CHAPTER 23
It was past midnight in Kuala Lumpur when Jeffrey called Mark Dobson in Bangkok. By then, Ritchie had returned to the Sabaidee Mansion and Mark had settled on the floor of the swelteringly hot flat next to the fan.
“Want a long story?” Jeffrey asked.
“Go ahead. Where are you?”
“KL. With Eddie.”
Jeffrey described the visit to the Min Hin building in Malacca, seeing Ho Chiang’s white van being loaded and then the mysterious taxi parked in the shade.
“Ho drove off,” Jeffrey said. “The taxi then followed Ho’s van at a distance. Eddie suggested we follow the taxi. Two hours later we’d followed both Ho’s van and the taxi all the way back to PJ Beauty Supplies in KL The taxi parked around the corner out of sight and the passenger, a smart-looking guy, went inside. He didn’t stay long but came out, got back in the taxi and was dropped off at the Orange Premier Hotel in Cheras.”
“What time was this?” Dobson asked.
“About nine o’clock. Eddie and I then went into the hotel and talked to him. He turned out to be an Italian with a problem. I’ll let Eddie explain.” He handed Eddie the phone.
“We’ve made a breakthrough in the investigation,” Eddie said excitedly. “The smart man in the taxi turned out to be an Italian called Pascale Perillo. He comes from Naples. Pascale Perillo’s father, Giuseppe ran an old, well-established food business in Naples that had started out in tomato canning. I agree with canning, Mark, Canned foods are long lasting and the cans are recyclable.
“A while back, Giuseppe bought a local cosmetics and food supplements business from an old school friend, a pharmacist. The school friend subsequently had a stroke. The company was called Bio-Cal.” Eddie paused. “Bio-Cal, Mark. Got that? But Bio-Cal spelled with a C not a K.”
“Got it,” Dobson replied, rapidly warming to the news.
“The Bio-Cal business was being managed by a guy called Enzo...”
“Say that name again, Eddie.”
“Enzo, Enzo Grassi.”
“Go on.”
“Giuseppe Perillo didn’t like the business or Enzo but he’d bought Bio-Cal so what could he do? He knew he’d made a mistake. Then, one day, Enzo asked Giuseppe if he’d meet three visitors from Malaysia who were in the cosmetics business - two Russians and a Chinese.” Eddie paused again. “You listening Mark?”
“All ears. Keep going.”
“Giuseppe agreed. He picked them up from their hotel and took them for lunch at his usual restaurant near Mount Vesuvius. He didn’t like them but they were guests and being kind, patient and polite was all Giuseppe knew. Afterwards, he drove them to Naples airport to catch a flight back to Malaysia and said goodbye. Giuseppe then returned to his Mercedes in the car park to find someone sitting in the back of his car pointing a gun at his head. Giuseppe is lucky to be still alive. He was found lying in a disused industrial site with his Mercedes on fire. He’d been shot and was bleeding to death when someone stopped to investigate black smoke”
Eddie paused once more, sounding and feeling out of breath. Mark waited.
“But he survived, Mark. According to Pascale, the police got nowhere. The two Russians and Chinese had left the country so they couldn’t have shot him. Pascale returned home from New York where he worked in a bank and started his own investigation. That investigation eventually led to him sitting in a taxi outside the Min Hin building that Jeffrey has watched for weeks, that you’ve watched and even I visited in the past. You still listening, Mark?”
“Keep going, Eddie. “
“Now, it gets even more interesting. Pascale has found another company called Bio-Kal spelled with a K. Bio-Kal with the K is run from Trieste in north-east Italy on the border with Croatia and Slovenia. I, of course, have had correspondence with a Trieste lawyer.”
“A lawyer we don’t think exists, Eddie.”
There was a short silence. “An imposter?” Eddie exclaimed as if all his suspicions were already proven
“Something like that,” Dobson replied. “And of course, Trieste has a Free Port with all sorts of import, export, tax and duty advantages,” he added.
Eddie continued. “Pascale went to Trieste, tracked down Bio-Kal on a trading estate and discovered that the man called Enzo is involved with Russians doing re-packaging and labelling of many different products. Is it a breakthrough, Mark?”
“It’s significant,” Dobson said “And today we’ve heard more about Enzo from another source. Where is Pascale now?”
Jeffrey took back the phone. “At the Orange Premier.”
“How much did you tell him about our side?”
“Enough for him to feel relieved he’s not alone and he wants to help.”
“Give me his phone number, tell him I’ll phone him tomorrow and ask him if he can fly up to Bangkok to meet me.”
At 2am Mark Dobson in Bangkok called Eddie in Kuala Lumpur.
“You asleep Eddie?”
“No, I’ve been thinking about the food canning business. How do they put those ring pulls on that do away with the need for a can opener?”
“Ask Pascale,” Dobson said. “He’ll know. The reason I’m calling is that Isobel has just called me.”
“Couldn’t she sleep either?”
“She’d just chaired a meeting of the Vital board and one of the agenda items caused problems, which you were probably responsible for.”
“Me? How?”
“It was an item to review quality control procedures on imported raw materials - a perfectly legitimate topic for a company that claimed top notch quality, sustainability, effectiveness and reliability one might think, but the Chief Executive, Nick Carstairs and the Director of International Operations, Peter Lester apparently thought otherwise. When Isobel’s questions got too difficult for Lester to answer, the Quality Assurance Manager, Donald McVie was summoned in to help.”
“Ah, Mr McVie,” Eddie said. “The gum-chewing Glaswegian with a style of comedy that makes me shudder. When I met him, I felt he’d start blowing gum bubbles at me at any moment. Together with smokers and fast food firms, gum chewers are the main cause of street litter.”
Mark ignored Eddie’s own style of comedy and explained that at the Board meeting Isobel had asked McVie if they still used Easy Trading as import agents. McVie had nodded.
“Are we satisfied with Easy Trading?” she’d pursued.
Yes, they were.
“Do we check the imported raw materials against the quality certificates that accompany the goods?”
McVie had hesitated and looked at Peter Lester across the table but Lester had kept his head down. With ambiguities and uncertainties increasing, Isobel had made a decision:
“With immediate effect, the Quality Assurance Department will repeat tests on all incoming raw materials until further notice. If we do not have the expertise in house then we must get it or seek the help of the university. Agreed?”
Nick Carstairs, the chief executive, had blustered about the unnecessary expense. Lester had totally objected. The other six directors agreed but an unseemly argument had started across the table between Lester and McVie which Isobel had had to quell. She’d then turned to Nick Carstairs himself. “Nick, you’ve just expressed concern about unnecessary costs, so why does Vital Cosmetics need a patent on an extraction method for krabok seed oil?”
It was Carstairs turn to look uncomfortable. “Uh, we agreed to do it to ensure we could maximise our production,” was his reply.
“Who is we?”
“Ah, Peter and I.”
“I’m no expert, Nick, so where do ‘we’ do this extracting?”
“Uh, it’s contracted out. To a Malay company. I forget the name. Pete, you know them?” It was as if Carstairs was relying on Lester to provide a convincing reply.
Lester had sniffed and said, unconvincingly, “The Malacca branch of PJ Beauty Supplies.”
“And how are they doing?”
“Fine.”
“Fine? What about all our other south east Asian agents?”
Lester said, “I’m due to visit them all soon. Why do you ask?”
“It’s a Chairman’s right to ask questions and get answers. Peter,” Isobel had said. “When is ‘soon’?”
He’d seemed unsure. Then said, “Three weeks.”
“Right. I’d like all overseas matters to be put on the agenda for the Board meeting. after you return.”
It was quite obvious that Isobel had been applying serious pressure. Something was going to crack.
“So, I’ve decided to see things for myself,” she’d told Mark at 2am. “I’ve decided to fly to Kuala Lumpur. No-one on the Board knows.”
Mark told Eddie. Eddie said that it was best, therefore, that he delayed his plans for a jungle trek with his botanist friend Buss.
For Mark Dobson it was getting crowded. He’d never had so much help on a case in his life. At 6am he called Pascale Perillo in KL to find he’d already booked himself on the first flight to Bangkok and was arriving at 11am. He phoned Colin Asher with an update and then, having decided Sannan’s flat was not a good place to stay unless in a dire emergency, headed for the airconditioned comfort of the airport.