‘How often would you say?’
‘Whenever it’s necessary,’ shrugged Grant.
‘How? He come up here to report to you direct? When you’re in Washington? Telephone?’
‘Whichever’s convenient,’ shrugged the president, again. ‘I always make a point of speaking to every division head in Dubette whenever I’m down there. And there’s the telephone.’
‘Did you know Harry Johnson before he joined Dubette from Metro DC police department?’ asked Benton.
‘ Before?’
‘That was my question, sir.’
‘How could I have known him before?’
‘We thought you might have done,’ said Dingley.
‘What reason do you have for thinking that?’ came in Baldwin.
‘Just an impression,’ said Benton.
‘I thought the FBI worked on the basis of evidence and facts,’ said Grant. ‘I did not know Harry Johnson before he joined Dubette.’
‘How did that come about, his joining Dubette?’ asked Dingley.
‘The previous security chief was retiring. Recommended Harry. He seemed to fit the bill.’
‘Who employed him? You personally? Or your personnel division?’ pressed Benton.
‘It would have been personnel, obviously,’ said Grant.
‘Eighty thousand dollars a year is a substantial salary.’
‘He heads what is considered an important division. Dubette is noted throughout the industry as a substantial payer.’
‘You seem well informed about how Harry Johnson came to be employed,’ said Benton.
‘I’m well informed about every senior employee at Dubette,’ said Grant. ‘Perhaps security more than most. Security is very important for a company like mine.’
‘Because of stealing and commercial theft and piracy,’ anticipated Benton.
‘Precisely,’ agreed Grant.
‘You suffer a lot of it?’
‘We take every precaution to ensure that we don’t.’
‘When was the last time?’ asked Dingley, building up to what he and his partner hoped to be the puncturing question.
There was the now familiar shrug. ‘There was some warehouse pilfering about three months ago.’
‘Did you get the guys?’ asked Benton.
‘It was a delivery driver, supplying pills to kids. He drew a year. I’d have liked it to have been more. I know the danger of drugs as well as their benefits.’
‘What about commercially?’ said Dingley.
‘Last attempt was three years ago. A competitor got an informant into McLean. Harry got him before there was any serious damage.’
‘I can’t imagine Richard Parnell would steal pills from a Dubette warehouse,’ said Benton.
‘ What?’ exclaimed Grant, astonished.
‘We can’t imagine Richard Parnell stealing pills from a warehouse,’ echoed Dingley. ‘Why was he under surveillance, Mr Grant?’
Grant looked first to Baldwin, then to the huge desk with its orderly bank of variously coloured telephones.
Baldwin said: ‘We’d like an explanation for that question.’
‘We’d like an answer to it,’ said Dingley. ‘We know of Richard Parnell being under surveillance. And of Harry Johnson being aware of it. It’s extremely relevant to our terrorism and murder enquiries and we need to know why.’
‘Are you bugging my telephones?’ demanded Grant, looking back to his desk.
‘No,’ replied Benton, honestly.
‘So, it’s Harry’s,’ said Grant, answering his own question.
‘For which I hope you have a court order,’ said Baldwin.
‘Of course we do,’ said Dingley, impatiently.
‘Harry Johnson has explained to you how his thumb print came to be on the flight number,’ said the lawyer.
‘Which you’ve doubtless told Mr Grant in detail,’ anticipated Benton. ‘What no one’s explained to us yet is why Parnell was under surveillance, with Harry Johnson’s knowledge. And yours, Mr Grant.’
‘I would have thought that would have been obvious,’ said the man.
‘Not to us it isn’t,’ said Dingley.
Grant sighed, all the condescending affability gone. ‘A valued member of my company was murdered. An elaborate effort was made to frame a senior executive for that murder, for which, as I understand it, you have no suspects. I believed that Parnell might remain in danger. I felt it justified the setting up of some protective security – having photographs taken, even, to see if Parnell might be being watched by a person or a group of people. It’s been pointless…’ The man paused, looking to the telephone bank again. ‘And, as you obviously know, I’ve spoken to Harry about it – told him to lift everything.’
‘So, you no longer fear Richard Parnell is in danger?’ said Dingley.
‘I think it would have happened, some attempt would have been made, by now,’ said the Dubette president. ‘I was being overprotective.’
‘Having Parnell under surveillance wouldn’t have actually prevented anything happening to him, would it?’ said Benton.
‘It would if it had established he was being stalked.’
‘These photographs,’ said Benton, ‘who’s been taking them?’
‘A private detective agency,’ said Grant.
‘We’d like its name,’ said Dingley.
‘Get it from Harry,’ snapped Grant. ‘I don’t know it.’
‘I’m surprised that you don’t, as closely as you and Harry liaise,’ said Dingley.
Grant sighed again but didn’t speak, looking pointedly at the lawyer.
Baldwin said: ‘Is there anything else with which we can help you?’
‘During your conversation with Harry Johnson, you asked, and I quote, “What about the other two?” What other two would that be, Mr Grant?’ said Benton.
‘The two suspended Metro DC police officers, obviously,’ said the man.
‘Why were you curious about them?’ pressed Benton.
‘The suggestion is that they mistreated… wrongly arrested… a senior Dubette executive, isn’t it?’
‘And part of Johnson’s reply to your question, and again I quote, is, “He…” – he being Clarkson, Harry Johnson’s lawyer – “… says they’re standing up fine.” What did you understand from that reply, Mr Grant?’
‘I’m not sure that I understood anything from it.’
‘You asked about them, Johnson gives you a reply you don’t understand, and you don’t ask him to explain it?’ pressed Dingley.
‘No, I didn’t,’ said Grant.
‘Do you still find it difficult to understand, now that we’re talking about it? Now that you’ve had time to think about it?’ said Benton.
‘Yes,’ said Grant.
‘Before Johnson says that the two Metro DC officers are standing up well, he says, and again I quote, “Clarkson won’t let me speak to them direct,”’ persisted Benton. ‘We’ve got two police officers who are alleged to have mistreated – wrongly arrested – a senior member of Dubette’s staff, and Harry Johnson wants to talk to them. But then tells you they’re standing up fine. You know how that looks, to my partner and I, Mr Grant? It looks like there was collusion between the three. Wouldn’t you say that’s an interpretation?’
‘I don’t think Mr Grant can usefully speculate, as you are speculating,’ said the lawyer. ‘What I do think is that there is an obvious inference that, if it is pursued, could result in consideration of the sort of court action in which a quite separate claim has already been mounted, which could seriously embarrass you two gentlemen personally, and your already seriously embarrassed, ineffective employer, the FBI, to a far greater degree.’
‘The question was put to Mr Grant, who has not answered,’ said the unintimidated Benton.
‘I think Mr Baldwin has already adequately answered on my behalf,’ refused Grant. ‘What I would say is that I think it is very fortunate for you both that I did not bother to include criminal lawyers in this interview.’
‘Which is concluded at this time,’ declared Baldwin. ‘If the Federal Bureau of Investigation seeks to resume it, it will be conducted in the different sort of circumstances that Mr Grant has indicated.’
Outside the Dubette building, on Wall Street, Dingley said: ‘You fancy calling in on the guys? Broadway’s only just up the road.’
‘Why don’t we just get on back?’ said Benton.