Predator

Hector Cross leaned back in his office chair. ‘Well,’ he said to himself, ‘that was more interesting than I’d expected.’ He looked at the monitor, and even though the lovely Dr Franklin could no longer see or hear him he added, ‘And I’ll look forward to meeting you very much, too.’

It was something Weiss said,’ Malinga told Connie Hernandez when they were going over the interviews, back at Company A headquarters. ‘I asked him if he’d ever previously represented Johnny Congo, prior to now, and he thought awhile then said …’ Malinga looked at his notes to get the phrasing absolutely correct, ‘OK, here it is. He said this was “the first time in my life that I represented a man called Johnny Congo”. Doesn’t it strike you as odd, the way he said that?’

‘You know lawyers,’ Hernandez replied. ‘Always trying to twist words.’

‘Yeah, they do. But only when there’s a reason for not giving the straight answer. He didn’t say he’d never represented Johnny Congo. It was “a man called Johnny Congo”. Not even “the man called Johnny Congo”. It was “a man”.’

‘A man, the man, what’s the diff?’

‘Because “a man” could be called something else. Don’t you get it? He didn’t represent a man called Johnny Congo. But he did represent a guy with another name …’

‘Who was actually Johnny Congo.’

‘Maybe.’

‘But how would he not know that the two people were the same guy? He was his lawyer.’

‘What if he never actually met the first guy? What if it was all done by phone calls and emails? Think about it. Congo was out of the country, in Africa or wherever. He couldn’t come back, couldn’t even use his real name. But he hires Weiss, Mendoza and Burnett to work for him, using an alias.’

‘OK,’ said Hernandez, starting to become a little more convinced. ‘So we go back to Weiss, ask him what the deal was.’

Mendoza shook his head. ‘No. I don’t want to alert him. But here’s what you can do for me. Call the Marshals. See if you can speak to anyone who was on the crew that brought Congo back from Abu Zara. Find out anything they know about where he’d been before that, any aliases he might have used. See, if Congo used another name to deal with Weiss, he might have used it to get out of the country, too. And if we know how he got out, we might just be able to figure out where he’s gone. And then maybe we’ll catch the son of a bitch.’

Hernandez had once dated a guy who’d been on the US Marshals Gulf Coast Offender and Violent Fugitive Task Force. It hadn’t ended well. If she’d never said another word to him in her life she wouldn’t have complained. But needs must, so she gave him a call.

Her old date wasn’t any happier to hear from Connie Hernandez than she was to speak to him. He couldn’t help her directly, but just to get out of the conversation he put her on to someone else who might, and three more degrees of law enforcement separation later she found herself talking to one of the men who’d lifted Congo out of Abu Zara.

‘This is off the record, right?’ the Marshal insisted.

‘Sure, whatever, I’m just looking for a lead. Where I get it isn’t an issue.’

‘OK, so this whole Abu Zara thing was just weird. I mean, there was no formal extradition. We just get the call that an escaped murderer who’s been wanted, like, forever is sitting in a cell somewhere no one has ever heard of. But the Sultan who runs the place is happy to let us have the killer as a favour to his good buddy, some Limey dude who caught him.’

‘Caught him where?’

‘We weren’t told. Africa somewhere was all we heard.’

‘How about the Limey? Did they tell you anything about him?’

‘The man could throw a punch, I can tell you that much. Knocked Congo out cold with one shot, and that evil bastard was a beast.’

‘What? A civilian hit a prisoner in your custody and you just let him?’

‘Wasn’t that simple. We flew into Abu Zara and were told to go to the Sultan’s private hangar. Man, it was vast. The guy basically has his own personal airline. Anyway, we get there and the Limey has this team with him, guarding Congo – all high-end mercenary Joes, ex-Special Forces. So they hand Congo over and suddenly Congo goes apeshit, starts trash-talking the Limey, cussing him out, real filthy language, and we’re trying to restrain him but it’s like trying to tie down Godzilla. Then Congo says he killed the Limey’s wife, says she was a whore and the next thing we know – bam! – Congo’s out, I mean stone cold out, right there on the hangar floor. Unbe-frickin-lievable.’

The Marshal started laughing at the memory. Hernandez was just about to butt in, but before she could he suddenly said, ‘Wait! I just remembered something. While Congo was screaming, he said the guy’s name, the Limey.’

‘Which was …?’

‘Wait, it’s just coming to me. Began with “C”. Like, ah …’ The Marshal tried to bring the name back to his mind: ‘C-C-C …’

‘Christ …’ sighed Hernandez frustratedly.

‘That’s it!’ the Marshal exclaimed. ‘Cross, his name was Cross! Guess that word-association thing really does work, huh?’

‘Thank you,’ said Hernandez, with a whole new tone of genuine gratitude. ‘You’ve been a very, very great help.’

‘Well, I guess I’m glad to have been of service,’ the Marshal said, sounding a little surprised by the sudden change in her attitude.

Hernandez hung up. It sounded like the Marshal hadn’t followed the story of the murder of Hazel Bannock Cross. Well, that wasn’t surprising. Plenty of cops didn’t have time to worry about other people’s cases and Bannock Oil’s PR people had done everything they could to minimize coverage of the tragedy. But even if Hernandez was hardly the girly type, she still needed to go to the hairdresser, just like any other woman. And one time she’d sat waiting for her stylist to start work, reading a trashy glossy weekly that happened to have a story headlined: ‘Tragic Death of Hazel Bannock … and Miracle Birth of Her Billionaire Baby’. So she knew exactly who Cross was. Now she just had to find him.

Cross was in his office, just getting ready for his afternoon meeting with Dave Imbiss and the O’Quinns, when the phone rang. ‘I’ve got a Tom Nocerino from Bannock Oil Corporate Communications, in Houston, holding for you,’ Agatha informed him. ‘He says he needs a quote from you about your role in the Angolan project. He said it was for the investors’ newsletter.’

‘I’ve not heard of that before.’

‘It’s new apparently. Would you like to speak to him, or shall I ask him to call back?’

‘Might as well get it over and done with. Put him through.’

‘Thank you so much, sir, for sparing me your time,’ Nocerino began in a voice sticky with sycophancy.

‘So this is just for a newsletter, right? I’m not going to see it on my newsfeed one morning because someone’s stuck it in a press release and the whole world’s been treated to my opinions?’

‘Absolutely not, Mr Cross. I can assure you, sir, this is purely private and in-house. It’s a way of keeping valued investors in the loop, making them feel they’ve got a relationship with Bannock Oil that’s more than just financial.’

‘I’ve not heard of this before.’

‘No, sir, it’s a very new concept. In fact, this will be the first edition. But the idea came right from the top.’

‘From John Bigelow?’ Cross asked, thinking to himself how typical it was of the veteran politician to be more concerned with the appearance of things than the practicalities of them.

‘Yes, sir,’ Nocerino replied. ‘Senator Bigelow believes very strongly in the importance of reaching out to the people and institutions that have put their faith and their trust in Bannock Oil.’

‘And their money …’

‘Yes, sir. That too.’

‘OK then, what do you need?’

‘Just a few words about your role as Director of Security, in relation to the Magna Grande field. We don’t need anything too specific, just something about how excited you are by the potential of Bannock’s Angolan operations and how you’re determined to ensure that our employees and our corporate assets are kept completely secure. If you’d rather, I can draft a statement for your approval.’

‘No, if I’m going to have words against my name, I’d rather say them myself. So, can I start talking?’

‘Go ahead, sir.’

Cross took a second to collect his thoughts, then began dictating: ‘“The development of the Magna Grande field offers Bannock Oil a fantastic” … no, “a unique opportunity to, ah, establish our presence in the increasingly significant West African oil industry. As Director of Security it’s my responsibility to ensure that all our installations and, most importantly, all our employees and contractors are properly protected from any possible threats against them. As I speak, I’m about to go into a meeting with my most senior staff to discuss the various challenges we’re likely to face, and how best to prepare for every eventuality. We’ve had many years of experience working on Bannock’s operations in Abu Zara …”’ Cross paused. ‘Hang on, make that “working together on Bannock’s operations”, et cetera. OK, new sentence: “With the full support of the Abu Zaran authorities, we’ve maintained a security cordon that has kept people safe and oil flowing at all times. Now we’re moving into an offshore environment, so it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be very hard work. But our commitment to doing the best job to the highest standards will be just as great as ever.”’