“I must say, football mufti does not become you, not in the least. Forgot to pick up your laundry again?”
Though he tried to keep his friend from seeing he’d been surprised, Telford couldn’t help but flinch. Coming around to face Andy, he tossed the last of the bird feed out in a wide, sweeping arc as he did so, crumpling the empty bag in his hand as he subconsciously drew himself up before his friend as he often did when trying to use his height to impress the person he was speaking to. “I’ve got a favor to ask you,” Telford informed Andy as he took to slowly walking alongside his friend. “This one is strictly on the QT.”
“All right, mate, you’ve got my attention,” Andy replied as he eased over to Telford’s left. Subconsciously, he fell in step with Telford as if on parade, even as he was unconsciously scanning the area to see if anyone was paying any attention to the two of them; something in Telford’s voice caused old habits to kick in.
“I’ve had a number of members of the cabinet, including the PM — as well as quite a few members of Parliament — approach me one at a time asking if I could discreetly look into the death of Randolph Mullins,” Telford muttered as the two men sauntered along the park path side by side.
“I thought that was all wrapped up and done with. Shot with his homicidal driver by New York’s finest in what the American tabloids call suicide by cop.”
“So did I,” Telford responds grimly. “I was tempted to fob the matter off as nothing more than political paranoia. But I changed my mind after I went to see the people who usually deal with such things at the Foreign Office and asked to speak to whoever it was they had looking into the matter. To say I ran into a stone wall every time I brought the matter up is a monumental understatement.”
“Maybe they’re happy with what the American authorities are telling them — that it was a terribly unfortunate incident and they wish to close the book on the matter as quickly as possible. After being pilloried by the tabloids and conspiracy crackpots for years in the wake of Lady Diana’s death, I don’t blame them for wanting solid, irrefutable evidence that HMG is innocent of any wrongdoing, that the whole incident is what the Americans say it is — an unfortunate incident involving one sadly disturbed psychopath.”
On being reminded of the aftermath of the Princess of Wales’s death, Telford visibly winced. He had just reached the dizzy heights of the senior civil service when that had occurred, plunging him headfirst into a political shit storm of epic proportions. “That’s what they, meaning our people and the Yanks, want everyone to think,” he replied warily once he’d managed to stuff his memories of those awful days back into the corner of his mind where he hid his personal feelings and concerns. “The truth is, behind the smiley face they’ve slapped on the incident before filing it away under ‘nothing to see here, move along,’ there seems to be more than a few people wringing their hands even as they’re glancing over their shoulders to make sure there actually is nothing creeping up on them that’s going to bite them in the arse.”
As Andy well knew, Edward Telford had sources burrowed within all the agencies, ministries, government offices, and corporations he dealt with, people he relied on to provide him with a peek behind the curtains from time to time to see what was really going on. “I’m all ears,” Andy replied dryly as the two men slowly sauntered through the park, each giving every passerby a quick, surreptitious once-over.
“I’m told by people who know about such things that, a while back, the U.S. Department of Defense experimented with using the built-in computer system of a car to remotely gain full control of it.”
“That’s no great state secret,” Andy scoffed as he used the toe of his shoe to gently boot aside a scrap of paper someone had tossed onto the path.
“That may be, but the fact that such a system may have been used to kill Mullins would be.”
Doing his best to keep from reacting to this tidbit, Andy dropped his nonchalant, ho-hum demeanor as he took to peppering his friend with a barrage of questions. “You sound as if there is no doubt in the minds of those who would be privy to the case. Did they find the car’s ECU tampered with?”
“It’s what?”
Reminding himself that he needed to explain anything even remotely technical to Telford using the simplest words possible, Andy took to describing how a sophisticated telemetric device could be used to override any security measures the vehicle’s manufacturer had built in to prevent someone from controlling certain mechanical and electronic components of a car remotely. “Once a black box is properly wired into the targeted vehicle’s computer bus line, all a person needs is a transmitter set to the same frequency as the receiver, and you have yourself a full-scale radio-controlled car.”
“That’s just what the powers that be might be suspecting — or, more correctly, fearing, which is probably why I’ve been asked to have someone like you look into this discreetly,” Telford replied glumly, almost to himself, before going on to explain his comment. “Despite the profuse apologies from both the mayor of New York and the American Secretary of State, there are quite a few people who are a part of HMG, or closely associated with it, who either believe there’s more to this story or wish to do everything within their power to make sure there isn’t.”
Although he suspected he already knew the reason for such skepticism, particularly given Mullins’s reputation as a man with a file on everyone, Andy felt compelled to pose the next logical question. “If that’s so, why all the tiptoeing about?” he asked candidly while glancing over at Telford out of the corner of his eye to gauge his friend’s reaction. “You’d think everyone would be eager to find out who did it.”
“If the case involved anyone else, that would be true.” Telford sighed as he averted his gaze. “Unfortunately, Mullins — a man who clawed his way to the top of the news business the old-fashioned way — knows, or I should say knew, where all the political bodies are buried here and more than a few in the States. While I don’t think anyone is sorry to see the wretched hack go, there are quite a few people who are very concerned over what his family or his solicitors may find when they start going through the private files he was rumored to have kept on both his friends and enemies.”
Knowing that in cases like this there was no such thing as a dumb question, Andy asked the obvious. “Why me? Wouldn’t it be better if a computer hack like Ian McDonnell over in Legoland or DS Marbury looked into this?”
Whether it was a subconscious response to Andy’s question on his part or not, Telford took a quick glance about the park before answering. “The people who asked me to look into this aren’t quite sure who can be trusted. Until we know for sure there’s a ‘there’ there, they want to keep this on the low down. Besides, if I’m not mistaken, you have a friend in New York who is uniquely qualified to help you in this case,” Telford added as something of a knowing smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
Seeing no point in asking who the mysterious they were that Telford was referring to — or how he knew about Susan G. — Andy moved on to the next order of business. “So what’s the mission? Pursuit of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, or do you expect me to ferret out any hint of impropriety that can be linked to HMG and bury it?”