The image of a trap, p.38
The Image of a Trap, page 38
Ann Holm had outsmarted Josephson and had managed to disappear from him for over two weeks. He had not revealed that fact to Josephson nor to his employer, not considering it relevant as he had the tap on the inspector anyhow, but he had wondered where she had been. She could identify him. He had underestimated her. Soon, a drawing of his face would be on the Interpol database and life would be needlessly difficult. He paced back and forth, making up his mind. Josephson had called the assignment off, but protocol did not allow for leaving loose ends. Protocol saved lives. This time, it was his life that was on the line. Calmer at last, he booked his flight out of Gothenburg.
Fifty three
Ann was tiding the empty living room, collecting the dirty tea mugs left on the sofa table from last night when she and Adam had gone to bed exhausted. She carried them to the dishwasher in the kitchen and started it. The water sloshed inside it. Eyeing a strayed sock of Theo’s beneath the sofa on reentering the room, she bent to retrieve it and knocked her knee absentmindedly into the edge of the sofa. She swore and dropped down on the sofa to rub it. The silent house unnerved her. Her dad was at the playground with Sarah and would not return for another hour and Theo had gone home to a friend after school. Her thoughts returned to her encounter with Josephson the previous day. Sam had agreed when she had called him after it, that it had gone as they had rehearsed and anticipated. Except that like a nasty itch that kept demanding scratching, the sight of Josephson who had somehow seemed relieved, despite the threat of being prosecuted for embezzlement, kept returning, bothering her. She kept thinking about his malicious and seemingly misplaced outburst about Ekstrom. She rubbed her knee one last time and grabbed her phone from her pocket. She dialled and put the phone to her ear.
“János speaking.” Came the strangely familiar, yet distant voice.
“János, how are you?” She uttered, fending off her voice the guilt of not having spoken to him since the close of their internal investigation.
“I’m good, Ann, how are you?”
She thought to have heard more delight than surprise.
“Getting better, thank you.” She toyed with Theo’s sock next to her on the sofa and wondered if he had heard about the car accident or if he was asking about the burnout. “How are things at home?”
“We are thinking about relocating to Gothenburg actually.” He said.
“Wow, I thought you’ll never leave your home.” He had told her that when his family had been threatened with retaliation for his involvement in the investigation.
“Things change. Not fond of the new political development with Orban and all. It’s going the wrong way.“
“Yeh, it’s scary and worrying.”
“Katlin doesn’t want our kids to grow up in another autocracy, even if it attempts to disguise itself as democracy. I applied for a vacant position in internal control. It appears I still have good standing in HQ, despite all. I thought you had a finger in it when it went so smoothly?”
“No, that is entirely on you.” She laughed. “I’m glad for you and your family. It will be good. Listen, I’ve been thinking—“
“You always do,” he said mocking.
She knew it came from a good place. “Are you in the office?” She enquired with dry voice.
“Yes, and everyone else is out for lunch. So, what are you thinking of?” His curiosity was unveiled.
“Do you remember anything specific about the time when the donations to the Saint Gregor church began?”
“Let me think. Hmm…it was around the time we lost the “Solnce” deal.” He said tentatively.
“The what?”
“Solnce” - sun in Russian."
“I know what “solnce” is,” she said a bit more impatiently than she intended, “but I didn’t know about a deal.”
“It was during the “Conquer East strategy”. Hungary had got this huge, huge, Russian account - incremental for the rapid growth East we wanted.”
“Who was the Russian account?” She abandoned the sofa, restless at the anticipation of the information and walked to the kitchen. Used to have Sam around, she peered through the window, scanning the street for him but then remembered that he was supposed to be staking out the follower’s hotel today.
“It was a consortium of several big Russian companies, producers of various high tech products that used radio communication devices. We won a bid for huge supplies to them over five years and at a very attractive price at that.”
“I hadn’t heard of it.”
“Well, we didn’t sell much, we lost the account shortly after when Russia invaded Crimea.” She heard a phone ring in the background and hoped that János did not have to answer it. He did not, but remained silent until it stopped.
Her mind turned as she waited it out, realisation dawning on her. “The chips in our devices were put on the dual use products list.” She uttered breathlessly.
“— and that was the end of the Solnce deal.” János finished.
“Of course,” she felt the excitement washing over her.
“Josephson was furious.” János continued. “He wanted Ekstrom to clear the sales somehow, but he didn’t succeed, I suppose. Andras was under a lot of pressure from losing the sales, having just being promoted to sales manager.”
“But we doubled the revenue.” She wondered. The dishwasher gurgled noisily and she went back to the living room closing the door behind her.
“We were saved by the Singapore sales’ sudden strong rise about the same time.”
It clicked.
“How come you don’t remember this?” János asked, his voice reaching that high pitch she so clearly remembered.
“2014, I was on maternity leave with Sarah at that time. Didn’t sleep for the next two years.” She said drily.
“Ha, ha,”
Ann pressed on. “János, do you still have access to the ERP system?”
“Sure.”
The phone in the background began ringing again. Eager to prevent him from interrupting the conversation, she asked, “Can you check where to the Singapore office shipped goods for a company named Konan?”
“Konan?” His voice rose slightly.
“Yes. K, o, n, a ,n.“
“Okay, I had the ones for Konar.”
“You mean Konar with an “r” in the end?
“Yes.”
"So there are shipments for Konar and for Konan?” She held her breath.
“Let me check Konan. Yes, to both”
“Then I want both.”
She heard the unmistakable clicks of keyboard.
“So Konan’s were shipped to South Korea. Hmm, but —,“ he hesitated, “we didn’t ship to Konar. We sold ex works.”
"It was picked by them at the factory?”
“Well, we were not involved in the shipping arrangements, but I can see here that Schenker, the transport company, picked the goods for them.”
“That’s unusual, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” His voice came over the insistent ringing that went on unabated. “Usually we are involved in shipping and custom clearance because it requires expertise to fill in the necessary papers, with the export controls and all. Hold on a sec, I should get that phone.”
Ann heard him respond in Hungarian and then he was back.
“János, I am sorry if you are missing your lunch,”
“Don’t worry. I am on a diet, was skipping it anyway,”
“Ah, okay, then one more thing, can you also pull the POs for these shipments to Konar?”
“206789,” she heard him mumble what she anticipated was the shipment number and click.
“There it is, but wait, this PO is made to Konan. Let me check again. Weird, but there are no POs from Konar at all. Wait, Konar is not even registered as customer in the system.”
“So, what are you getting?” She asked, getting impatient.
“Only POs recorded in Konan’s name, and…they are twice the amount of product that was shipped to Konan. It seems like the POs were split in two shipments, and one was delivered but the other wasn’t.”
“Is the amount of the non-delivered shipment the same as the shipment made to Konar?”
“It is, how’d you know?” He asked.
“I guessed. What about the invoices - did Konan pay for all the shipments?
“No, the invoices to Konan are for the shipments made to them. Who then paid for the rest?”
“Konar did?” She suggested.
“Well, someone did, because there is no outstanding payment for the products from the Konan’s POs. And I do not see invoices made to Konar. In fact the only place where I can trace the name of Konar is on the shipment manifests.”
They had found the invoices for Konar in Singapore, but they had not been registered in the central ERP booking system of Gio. She could now hear voices in the background.
“People are back in the office by the way,” he added.
“Yes, I can hear it. That’s okay. Thanks for your help.”
“When are you going to tell me what this was about?”
“Not now, I’ll fill you in some other time. Thanks again,” she uttered. Hopelessness snuck in on her. They had missed it! Once again they had missed to see the whole picture. She held her head with her hands.
Oblivious of her condition, János carried on. “Let’s get together when we are settled in Gothenburg. Now that I know you’re back working. We were all worried when we heard what happened.” He whispered the last bit.
“I know, I was glad for your get-well card.” A sudden tightness pressed on her chest. “Bye, János. Let’s keep in touch.” She put the phone down and retrieved her safe phone, the realisation of the discovery burning in her to share with Sam.
Sam had resumed his watch from the coffee bar across the follower’s hotel on the corner of the busy square, hoping that he had not changed residences during the weeks they were in Singapore. He was reading on his phone the “Our History” section on Gio’s corporate website, curious for a photo of Josephson, the former CEO, whom he had only managed to see from behind and from a distance while he had watched his unpleasant encounter with Ann the previous day but, incredibly, there was no photo.
He had just finished a sandwich when he saw the follower, in his long dark coat and a cap, a canvas travel bag thrown over the shoulder, leave the hotel and cross the two-lane street to the taxi stand on the other side. Sam rose hurriedly to his feet, crumbs falling off his coat, and blended into the crowd waiting for the green light at the pedestrian crossing. He watched the follower get into the first taxi in the line, the taxi pull out of the stand, then halt for the red light at the same crossing Sam had taken. Five seconds left, showed the traffic lights’ countdown. Five seconds were enough for Sam to grab the next taxi at the stand. He darted away from the crossing towards the taxi line, his collar lifted, his head down, yanked the back seat door of the taxi next in line and jumped inside. “Follow him,” he said from the backseat to the driver, pointing at the car in front and did up his seat belt. His phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Ann, but he put it off and focused on the car. The traffic was dense in the early afternoon hour, making it easy to follow the car in front all the way to its destination, which showed to be Gothenburg Airport’s international terminal. Sam drew a 500 crown note from his pocket and handed it to the driver, telling him to keep the change, and scurried after the follower. Inside the departure hall, he scanned the crowd for the follower and found him in the queue at Security. From behind a check in self-service terminal, he watched the follower reach the end of the security line, take his bag off his shoulder, remove his coat and go through the detector, finally disappearing out of Sam’s eyesight. Sam then hurried over to the arrivals exit on the other end of the terminal and observed it, as per protocol, for another two hours. He then pulled his phone out of his pocket and as he rose from the hard plastic seat he dialled Ann.
“The follower has left the country, Ann.”
Ann’s voice came through laden with tension. “There is something we missed!”
Taken aback by the urgency in her voice, he dropped back down on the hard plastic seat. A boy ran towards the older woman, that had sat next to Sam, and abandoning his McQueen carry-on, he threw himself in her embrace. She hugged him tightly in return.
“Sam, are you there?” She enquired.
“I’m here?” He finally said.
Ann did not wait for more and continued. “I’ve been replaying my encounter with Josephson over and over. Josephson knew that I had found out his embezzlement when he confronted me because the follower had told him about it, just as we anticipated. Still he was very tense to begin with, as if he was expecting me to tell him something else. Which I didn’t and he almost seemed relieved for a good bit, until I told him that I knew about Doni Nelson. That threw him off.”
“Okay—”
“So I called János.”
The boy, now holding the elder woman’s hand, paraded before Sam, sending him a smug look as he picked his carry-on. Sam winced back at him and the boy grinned. “János from your investigation team?” He asked.
“Yes, him.“
“And?“ He prompted.
She retold him her conversation with János ending it with, “I think, Gio continued selling to the Russians in violation of the export controls and sanctions that were imposed after the invasion of Crimea. I think what happened is that Konan’s purchase orders were falsified by Don in the system, so when Konan ordered - let’s say 100 devices - Don would falsify the order in the ERP to 200 to be shipped in two shipments. He then created the second shipment for Konar and issued a second invoice to go to Konar, the one we saw with the undelivered Gio technical consultancy services add-on, which now makes sense were paid because those services were a cover-up for the higher price which the Russians were willing to pay for the product. Konar made those payments. No-one noticed that the shipments and the payments were to and from two different companies, and the sales were all booked on Konan. We too missed to check the shipments against the purchase orders from Konan in the ERP, because we were blinded by finding the falsified invoices with the services add-on to Konar.”
“Did you ask Janós about Konar right away?”
“No, I was hung on the remark Josephson made about Ekstrom and so I asked about the donations to the church.”
A female voice from the loudspeakers warned the passengers to keep an eye on their belongings at all times. He waited for it to stop.
“You think he knew about the shipments to Konar?” He asked when it did.
“I think he was behind it.”
“Ekstrom?"
“No." She said sounding exasperated. “Josephson.”
“I was asking about Ekstrom. Of course Josephson was behind it.”
“Well, no, I don’t think Ekstrom was behind it, but what if Ekstrom suspected and didn’t stop it.”
“Is that why he went down quietly?”
“Maybe.” There was a sadness in her voice. “I think what Josephson was really frightened about was that I had found out about the sales to Konar. I didn’t put anything about that in the email to Younggren. We only mentioned the Coral payments. Wilful violation of export controls and sanctions is a severe offence. It’s many years of prison for him.”
Restlessness seized him. He shot off the seat and headed outside the arrival’s terminal pushing past groups of people greeting, embracing, smiling. It had started to drizzle and he pulled up his collar as he passed the smokers sucking hungrily at their cigarettes, which they had ached for.
Once out of earshot he asked. “The radio communications devices are for aircrafts, right? That is a lot of aircrafts to build with all the components?”
“It’s not only for aircrafts.” She gasped. “They can be used in drones too.”
“The Russians don’t make drones. Not that we know of.” He stopped at a cross light not knowing where he was heading.
“Who does?”
“The Iranians.” A bus slowed down as its breaks screeched and he jumped back avoiding the splash of dirty water. “Petrov mentioned the Russians.” He uttered and regretted it immediately.
"When? How?” She snapped. “What about them?"
“Let’s not do this again, okay! I thought it was your father he was interested in, but I think now he mentioned him to make a smokescreen.”
“You didn’t tell me you spoke with him.” Her voice was full of reproach. Will she ever trust him. He thought that they had been through this already.
“Well, I did. He paid me a visit after the church event and I led him on to think that I as already working you, so he could back off. He just mentioned the Russians seemingly out of context and I didn’t implore.” Silence met him and he trotted on aimlessly on the deserted pavement, an endless car park on his side, the airport building on the other.
Ann broke their wordless duel. “I can ask Seymour, if he can check the shipping manifests for Schencker at Singapore port. See where they went.”
“Yes, brilliant.” He said trying to sound more cheerful than he felt.
“You should speak with Petrov." She said soberly. “Grill him about what he knows.”
He had crossed the wet street without noticing.
“Ann, regardless of what we might have missed, still Doni Nelson has left and that means Josephson is off your back. We are where we wanted to be.”
“I know. It seems so”
“So that's good.”
“It seems so, yes.” She sounded unconvinced and he felt miserable.
He had reached a parklike stretch with trees and benches and a fountain in the middle. Peopled passed it without sparing it a glance, dragging their carry-ons and pushing trolleys. He checked google maps and decided against turning around, being wet already he walked to the end of the park and flagged a taxi back to his rental flat.
Fifty four
The car was packed with all their stuff for a weekend getaway with their friends, Maia and Greg, at their summer cabin. Once on the road, mercifully free of too many vehicles, Adam and the kids took turns to choose the music, resulting in a seriously mixed bag. One track of Elton John’s “I’m still standing,” courtesy of Sarah watching the movie Sing the night before, Adam’s choice, Leonard Cohen, sang about love and loss, then there was Nirvana with “Smells like a Teen,” and Theo was proud to have picked a song of his father’s liking and repertoire. She should feel relieved at Sam’s news, but the feeling of relief was keeping her waiting. They passed fields with cattle and horses grazing on pale green grass. Wild plum trees bloomed in white and fuchsia bushes in yellow along the road, lured by the increasing daylight and ignoring the cold spring weather. In the background, the sun touched with gold the edges of the low white clouds. She was doing her best to rekindle a feeling of being safe with her family in the confined space of the car, fighting the urge to check the rear-view mirror. She turned around. No cars behind. She regarded the kids. Theo was teaching Sarah the art of head-banging, they were laughing at each other, their eyes bright. Her eyes lingered on Adam. He felt her stare and turned his head with a mild, slightly concerned look, but then winked at her as he gently laid his hand on top of hers. His gaze shifted to the rear-view mirror, checking quickly on the kids, warmth and pride invading his eyes as he did so.
