“No, the decision to say no to your offer was a board decision and frankly, was made partly on the basis that we did not know you and that we were well down the road to an IPO which it was thought will ultimately give shareholders a better return. However I am in London for a couple of days and thought I might look you up. Tell me a bit more about Mendip Finance.”
“I am sure you must have done your own research before considering our offer,” he said.
“Yes, but it is much better to hear it from the horses mouth, so to speak.”
He looked puzzled at that phrase and paused. “OK,” he said eventually, and went on to describe Mendip Finances activities. He pointed to a map on the wall where various coloured pins denoted Mendip activities. Most of them were in Africa and Central Europe and Russia.
“Do you have dealings with governments?” I asked. “I understand that in Russia for instance, the oil industry has a heavy government involvement and shareholding.”
“Yes they do, remember we are not just interested in oil, we have many other interests.”
“Does that include arms and the defence industries?” I asked.
“No, we don't have interests in those areas but some of our associates do.”
“Associates?”
“Shareholders, investors, sister companies.”
“Does that include Dalrymple Technology?”
He ignored the question and said, ' Mr Lever, why are you here? I have already had the police here making suggestions that we have been threatening you. I assure you that our intentions are totally honourable, we are an investment organisation looking for good investments.” he smiled, but his smile had a smarminess about it that made my skin crawl.
“You were right, we did do some research on your organisation, but as you will know it's ownership structure is extremely complicated, as if the real owners did not want to be revealed. Why would a legitimate investment company want to conceal its true ownership in this way?”
A flash of irritation briefly wiped the smile from his f ace revealing an altogether harder individual but it was gone within seconds and the surface smile returned. “International trading across several continents frequently requires complex structures,” he parried. Pausing, “ Mr Lever, it is very pleasant to meet with you again but I have an appointment so if there is nothing else I really must conclude this meeting.” he stood as he said this, offering a hand in farewell, effectively ushering me towards the door.
Outside the office I joined up with Jason and we left the building and caught a taxi back to the hotel.
That evening in the hotel, Frank, Alec, and I met up for a drink before attending a dinner with clients. “What do you make of the Dalrymple link to Mendip Finance?” asked Frank looking at Alec.
“I'm not sure what to make of it. Dalrymple are rumoured to have very close links to the US Government procurement operations particularly the Pentagon, but that is hardly surprising really as they have had some very major contracts with them. What do you think Michael?”
“Well, the story on the 'technical grapevine' is that they have some significant product development problems. It is said they are just not keeping pace with the technology. There appears to have been an exodus of senior technical staff, in fact I am interviewing one of them next week. I have heard that there is a lot of dissatisfaction internally with the technical strategy of the company. However that is all rumour, I daresay you could find people who would not have a good thing to say about us if you tried.” I hesitated, and then went on. “I went and paid Mendip Finance a visit this afternoon.”
“Why?”
“Well, I had nothing to do and I wanted to find out if they are the people who are hassling us. Plavsic was all charm and politeness but it was a futile visit, I couldn't even get him to respond to the Dalrymple link.”
The rest of the stay in London and the following visit to Birmingham proved to be just the routine presentations and dining a nd we ended up back in Bristol two days later.
A good bit of news was that the insurance company had paid out on my Range Rover and a new vehicle was waiting for me in the Company car park.
The first evening back home, Jason and I had just finished a steak and salad meal and I was about to settle down in front of the laptop to catch up with some work when the doorbell rang. I opened it to find two men who claimed to be police officers; one flashed a warrant card identifying him as Inspector Naismith. They had come to discuss my car stealing offence. I showed them in to the lounge, Jason stood up and his presence seemed to catch them off guard.
“ Is this your brother Mr Lever?”
“No this is my security guard, Jason Walgrave.” I hesitated. “How do you know I have a brother?”
Naismith ignored the question and said, “ Mr Lever, you are liable to be charged with car theft. Can you please explain the circumstances to us?”
“Inspector Naismith, do you know a Chief Superintendent Fleet in Bristol? We have already discussed this with her and Inspector Lloyd, and while they warned me there were likely to be repercussions I am surprised it is not her dealing with this.”
This seemed to take Naismith by surprise but he recovered quickly and went on, “ Mr Lever, this case is ours, and I don't know Fleet or Lloyd but I will check out with them. In the meantime the owner of the car is upset and is pressing to know why we have not pursued the matter. I require you to come to my office in Bath in the morning when you will be formally charged.” He handed me a card and said, “11 am please,” and with a curt, 'goodnight', he turned towards the door and he and his colleague showed themselves out.
I turned to Jason. “That was strange, it was almost as if they backed off when I mentioned Fleet; and how did they know I had a brother? He did not answer that question. I am going to call Lloyd and ask what is going on.”
Lloyd was working late and he promised to check it out and get back to him but he added that the car theft incident was not his case.
“I can understand that it is not your case but why police in Bath, the 'theft' was in Bristol”?”
“I don't know,” he responded, “It does seem a bit unusual. However I recommend that you keep the appointment in Bath.”
Over breakfast the next day, Jason said that he had also thought the visit was strange and had reported it to his boss who had said that he believed he knew Naismith and that he might have links to Special Branch or some other part of the security services.
“Special Branch! Why are they involved in a car accident, for Christ’s sake! ”
“I have no more idea than you.”
Fleet and Lloyd met later that morning. “I am having trouble getting the Met interested in the Lever case,” said Fleet. “They were distinctly cool and not interested, and if I did not know better I would think they were deliberately playing it down. So I rang an assistant commissioner that I know from Hendon days and he was able to make some interesting observations, although he was cautious, so be careful with this.”
“He observed that he would not be surprised if Asimov was part of a much larger investigation and the last thing they would want is for us to rock the boat or ruin that. He would not however tell me anything more.”
“I asked him if he knew Naismith who called me yesterday. He was reticent to talk but it seems that he knows Naismith and that Special Branch is a bit of a screen for him, and that Naismith is really MI5 nominally reporting to a Nicolas Ridley at MoD, but in reality operating with quite a free hand on anti-terrorist stuff and closely tied in to his opposite numbers in the US. All very woolly and with distinctly dirty ops overtones.”
“So where do we go from here?” said Lloyd. It sounds as though Lever could be in trouble but that our hands are tied.”
“Yes, it is not an easy one, but I am reluctant to allow it to drop quite yet. Lever seems to be a reasonably upright citizen, and it looks like he and his colleagues are building significant business for the community here in Bristol. I am not convinced that he has come completely clean with us however; I suspect he has more of an idea why the Branch are interested in him than he is admitting to us.”
“Yes, I agree,” said Lloyd, “I am not convinced that his brother is not part of this in some way, I have a check running on him. I think we should get them both in for a more formal interview.”
