By All Means (Fiske and MacNee Mysteries Book 2) (36 page)

*

It was already 2200 hrs local time and Vanessa had been awake, more or less, for well over twenty-four hours.  Her text to Colin MacNee was terse and to the point:

Conf call: you, Chief, DCS, FM, PF, HC: any time after 0700 GMT. Pls confirm  asap.

She added the hotel number and room, put her phone on charge on the side table and climbed into bed in the hope of getting a few hours sleep before the call.   The text alert woke her at 0400 hrs, which meant she had had just over five hours sleep.  She still felt wretched, but it was the kind of wretched that could be overcome, at least for a few hours, by a hot shower and, if she could face it and keep it down, a decent breakfast, which she'd have to order from room service.  Colin's text was even more terse than hers had been:

0830 GMT / 0430 AST
.

*

'It's a long shot, but I may be able to arrest him at the airport this morning.  The local police will provide assistance, but only if we have issued an international arrest warrant.  He's booked on two flights, one with connections to Havana and one with a connection through Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica.  I think he's unlikely to risk a stopover in the US because he'll guess - don't ask me how I know this - that the American authorities, from Homeland Security to the CIA, are on his case.   The other booking has a stop in Curacao, which keeps him in European jurisdiction, so if I can't nail him here, we might be able to have him arrested there.  I've booked myself on the same flight, as a precaution.'

'I've already got approval from the Crown Office to issue the warrant, so we can get it to you by email or fax within the hour.  Presumably we should send it to police HQ in Aruba?'  This was Fiona Marchmont. 

'We'll have to look at some of the "administrative"' - the Chief's emphasis on the word was telling - 'aspects of your absence when you get back, Vanessa.  For now, the DCS and I are prepared to sanction your proposed course of action.  However, you should know that the pressure from the press has hardly diminished.   They've done everything short of actually saying that he's a fugitive from justice.  I don't think we can hold the line much longer.'

'Harry Conival here, Chief Inspector. Everyone here knows that I think we should have gone public on this before now.   We'll have to put out a press statement as soon as the warrant is issued.  But we'll need to follow up with a press conference and I assume you'll want to take it, in person.'

'I'm sorry you've been messed about, Harry.  Couldn't be helped. If I can't get back in the next forty-eight hours, I'll find a way to do it by videolink. Colin, could you get admin to find out what the options are, given that my travel plans are fluid?'

'I guess that means Aruba, Curacao or Heathrow.  Or are you planning any side trips?'

Vanessa allowed herself a laugh. 'Hardly.  I don't care if I never see the inside of a plane again.  Easiest thing will be to do it from here, sooner rather than later.  But that will depend on what happens in the next few hours.'

*

DCI Fiske got into a taxi at just before 0600 hrs and went to police HQ.  She collected the arrest warrant authorising the arrest of 'James Michael Roskill, aka Patrick Joseph Carroll' on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause explosions, and conspiracy to breach the telecommunications acts. She was driven in an unmarked police van to the airport, accompanied by the local commander of police and three other officers.  By 0615, the van was parked where it could observe, from a distance of about 20 metres, the security-restricted drop off area.

By 0715,Vanessa was becoming both impatient and apprehensive.   Perhaps Roskill had, after all, decided to risk the Miami stopover.  She had agreed with Eisner, that he should cover that departure and that she would join him if Roskill failed to show for the Curacao flight.  The police commander, sitting in front beside the driver, took a call on her mobile and had a brief conversation in Dutch.  She ended the call and turned to Vanessa.

'Air traffic control have just alerted us to a flight plan lodged for a private jet plane that arrived last night from the British Virgin Islands.  The pilot has requested an early take-off slot, with a routing to San Jose, Costa Rica.'

'Is there a separate departure point for private flights?'

'Yes.  They use a dedicated terminal with its own apron and taxi way.  They pay for exit and entry services also.  It's expensive, but it means they don't have to use security and passport control in the main building.'

'Let's go!'  But Vanessa felt that James Michael Roskill was slipping from her grasp.

*

As the police van turned towards the private terminal, DCI Fiske called Jack Eisner on his mobile.  Very quickly, the van had a BMW on its tail and she thought she recognised Eisner in the front passenger seat and David Schulz driving.

As soon as the two vehicles got to the entrance to the terminal, Vanessa and Eisner, closely followed by the police commander and her officers, rushed into the building.   Through the full-length windows behind reception they saw a Learjet 70 turning on to the runway.  The commander called air traffic control, but the jet had been cleared for take-off.  As she put down the handset, Fiske and Eisner watched the plane accelerate along the runway and take off over the Caribbean.

'Any point in checking the passenger manifest?' Eisner asked.

Vanessa shook her head.  'Not really.  But I suppose I should confirm what we already know.'

*

Harry Conival's press release, approved by Esslemont, the PF and Special Branch, went out at 1200 hrs GMT / 0800 hrs AST.

ABERDEEN PROCURATOR FISCAL APPROVES CHARGES AGAINST JAMES MICHAEL ROSKILL

The Procurator Fiscal in Aberdeen, having reviewed evidence presented to him by North East Constabulary, has approved the following charges against James Michael Roskill, 63, of Notting Hill, London:

Conspiracy to murder Peter Keller and Harvey Jamieson, jointly and severally with Paul MacIver, Simon Mathieson and Andrew MacIlwraith;

Conspiracy to cause an explosion, to the endangerment of life, jointly with Paul MacIver;

Conspiracy to breach the telecommunication acts, jointly with Paul MacIver.

Mr Roskill was interviewed under caution recently, in London, by officers from North East Constabulary, after which a decision was taken to arrest him on the above charges
.  Mr Roskill could not be found and an international warrant for his arrest has now been issued. Assistance is being sought from police services in all countries.

A press conference will take place today at 1700 hrs.  It will be taken by videolink by DCI Vanessa Fiske, Senior Investigating Officer, and will be attended by DI Colin MacNee, Deputy SIO, and by DCS Campbell Esslemont, Head of NEC CID.  

*

As she was preparing for the press conference, Vanessa took a call from Kenneth Bancroft.

'Julia Roskill has just booked a flight, Business Class, from London to San Jose, Costa Rica, via Atlanta.'

‘And we don’t have an extradition treaty with Costa Rica?’

'No, we don't, but in very special cases an
ad hoc
application for repatriation may be entertained.'    

'This press conference will be interesting.'

EPILOGUE

Seven months later, after MacIver, Mathieson and MacIlwraith had been tried at the High Court in Edinburgh and convicted on all charges, Ben Aaronson and Carl, his otherwise anonymous FRIG associate, interviewed James Michael Roskill at his villa near San Jose, Costa Rica.    It had taken weeks of negotiation through intermediaries to set it up.  Their first contact had been Edmund Cordingley who, after being interviewed by DCI Fiske and Kenneth Bancroft of Special Branch, but neither arrested nor charged, had given entirely unhelpful but not obviously dishonest evidence at the trial.  With MacIver in prison, and his client apparently safe from any Scottish legal process that might try to bring him to trial, Cordingley had finally, but on condition of anonymity, returned Aaronson's call.

Eventually, Aaronson had been told the specific flight on which he and his colleague should arrive in San Jose.  When they had cleared immigration, they searched the line of drivers waiting for their clients until they saw a card reading "EXFLT", identified themselves and were taken, without a word spoken, to a black people carrier with dark windows.   Forty minutes later they arrived at the villa, a substantial house overlooking the sea.  They had an hour or so with Roskill, who was accompanied by Cordingley, and their "World Exclusive", supported by a picture of the former Prime Minister taken on Carl's smartphone, appeared under Aaronson's byline on the front page of the
Financial Post.

ROSKILL DENIES IT ALL

In his first interview since leaving the United Kingdom, James Michael Roskill spoke exclusively to the
Financial Post.
The full interview appears on pages 4 and 5.

The former Prime Minister spoke frankly about his business interests, his use of overseas tax havens - "all entirely legal" - and his decision to set up his own private equity company.  He has resigned from the Board of Burtonhall and he accepts that his position as a non-executive director of Mercury Fulfilment had become untenable as soon as his name was linked, "completely erroneously", with the cyber attack on Mercury's Scottish warehouse.   His contacts with Paul MacIver, former special adviser to the former First Minister of Scotland, had been '"intermittent and entirely political".   Reports that he had funded extremist nationalism were "so fantastical as to be hardly worthy of comment".

Roskill explained why he had decided to live permanently in Costa Rica, claiming that the absence of an extradition treaty with the UK was "irrelevant and unconnected" with his move from London.  He said he had been impressed by the country's environmental policies, its commitment to world peace as demonstrated by the absence of an army, and its record on human rights. The headquarters of the various foundations and trusts that bear the Roskill name would be moved to San Jose...

*

The day after the trial, Commander Kenneth Bancroft met Sir Justin Carey, the Permanent Secretary, in his room at the Foreign Office.   Later that week, Sir Justin, who had been informed by Bancroft of what Special Branch knew of his business activities, and their intention, "if the need arose", to pass the information to the financial regulatory authorities, announced that he would take early retirement, with immediate effect.

*

DCI Vanessa Fiske, in the second week of her maternity leave, was alerted by Harry Conival to Aaronson's interview with Roskill.   As she read it on the
FP
website
,
she tried not to get angry.  She laughed at Roskill's description of his relationship with MacIver and she was just about to phone Neil to talk about it when she felt the first twinge.

Seventeen hours later, with Neil at her side, she gave birth, to a girl and a boy, combined weight 8 pounds and 11 ounces.  Janet had called it right.  She was in her thirty-second week.