Unsafe Deposit

J.E. Kellenberger

Description

When a young, penniless, political asylum seeker lands on British soil and co-founds a manufacturing company destined for the Stock Exchange, his dirty secrets are used by his enemies as blackmail to satisfy their own unlawful ends... Into these murky waters rides a London lawyer on a cycling holiday. Wholly innocent and unaware of the course of events about to unfold and engulf him, he is confronted with a series of riddles to solve which will stretch his patience and test his resolve. Running through this meshwork of power and conundrums is the world of fine arts, in the shape of a priceless piece of jewellery with a romantic provenance and an antiquity of central Europe dating back more than two thousand years, and the world of commerce with its boardroom power struggles and shifting loyalties. Mistakes are made, clues are misunderstood, hopes are raised and dashed, tears are shed and relationships are formed and broken in an adventure of intrigue as the characters move through the storyline. Who, if anyone, is really reprehensible is entirely up to the reader to judge...Unsafe Depositis a thrilling tale exploring the secret world of questionable dealings and underhand measures. It will appeal to those looking for a gripping storyline with an outcome that is impossible to guess.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 24 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785895623
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2016 J.E. Kellenberger

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 978 1785895 623

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In memory of
RONALD ERIC RAVEN
1917-1943
City of London School for Boys scholar
Warrant Officer 1 st Class
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
Prisoner of War 1941-1943

With thanks to Rosemary and Hilary for reading the original manuscript.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Prologue
1936
Despite the time of year, late spring, it was cold in the prefab hut close to the wharf where the cross-Channel ferry had docked in Dover. Max sat across the small, bare table top from the austere-looking immigration officer. He was a middle-aged man with greying hair and receding hairline. His back was ramrod straight and, in true British tradition, his upper lip was equally stiff. He was an Oxford-educated senior Home Office official and knew how to handle young men like Max.
‘Is your maternal language German?’ he enquired calmly.
‘Yes,’ replied Max hesitantly, trying to express with gestures that the only word in the sentence he really understood was “German”.
‘Do you need a translator?’ the immigration officer went on.
‘Yes,’ replied Max, again unsure as to the true nature of the question.
‘Mein Kollege spricht Deutsch ich wird ihn beschwören.’
They sat for some moments in complete silence while awaiting the translator who the immigration officer had summoned by the only telephone in the draughty hut. A third chair was drawn up to the wooden table when she arrived, a lady from the Swiss Embassy who had been seconded to the Home Office to help with the growing number of asylum seekers arriving on British soil from Nazi Germany. With no more than a nod confirming the arrival of the translator he continued the interview.
‘Is it your intention to seek asylum in the United Kingdom?’
‘Yes,’ replied Max. Despite his youth he had an air of haughtiness and now that he understood the question he was able to reply without any hint of deference.
‘Do you have any identity papers?’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Max as if the immigration officer should know that he was an important personage. ‘I can tell you who I am!’
‘I’m sure you can, Sir, but I need evidence. Do you have any official documents which show your name, address and date of birth?’
There followed a long pause. A change of attitude was necessary, Germanic arrogance would serve no useful purpose on these shores. To survive he would need to adapt and he would have to do so sooner rather than later.
‘None,’ he replied meekly. ‘I escaped with nothing.’
Chapter One
Initial Thoughts 2010
It wasn’t the usual type of French open-air market selling fresh produce from the dozens of farms in the vicinity but a specialised market of non-consumable merchandise, goods that had started life in shops and fairs but had failed to sell for one reason or another and had eventually trickled down to their terminal stage to be sold at a hugely discounted price or be dumped ignominiously. Tommy knew where all these types of markets were located and the one just outside of Belfort in the Haute Saône region of north-east France had been a regular on his schedule for many years. He was steeped in market trading having since a small boy accompanied and later helped his father Stan who made his living trading in the market towns of outer London and its provinces. He’d learned a lot of tricks from his dad and together with his best friend Rolf he had mastered the knack of selling unwanted goods. The boys’ scam, for that was what it was, had yielded over the course of several years two very nice nest eggs which each was now using according to his own particular philosophy for the conduct of his future working life.
They’d first met as twelve year olds at a grammar school when both had won scholarships. By their classmates with middle-class and professional family backgrounds they were regarded as oddballs: Rolf the immigrant’s son and Tommy, a rough diamond with a working-class upbringing. This had inevitably thrown them together, spending many hours in each other’s company discussing everything under the sun. It had started as a friendship borne of need but would develop over the coming years into one of profound depth and total trust, a partnership of equals with Rolf the instigator and Tommy the adapter. It suited their personalities. Rolf was a closet-introvert and most of the early thrust in his ambition was fuelled by resentment towards his parents; caused, he blamed, by his disabled sister. But he had qualities, often hidden from the casual observer that endeared him to Tommy. He was hardworking, intelligent, interesting with an original slant on life and, where Tommy was concerned, loyal to him to a fault and Rolf had long ago conceded that Tommy’s description of him as “driven” was both fair and accurate. They shared the same sense of humour, it was never boring being with him. He complemented perfectly Tommy’s easygoing, gregarious and cheerful nature and although one mostly led and the other mainly followed it proved to be the strength of their friendship, not a weakness. From a young age Tommy had a need to earn money, his father’s work bringing in only sufficient to meet the family’s basic needs and any treats he wanted he had to fund himself. For Rolf too finance was an important issue for although he received pocket money from his grandparents Rolf had, with a maturity way beyond his age, already identified what he needed to achieve with his savings. Whereas Rolf had grandiose plans regarding his family’s clothing manufacturing company Tommy’s were far more modest. Despite his excellent academic achievements he had spurned the chance of a university education preferring to remain in his own working-class milieu; his ambition to trade in his own right a deep-seated goal but where his father appeared content with low-end products Tommy’s ambition was to go up-market and sell cars from his own plush showroom. His nest egg had given him sufficient capital to rent a small commercial property which he renovated. Situated in a great location it had plenty of hard standing for second-hand cars. From the outset the business had performed well, giving Tommy little cause to worry about failure, it was a triumph for the business plan he had honed and perfected with Rolf during their schooldays.
Today, his trading day would differ from the norm. He would be packing up his stall mid-afternoon in order to drive the relatively short distance across the border into Switzerland to meet Rolf in Basle. Rolf had asked him to act as a courier, an assignment which would take him to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. And later, after completion of Rolf’s task, there would be his assignation with Jane. He could hardly wait. They met up that evening in a small but smart hotel in the city centre. After dinner, in the soft twilight of the late evening, they strolled along the banks of the Rhine deep in conversation. They had slipped back effortlessly into the frankness and trust they had shared in their teens despite their increasingly infrequent get-togethers as their working and social lives took them in different directions.
‘So what’s the reason behind you moving the whole contents of your safe deposit to Liechtenstein?’ asked Tommy. ‘I know about the pouch obviously but why the cash and, indeed, the equities too?’
‘It’s all down to the new EU laws relating to offshore banking,’ replied Rolf, ‘in its wisdom the EU has extended its tentacles beyond the frontiers of the Eurozone and wrapped them in a vice-like grip around the throats of some independent countries including Switzerland.’
‘And…’ pressed Tommy.
‘It’s a dry and technical story but the basics are this,’ continued Rolf. ‘Although the European Union was their largest trading partner, the Swiss electorate voted against joining the EU. But as continued trade was still essential, Switzerland negotiated some special bi-lateral treaties which had the effect of making a large chunk of the EU law applicable in Switzerland too. When the global economics started going pear-shaped in 2008 there was international pressure on Switzerland to provide information about bank accounts held in Switzerland by foreign nationals. This finally resulted in 2010 with individual agreements with various countries for disclosure of assets held in numbered accounts by their own citizens and hence the move!’
‘I see but why Liechtenstein