Cartel by Derek Fee

Author:Derek Fee
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Nicholas Elliot sat at his desk examining the pages of the Financial Times. He sighed perceptibly. The 'Observer' column of Britain's most respected daily paper was speculating on the candidates from the Civil Service for the Honours List and Elliot's name was not mentioned.

There was a knock on his door and Georges Lafonde entered the room.

'Have you seen the newspapers?' Lafonde asked.

'I'm just finishing the Financial Times,' Elliot replied, clicking his fingers and pointing to the chair directly before his desk. 'And damn depressing reading it makes too. Whatever fool is compiling the Observer column these days is speculating on the Honours List and he neglects to mention my name.'

Lafonde sat down in the chair indicated by his master. 'Probably just an oversight,' he said laconically, viewing Elliot through his bushy eyebrows and hooded lids.

'Don't be so bloody naive.' Elliot folded the pink-coloured paper and tossed it to the far edge of his desk. 'A remark like that shows just how much you know about the British political establishment. Anybody who has spent more than a weekend in Brussels could well be considered to have gone native. And since I've spent ten years here, there are probably those at the Foreign Office who consider me to be as Belgian as Hercule Poirot.'

'I don't suppose that you've read today's copy of Le Soir?' Lafonde asked.

'In all my time living in this poor excuse for a capital city, I have neither felt the need to read a local newspaper nor to watch one of the local television channels.'

'There's a rather interesting report.' Lafonde opened a blue cardboard file cover and produced a newspaper cutting which he laid on the desk before Elliot.

The competition Director General ignored the piece of newspaper. 'What does it say?'

'A man was found dead in the basement of the apartment building where Finn Jorgensen used to live.’ Lafonde said, removing the cutting and replacing it in the folder. 'The mystery is that nobody seems to have any idea who the individual was or what he was doing there. I only remembered the address myself because I went through Jorgensen's file again after that journalist visited you.'

'Is this something that should worry us?' Elliot asked, beginning to open the first item in his stack of morning mail.

'It could be just a coincidence.'

'Continue’ Elliot said, reading the second letter in the pack.

'You told me to keep an eye out for anything that could jeopardise the investigation into the chemical cartel, and that's just what I'm doing.' Lafonde slouched back in the chair, trying to fight down his annoyance at Elliot's inattention.

'I'm depending on you, Georges’ Elliot said, ‘to ensure that there are no screw-ups in preparing the case. A dead man being found in the basement of Jorgensen's apartment building is not my idea of a threat.' He picked another letter off the pile and continued reading.

Lafonde stood and began to move towards the door. He had seen his boss terminate enough interviews to know that his own was over.

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