GoodBye Morality

  ‘Andrea, Sam and Karen gave detailed statements to the police. Together with Paul Dockett’s report, they have enough. You’ll be arrested as soon as the French Police arrives.’

  John was silent. The only sound was the breeze in the rushes and the movement of the river.

  ‘I came to warn you. But also to see if I could help.’

  John sighed and turned to him. ‘When Arthur told me about the hearing, I understood what had happened. Now I’m trapped by the life I created for myself. I could run but what’s the point? All I want is to be here on the farm with Cecilia and our child... But nobody can control their own destiny, can they? I’m doomed.’

  ‘You’ll have to give yourself up. I’ve come to plead with you to do that. The Invisible Company can be used as a bargaining tool. The British government has made it perfectly clear they’ll do anything to avoid a scandal. That’s why they let me go. They’d settle for a reasonable sentence, I’m sure of it. You’ve come through worse before now.’

  ‘I can’t face prison.’ John sounded very tired. ‘To end my life that way would be pathetic. I don’t want to spend ten years or so wishing every day away.’

  ‘You don’t have any choice, John. Think of Cecilia and your daughter. They’re all that matter now.’

  ‘There’s always another way.’ He was directly into Erick’s eyes. ‘Suicide seems very tempting at this moment. I’ve come prepared.’ As he spoke, he put his hand into his pocket and brought out a small gun. For a split second Erick was aware that he could easily kill both of them. He was under no illusions now. His friend had admitted to several killings and they both knew there had been others. One more death couldn’t make much difference before he killed himself. Erick felt the blood thunder in his ears. He fixed his thoughts on Andrea. It was for her sake he had acted to betray John and now he would have to face the consequences.

  John slid the gun out of sight, looked back to the river. Erick breathed out in relief.

  ‘You’ve brought some documents, I suppose.’ John’s tone was cold and matter‑of‑fact.

  ‘Yes.’ Erick was relieved that the conversation had taken another turn. ‘If the Company falls apart, we’re both finished. You must sign the whole thing over to me, give me authority on all the bank mandates. I swear I’ll always look after you and Cecilia.’

  ‘I’ll sign anything you put in front of me.’ Without even reading the documents Erick handed over, which had been speedily prepared by Thomas Wren, John signed in the places indicated.

  ‘Let Bertrand Boucher take absolute control over all the criminal enterprises,’ he said, laying down the pen. ‘Don’t touch them, Erick. I want your promise? Last week Boucher was on the island of Aruba. A worldwide criminal alliance has been formed to arbitrate confrontation between organisations, overcrowding of drug routes, market share, high‑tech resources and intelligence gathering, the hiring out of specialists to each other. That’s the way the future is going and I don’t like it. Not your scene either. But Boucher can take it in his stride. He must have total control of the criminal operations or the Invisible Company will implode. It’s vital you listen to me about this. Promise me you won’t get involved?’

  ‘I’ll talk to Bertrand,’ Erick agreed. ‘Work out some plan where we agree a target for the next year and how he meets the figures is up to him. God knows, I don’t have the stomach for that type of operation, whatever the level. You must promise me that your hit squad, or whoever carried out the killings, will retire far away from England?’ When John nodded, Erick continued, ‘Let’s go back to the house now. I want to phone Rubinstein. And please, John, give yourself up to the police. Don’t let them come for you.’

  John put the gun down on the bench. He made no move to get up. ‘You’re now a very rich, very powerful man. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?’

  ‘Come back to the farm with me. I think we both could need a stiff Cognac.’

  John turned away. ‘Just give me a few minutes alone. I’ll catch up with you.’

  Erick began walking away. He did not like leaving John alone with the gun but perhaps that was the best way for him to end things. When he reached the path through the lavender, he stopped, expecting at any second to hear a gun shot. When there had been nothing for ten minutes, he hurried back towards the river, his heart thudding. He could not let John end his own life What had he been thinking of?

  John was still sitting where he had left him, nursing the gun in one hand, patting the dog with the other.

  ‘Please come back with me. You can’t do it. Think of Cecilia and your daughter. John for pity’s sake...’

  Slowly he rose to his feet. He put the gun back in his pocket and walked a few steps to the river bank. There he bent down, took off the panama hat and carefully placed it on the water. Both men watched it float away until it passed out of sight. Then they walked in silence back towards the house, Winston following a few steps behind.

  * * *

  ‘It seems we have visitors already,’ John commented, seeing two black sedans parked in the farm yard. ‘Did they come with you?’

  DCI Sarah Wilson and six uniformed French police men were talking to Cecilia.

  ‘Of course not. I would have told you,’ Erick protested.

  ‘Then let’s get this over with quickly.’

  Cecilia had broken away from the visitors and was running towards him. Erick pushed past the police brusquely and went to make a phone call to Rubinstein from the phone in the hall.

  When he came out again, John was handcuffed between two French officers.

  ‘We will be taking Mr Forbes to Montpellier Police Station,’ Sarah Wilson said to Erick. ‘He’ll be kept there until the extradition papers arrive.’ She held up John’s gun. ‘Did you come to warn him?’

  ‘I came to tell him about the statements that we’d made. I owed him that.’

  She lifted her eyebrows slightly then issued orders in French to three of the policemen, who went inside the house to carry out a search. John was bundled into the back seat of a car, flanked by his two escorts, and Sarah ordered them to leave.

  Erick realised Cecilia was not fully aware of what was happening. He made her sit down outside and put his arm round her. Madame Popougnot sat on the other side of her, wringing her hands.

  In silence, they watched the police car receding into the distance through the lavender fields, towards the heavy open iron gates.

  Winston had tried to follow the car but eventually gave up, turned round and walked slowly back towards the farm.

  Just before the police car reached the gates, they saw a black Citroen car outside them suddenly reversing fast, forcing the police car to a halt. With a cry of alarm Erick stood up. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

   * * *

  John instinctively ducked when the back window was smashed. The policeman on his left slumped over him, blood pouring from the side of his head. The driver had opened his door and begun to climb out when a hail of bullets cut him down.

  The officer on John’s right managed to force open his door but was unable to get out as the prisoner had been pinned down by his colleague’s dead weight. As he fumbled for the key to the handcuffs, he was shot several times. He fell out of the car dragging John along the seat.

  Then everything went deathly quiet.

  John looked and found himself facing the barrel of a semi‑automatic. A finger moved the catch from automatic to single rounds.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Forbes,’ said a familiar Glaswegian voice. Beneath the black balaclava pulled over his face, John caught a glimpse of a pair of grey eyes, ruefully appraising him. Jim or Neil? Not that it mattered. They were equally deadly. He had seen to that. At last this way he would not have to face the slow torture of prison. And he would die well. No pleading, he could still determine his fate. Just one final command.

  ‘Do it. Just do it.’

  The first bullet shattered his jawbone, passing through his tongue and lifting h
im backwards.

  The second smashed into his right side.

  John Forbes died moments after the third, fourth and fifth had shattered his skull.

  A warm breeze blew over his bloodied face, bringing with it the distant wailing of women and the strong clear scent from the lavender fields.

  EPILOGUE

  _________________________

  With the help of le Maire, John Forbes’s funeral took place four days later.

  Cecilia, Alina, and Madame Popougnot, together with Arthur and Diana Black and Erick and Andrea Elgberg, attended the service in the village church where John and Cecilia had been married.

  At a short ceremony the following day his ashes were scattered on the river at Michael’s Place.

  Cecilia moved back to her own house in the village close by. It took Madame Popougnot many months of persuasion before John’s wife and child came back to the lavender farm.

  ‘No one understood John better than me,’ Cecilia repeatedly tells her. ‘I knew my husband and he was a good man.’

  * * *

  Catherine Forbes was in shock for several months after John’s death and spent some time in a private clinic.

  Not a day passes now without her thinking of him and Michael.

  She lives alone in a house in Flood Street, Chelsea, and visits Michael’s Place every year in June.

  * * *

  Mona Hobson has started drinking heavily and lives a recluse’s existence in her flat in St. John’s Wood.

  Today she is recognised as a major artist, her paintings exhibited in the most prestigious galleries in the world.

  * * *

  Arthur Black put a manager in charge of Black’s of Mayfair and he and Diana have bought a home in Rome, where they now live permanently.

  A travelling exhibition of their collection of ancient art has been gratefully welcomed by several countries. They bear the expense themselves, letting it be known that they do so in the memory of a dear friend, who helped make it all possible.

  Since John Forbes’ death they have never had any contact with the Elgbergs.

  * * *

  Ivan Fyodor Osov and his wife Petra have moved permanently to a palatial penthouse overlooking the harbour in Cannes.

  The climate there is better for Ivan’s worsening arthritis.

  He has a dedicated team taking care of his activities in Russia.

  * * *

  Rudi Grattini died in his sleep, sitting in a chair in the summer sun outside his villa in Rome. He had arranged that the laboratories producing the Serissa capsules could continue under Bertrand Boucher’s supervision after his death.

  Both Bertrand Boucher and Erick Elgberg were at his funeral.

  * * *

  Jim and Neil Clark moved to Australia with their families. Jim lives in Brisbane, where he owns a detective agency specialising in divorce investigations.

  Neil lives in Tweed Heads, Queensland, where he works as a security consultant for hotels in Surfer’s Paradise.

  The two families have never met, though the brothers keep in touch by phone occasionally.

  * * *

  Karen Knudsen lives in Wilton Street, Belgravia, in a top floor flat. She works for Erick Elgberg three days a week and is a board member of Purcell‑Jensen. The rest of her time she devotes to the Samaritans.

  * * *

  After Randolph Purcell’s retirement, a highly respected and well‑connected former politician accepted the position of chairman of the Purcell‑Jensen Group. The Government recently conferred The Queens Award for Industry on it.

  * * *

  Bertrand Boucher took over absolute control of all John Forbes’s criminal enterprises.

  He has continued to expand the Company’s activities and to foster international cooperation between criminal organisations.

  He meets Erick on the first Monday of each month at changing locations outside Europe to discuss further investment between the two enterprises.

  * * *

  Erick and Andrea Elgberg bought the Cerne Estate in Dorset in memory of John and Michael and live there permanently. They use the Cave for holidays. Erick has purchased a second yacht and named it L’Acquisition 2. Sam O’Sullivan has continued as his personal assistant.

  A team of skilled public relations and image experts have been employed to raise Erick’s profile in the media and redeem his damaged reputation. In this Andrea helps him by arranging weekly dinners at Cerne, which have gradually expanded to include people from the highest spheres of the art, cinema, television, industry and politics.

  Mr and Mrs Erick Elgberg are occasionally to be seen at gatherings of the very richest and most influential people in Europe.

   

  THE CAST

  _________________________

  31 August 2000

  A.

  Adrians Police inspector C11

  B.

  Ben Bancroft –Struck off solicitor, MD Mirage

  Pedro de la Barca – Captain L’Acquisition

  Knud Bechman – Managing Director of CDCM in DK

  Bertrand Boucher – French Investigating Magistrate

  Arthur Black – Friend of John Forbes

  Diana Black – Arthur Black’s wife

  Elisabeth Blackwood – Paul and Ann Dockett’s daughter

  Bradley – Paul Dockett’s prison friend

  Cecilia Brassac – French housekeeper –

  Branco – Police officer Palma de Mallorca

  C.

  Carlo Cantour – Associate of Grattini

  Knud Carlsen – Owner Danish pen company

  Cathy – Virginia Water police officer

  Alex Chartwin – Glasgow gangster

  Jan Christensen – Managing Director GIANT group

  Lise Christensen – Accountant, Jan Chr. wife

  Pernille Christensen – Daughter of above

  Jim Clark – One of the twins

  Shelley Clark – Married to Jim Clark

  Neil Clark – One of the twins

  Vivian Clark – Married to Neil Clark

  Phill Collaby – Board member of various companies

  Lord Carven – Owner of Cerne Estate, Father of Catherine

  Lady Carven ‑Owner of Cerne Estate, Mother of Catherine Forbes

  D.

  Per Densby – Chairman, Danish Stock exchange

  Paul Dockett – Bank Manager

  Ann Dockett – Wife of Paul Dockett

  Elisabeth Dockett – Dockett’s daughter (Mrs Blackwood)

  Roger Doubtree – MD Mirage Consulting

  E.

  Erick Elgberg – Main character, with John Forbes

  Andrea Elgberg – Wife of Erick Elgberg

  Christian Elgberg – Elgberg’s son

  Lisette Elgberg – Elgberg’s daughter

  F.

  Faberson and Jeppesen – Danish solicitors

  Howard Femberley – MD Crown Bike

  James Fisher – MD Purcell‑Jensen PLC

  John Forbes – Main character, with Erick Elgberg

  Catherine Forbes – Wife of John Forbes, born Lady Caeven

  Michael Forbes – Son of the Forbes

  Alina Forbes – Daughter of John and Cecilia Forbes.

  Rosemary Forbes – John Forbes’ mother

  Malcolm Fox – Police Officer

  Lisa Fox – Wife of Malcolm Fox

  George von Fritzenberg – Zurich banker

  G.

  Duncan Grace – South London gangster

  Ruddi Grattini – Italian diamond dealer, entrepreneur

  Morris Green – Dockett’s solicitor

  H.

  Harold and Jeffrey – Wealthy criminals

  Dereck Harvey – Assistant to Duncan Grace

  Graham Higgins – Home Office Minister of State

  Alexander Higginson – Managing Director, Higginson Investment

  Philip Higginson – Established Higginson Investment

  Philip Higginson – Grandson of origi
nal owner

  Mona Hobson – Painter, John Forbes’ mistress

  I.

  Ray Immerman – Manager Forbes activities

  J.

  James – Nicholstein/Osov assistant

  Sir Conrad Jensen – Chairman Jensen Trust PLC

  Vanessa Jensen – Wife of Conrad Jensen

  K.

  Muhammed Kazir – Supplier of hemp

  Yo Wing Kin – Friend of David Kennedy

  David Kennedy – Managing Director Hemp Import

  Doreen Kennedy – Wife of David Kennedy

  Karen Knudsen – Personal assistant to E. Elgberg

  L.

  Tim Larsen – Danish Police barrister

  Magnus Lergaard – Erick’s friend, MD Mirage DK

  M.

  Aage Madsen – Chairman GIANT‑UDCM

  Claus Mikkelsen – Married to Valerie

  Valerie Mikkelsen – Married to Claus

  Rose Miller – Diana Black’s sister. MD Auto Trade Factors

  Chris Mills – Police Inspector C11

  N.

  Aaron Nicholstein – Alias for Ivan Foydor Osov

  O.

  Ivan Foydor Osov – See Aaron Nicholstein

  Sam O’Sullivan – Assistant to Erick Elgberg

  P.

  Paulson – Prison Baron

  Janus Perk – Danish barrister

  Lina Pinto – Managing Director Pinto Publishing

  Madame Popougnot – Housekeeper, the lavender farm

  Randolph Purcell – Chairman Purcell Industries PLC

  Dorothy Purcell – Wife of Randolph Purcell

  R.

  Ramona – Forbes’ team member

  Rasmussen – Danish Prison Officer

  Robinson – Police Inspector

  Robert – Osov’s assistant

  Ernst Rubinstein – Forbes’ solicitor

  S.

  Shastri – Forbes’ team member

  Henry Smith – Captain of the Yacht

  Lawrence Sutcliffe – Detective Chief Superintendent

  Shashikala – Surname for Shastri + Ramona

  W.

  Winston Cecilia and John’s dog

  William Webster – Kennedy’s personal assistant

  Vera Webster – Wife of William Webster

  Sarah Wilson – Police Inspector

  Thomas Wren – Commercial solicitor

  John Forbes’ Team:

  David Kennedy – Managing Director – Military

  Ray Immerman – Organiser – Insurance 

  William Webster –Kennedy ’s assistant – Business degree

  Francis Morell – All rounder – Married to Jackie