The Fund. Jeff Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ Reynolds, Toby Brown and Ali Akuba each held in their possession a key. Each key was different and all three were required to be inserted and turned within seconds of each other to open the vault at The Fund’s current headquarters in the city. The vault was reputed to contain a treasure of far greater value than all the money left to The Fund by their benefactor, Mrs Green.

      Rumour had it that the vault contained the videos of many high-placed citizens caught in compromising positions at the former brothel known as The Garden of Eros, a brothel that had been owned and operated by The Fund’s benefactor, Mrs Green.

      The country’s intelligence services, acting upon orders direct from Prime Minister David Foster, had been able to confirm the existence of these legendary videos but had been unable to locate their current whereabouts. Even the vault had been searched, without success.

      Now, with this explosive information in their possession The Fund was in a position to dictate to the leaders of several countries. However, the intentions of Mrs Green in making the bequest was that the power of the videos was not to be used for anything other than charitable works throughout the world and to right wrongdoings.

      It was an idealistic endeavour, but at this early stage, not many projects of such high ideals had been undertaken because the members of The Fund were still feeling their way in the heady field of philanthropy.

      Chapter 2

      As soon as Mick Sloane logged on, he checked his computer for incoming emails and then returned to the current story he had been working on. The information from America that he had been waiting for had yet to arrive.

      That news had nothing to do with the story before him, which was a fill-in piece on the antics of one of the local bad boys and his flashy girlfriend, but more importantly, could be the vital break he was seeking on his ‘special project’.

      Ever since he first announced to the world that Jade Green was alive and still living among them, with her former colourful life and powerful secrets intact, he had devoted his spare time to finding out more about her.

      In the years since his divorce he had lived alone in his dreary single bedroom flat. His life had become a continuing round of court reporting, and pubs, with the occasional visit from his only daughter Pamela. The only other bright spot in his life was an occasional appearance on a local radio station where his Irish brogue seduced many a lady listener with lurid tales from his courthouse rounds.

      Pamela lived with his ex-wife and he had worked hard to make sure she had attended the best private school available and that her education had been rounded out by lessons in music and dancing.

      However, it was with the re-emergence of Jade Green that Sloane’s life had taken on a new focus. There was a story here. Not just a few columns in a newspaper or an article in a news magazine. This was the stuff of a book and a bestseller at that. This was the answer to his current dreary existence. This was the project that would raise him above the level of the newspaper hack. For years he had concentrated on the news stories of the day, submerging his desire to write real literature in order that Pamela did not go without. Now here was the tale that he hoped would bring him fame as well as money.

      Jade Green’s sudden death, far from ruining his plans, had added an entirely new dimension to his work. The mysterious circumstance of her demise was another aspect that added intrigue to the plot that had enthralled him.

      She had been a very elderly lady and so it had not come as a complete surprise that she would die suddenly. However, the fact that Sloane had been totally unable to get any information as to where, and from what causes she died, had made his reporting instincts go into overdrive. There was a story here and Sloane was determined to find out what it was.

      A few other reporters had also been intrigued by the Jade Green story, especially after she killed her former partner Walter Groom in self-defence. Then more questions had arisen when her house had been burned down in mysterious circumstances, followed soon after by some sort of military operation at the site during which her neighbour’s house had also been badly damaged.

      These incidents had been followed closely by Jade Green’s death. Much too closely for Mick’s liking and Sloane was still trying desperately to find out why. However, all normal channels of information had been blocked by a wall of secrecy that was absolute. Sloane had no doubt it had been set in place by the government and from a high level of government at that. It had been enough to frustrate the other reporters who had not given up but simply put aside the story for the time being. Sloane had no doubt that they would return to the saga of Jade Green just as soon as they were able to find a way to pierce the wall of secrecy.

      His own attempts to undertake what would under any other circumstances be normal inquiries had met with polite refusal. Not that they were unwilling to help Sloane. It was just that they, themselves, were unable to access the information he sought, even though they should have been able to do so.

      All of which made Sloane more and more determined to unravel the mystery that was Jade Green.

      If the direct route to the information is not available then I’ll just have to go by more devious ways, Sloane thought to himself as he set down to record what little information he had and to work out a plan for obtaining more. ‘Just one small lead is all I need. As soon as the right piece of information falls into place then the rest of the puzzle will solve itself.’

      Finally, when the reply to his email did arrive, Sloane was disappointed. Yet again the information he sought was not going to be forthcoming. It was yet another dead end. Still, he had not expected that the information would just fall into his lap. It looked as though he was going to travel back in time. He needed to delve into the very early life of Jade Green and understand where she sprang from and hopefully that would lead him to where the vital clue was hidden.

      * * *

      That evening Sloane settled himself in his flat’s single battered lounge chair with a glass of whiskey at his side and he began to work his way through the information before him.

      He recalled the number of times that he had tried to interview Jade Green. The very first time had been many years ago as a young reporter while she was still serving her prison sentence. He had called several times and been told that she refused to speak to anyone except her closest of friends and the prison authorities had ensured that her wishes had been complied with, no matter how many times he tried.

      The next time was after a gap of many years when he had caught sight of her outside the court where her friend Toby Brown’s case was being heard, but she had ignored him and refused to answer whatever questions he had thrown at her.

      He had followed after the woman and discovered that she resided in Walton Village. Sloane had then rung her at home to try to arrange an interview but had been very politely denied his request.

      Then the matter of her slaying of Walter Groom arose and he had been among the pack of media clamouring for a word from her, but once again Jade Green had maintained a dignified silence, just as she had throughout her life. Sloane had not been able to find a single occasion when the woman had volunteered to speak publicly.

      After the media frenzy died down, Sloane had returned to Walton Village where he managed to find her alone, working in Toby Brown’s gallery. He hadn’t attempted to harass the woman as he knew that the redoubtable Jade Green was not a person to be browbeaten. He had simply shown her his press credentials and asked to speak to her.

      The old woman had studied Sloane over the top of her reading glasses and smiled.

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ