract managers. 

For differing reasons, the health service and the oil industry are central to the policies of the Scottish Government, and therefore to the independence project, so it would be surprising if the First Minister and her colleagues were not watching the situation very closely.

Aaronson went on to list the big names on the Burtonhall board and to suggest that the presence of so many high-profile political figures, added to the concerns of Scottish ministers, made it unlikely that the two murders would remain "purely a matter of criminal investigation".

*

On Sunday Morning, Paul MacIver, Special Adviser to the First Minister, was in his flat in Edinburgh’s New Town.  He had just been out to the newsagent in Howe Street to collect the Sunday papers and he was working through them, his practised eye quick to pick up anything that was relevant to his job or to his other activities.

Most of the Scottish titles had already relegated the double murder story to the inside pages and the UK papers, with the exception of Aaronson’s piece in the
Globe,
ignored it entirely.  It was possible, and from MacIver’s point of view, highly desirable that other papers would, on Monday, pick up on the
Globe
piece and run with it.  Contrary to his advice to his boss, he needed both the press and the police to continue to pursue what she had called the “commercial” aspects of the double murder enquiry in Aberdeen.   If that didn’t happen spontaneously, he would have to give it a push.