Rafi paused to collect his thoughts… ‘After the short presentations, the cheeky buggers pushed through lunch at a cracking pace – they were running two sittings. At 1.15 p.m. I was politely offered my coat and a couple of minutes later I was standing in front of the building feeling rather pissed off. My nice lunch had turned into a fast food experience. I stood there, taking in the view across the Thames. It was a lovely afternoon; the winter sun was out and London looked great, so as I wasn’t expected back in the office before 2.30, I decided to stretch my legs and walk back to the office rather than take a taxi.’
Rafi smiled. ‘I set off towards Tower Bridge, along the river walkway past the London Assembly Building.’
‘Is that the one with the unfortunate nickname relating to a part of the male anatomy?’ enquired Jeremy.
‘Yes,’ Rafi smiled, ‘a singularly imposing building,’ he paused. ‘I then made my way up the steps of Tower Bridge. By the time I reached the far side, the cold wind had got to me. I considered being a wimp and taking a taxi back to the office, but opted for the exercise and turned down the steps that cut under the bridge, went past Dead Man’s Gate and headed out into the sunshine past the Tower of London. Whoops, sorry I’m rambling again.’
‘Don’t worry. As long as you remember something useful we don’t mind if you ramble on a bit,’ said Kate reassuringly.
‘I continued my stroll and headed along Lower Thames Street. I crossed the road and walked up St Mary at Hill, then turned into a narrow cobbled street – St Dunstan’s Lane. What prompted me to go that way, I don’t know. Perhaps it was because I was enjoying my amble and the lane, with its cobbled surface, looked quaint. It was an impulse. On the corner where St Dunstan’s Lane turns into Idol Lane there was a delivery van blocking the single carriageway.’ Rafi paused again. ‘And fifty metres up Idol Lane, was a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, with its door open waiting for someone to come out of a building.’
Rafi stopped; time seemed to stand still. He stared towards the printer to the right of Emma’s desk. It all came flooding back as if it were an action replay. He continued with his story. ‘I walked around the corner behind the parked lorry and reappeared just in time to see someone getting into the car. At that precise moment the lorry driver leant out of his window and called to me. I turned and walked back towards him. He wanted to know where the nearest McDonald’s was. I apologised, saying that I didn’t know, but thought that there was one in Cannon Street and pointed to the end of the road. He thanked me and drove off.’
Rafi’s eyes widened. ‘As the lorry left, it was followed by the Mercedes; no wonder the person in the car had looked familiar: it was Jameel! I looked at him and, fleetingly, our eyes met – but he didn’t acknowledge me. At the time I assumed that he was engrossed in his work. Thinking about it though, what must it have looked like to my boss? One moment I was there, the next I was hiding behind a lorry. He couldn’t have known I was speaking to the driver.’
‘It would have looked suspicious,’ said Emma, ‘Like you didn’t want to be seen.’
‘So what did you do next?’ asked Kate.
‘I walked to the top of the lane and passed by the building Jameel had come out of. It was nondescript, with the numbers 2 – 4 on a plain dark blue front door. There was nothing to give away who or what was based there. At the time I wondered who Jameel had been seeing but, as I didn’t think it was important, I dismissed the thought and carried on back to the office,’ said Rafi.
‘Anything else?’ asked Kate.
‘That’s it!’ Rafi, looked at his audience. ‘Sorry it took a while to get to the punchline. Could I have spotted Jameel doing something he wanted to keep secret… And that is what triggered his interest in me, particularly if he thought I was spying on him? What do you think?’
Emma looked up. ‘Rafi, did he look sheepish when he left the building in Idol Lane?’
‘No – just businesslike.’
‘I think I should get a list of all the occupiers,’ said Emma. ‘You can then see if any ring a bell. I’ll nip downstairs and raid our database.’
‘Good idea,’ said Kate.
A short while later Emma returned looking rather pleased with herself; she walked confidently up to Rafi’s desk and handed him three sheets of paper.
‘Here is the list of occupiers for Idol Lane. Bit of a rabbit warren down there. In case your boss was visiting someone nearby, I took the liberty of checking the adjoining streets as well,’ said Emma.
Rafi ran his eyes down the list.
‘Emma, could you find out what AGVC does, please? And could you get me a large-scale map which shows exactly where their offices are?’ asked Rafi.
Only a few minutes later she had the requested information up on her screen. ‘Right, here goes. AGVC – business type: venture capital company and financiers. Any good?’
‘Yes!’ said Rafi. ‘That is what I was hoping for.’
‘They are located halfway down on the left-hand side of St Mary at Hill.’
‘Hold on a moment,’ said Kate, ‘I thought you said you saw Jameel in Idol Lane?’
Rafi looked at her slightly crestfallen. ‘Good memory,’ he said looking at Kate approvingly. ‘Yes, you’re right.’
Emma smiled. ‘No problem, the two properties back on to each other.’
‘That’s interesting. Who are the occupiers of 2-4 Idol Lane?’
‘Rainer Spencer and Mitchell,’ answered Emma. ‘Says here that they’re chartered accountants and company registrars.’
‘What’s the link?’ asked Kate.
‘Link?’ said Emma. ‘What if the buildings were physically linked or interconnected, this would allow Jameel to keep his visits to AGVC’s offices secret. Shall we see if the two buildings are in the same ownership?’ Emma’s fingers worked quickly over her keyboard. ‘Right, I’m into the Land Registry website; let’s take a look at AGVC’s offices first. The address and postcode?’ Before anyone could answer, Emma had cut and pasted the information into the Land Registry boxes. ‘Oh dear, not much help: the freehold is owned by British amp; Scottish Property Company.’
‘A major London listed property company,’ Rafi chipped in.
‘Hold on a minute,’ said Emma. ‘I shouldn’t have been too hasty. There seems to be a long leasehold interest in the property owned by a company called PREH.’
‘OK, what about the building next to it in Idol Lane?’ said Kate.
‘Would you believe it; it’s owned by PREH as well.’
‘That’s fantastic, so they are connected.’ Kate was standing behind Emma, and gave her a friendly pat on the back and then did the same to Rafi.
He almost jumped out of his skin. ‘Ooouch!’ he exclaimed.
‘Whoops, sorry, I’ve done it again!,’ said Kate. ‘I forgot about your bumps and bruises.’ Her look turned pensive. ‘So what have we got? A venture capital business, a property company, plus a firm of chartered accountants and company secretaries. Jeremy could you ask your teams to get chapter and verse on these three businesses, and see if there are any links to Jameel Furud or Prima Terra.’
‘Will do… By the way, Rafi what precisely does Prima Terra do?’ asked Jeremy.
‘They’re fund managers, with about?30 billion of funds under management,’ replied Rafi.
‘It’s not your money, is it?’ added Jeremy.
Rafi looked at him. ‘No.’
‘So what’s to stop you flushing it down the pan?’ continued Jeremy.
‘Our reputations. Plus we do get bonuses if we outperform,’ replied Rafi.
Jeremy smiled. ‘Just a thought – but in my book, bad guys don’t go around improving things, they trash them…’ He was stopped mid-sentence by his phone. He glanced at its small screen. ‘Sorry, I need to take this…’
Several hours later, Commissioner Giles Meynell and Chief Superintendent David Pryke walked into Kate’s office, which had paper everywhere.