Читать книгу Legacy - Jeff Edwards - Страница 6

It began quietly enough, as most things do. The other reporters on court duty may have been too young to remember her, but Mick Sloane was an old trouper, and he was certainly old enough. He recognised her immediately. After all, he had sat in the court while her trial took place and excitedly reported all the lurid details. He and his fellow reporters had tried to guess who she was protecting. It had frustrated them that the whole story was not coming out.

Now, like an echo from the past, here she was, Jade Green. She came walking through the doors of the courthouse with a group of lawyers on their way to argue the merits of a property dispute. It was hardly the thing to make the front page of his newspaper, but still exciting to an old timer like him.

So he recorded the event, knowing full well that he would probably have to explain to his young editor just who the infamous Jade Green was before any mention of her would appear in print.

He was, of course, not the only one present that recognised her.

Grinning at their discomfort, Mick watched as she waved to some elderly members of the legal profession, noting their stunned expressions and the way others tried to scurry out of sight. There were a lot of guilty expressions in court today and they weren’t on the faces of the criminals.

When the public interest item did appear, it was relegated to four lines in the ‘In Court’ column of the paper, below the speeding fine of a local business identity and above the guilty plea of a bicycle thief.

There was a day or two of uneasy murmuring among the clients of certain conservative businessmen’s clubs in the city, but that soon died down. They hoped, and prayed, that Jade Green would return to wherever she had just sprung from and that she would remain there forever.

The President of the USA heard about her sudden appearance as an offhand comment made by his ambassador in their regular phone conversation. It was said lightheartedly by the ambassador, knowing that the President had been working in the city when Jade Green had been brought to trial. He had been a junior member of the embassy at the time and soon after returned home, where he was eventually elected to the Senate for his home state and later rose to his present esteemed office.

The President laughed along with the ambassador, hiding his sudden alarm, and broke off the conversation as quickly as he could.

He sat for a time and pondered the possibilities before ringing his security advisor. Instructions were issued and a low grade alert was initiated. Orders went out to keep a watch on the activities of one Jade Green and to report immediately if anything unusual were to occur.

It hadn’t been deemed a matter of any importance to the secretary who was employed to keep the Prime Minister informed on noteworthy news stories. Prime Minister David Foster heard about the matter in a conversation with an old school friend. He knew he had nothing to fear personally but was aware of the ramifications if the past should rear its ugly head.

He issued instructions for the woman to be monitored.

So, too, in several other countries, the word was passed quietly around that, after years of oblivion, Jade Green had been seen in public. They held their collective breaths and waited.

Time passed and when nothing further happened those holding their breath relaxed a little and moved on with their lives. They were very grateful for small mercies.

Suddenly, she was front-page news.

‘Ex-Madam Slays Former Partner’ screamed the headlines.

Overnight, the public was reintroduced to the infamous Jade Green, former owner of the bordello named the Garden of Eros and its reputed client list of the famous and not-so famous of the time.

A generation that had missed the story the first time was told how Green had been video-taping her clients when she was arrested, and provided with details of the infamous murder that had followed.

Speculation was again rife as to who her regular clients had been. She had never revealed that information, even under oath, and had been jailed as a result.

The newspapers speculated as to whether those legendary tapes still existed.

Walter Groom’s death at her hands was fully investigated and Green was found to have acted in self-defence. No charges were laid.

Groom had been regarded as an upstanding member of the community, but when his business relationship with Green had been revealed the entire range of his less-than-legal activities finally came to light. His grieving family quickly and quietly disowned him, and the police moved in to seize many of his assets as the profits of crime.

The President of the USA called on his security advisor and ordered him to move their surveillance of Green to a higher level.

At the same time, the Prime Minister was also raising the topic of Jade Green with his cabinet.

As usual, Prime Minister David Foster entered the room surrounded by his numerous secretaries and took his seat at the head of the conference table.

Moving through the meeting’s agenda, they finally reached the final topic – Jade Green.

‘What are we going to do about her?’ he asked his Minister of Inland Security.

‘There’s not a great deal we can do at present. She hasn’t done anything. If she had broken the law, then we could put some pressure on her. As it is, we were only able to talk to her in conjunction with the death of Groom. She did finally admit that Walter Groom was her silent partner in the Garden of Eros,’

‘What about the video-tapes?’ asked the Health Minister on the opposite side of the table.

The Prime Minister raised an eyebrow at the minister in question and then realised that he was probably of an age to have had personal experience of the Garden of Eros.

‘As far as we know, they no longer exist, or never existed in the first place. It’s possible that they’re just a legend.’

‘Rubbish,’ exclaimed the Health Minister. ‘She was found video-taping when she was arrested.’

‘You seem to know a lot about this matter,’ commented the Prime Minister dryly.

The Health Minister blushed guiltily. ‘A friend of mine told me all about Green and her house of ill repute,’ he blustered.

‘Did he get the tape back?’ asked another minister.

‘No. Inland Security still has it,’ replied the Minister for Inland Security.

‘Don’t you think it should be returned?’ asked the Prime Minister.

‘We’re still keeping it for evidence. Other tapes may turn up and we need to keep this one for comparison.’

‘I don’t see what the fuss is all about,’ said the young Minister for Education. ‘This all happened years ago. It’s ancient history.’

Foster rose to speak. He had to let his Cabinet know just how important the matter had become.

Looking at the Minister of Education he said: ‘You might have been correct if the tapes had come to light immediately after Jade Green’s arrest. True, if it had happened at that time, there would have been great controversy, figures of importance would have been shown to have feet of clay, reputations would have been lost, futures ruined, marriages broken, but it would all be out in the light, finished, done with. Life would have moved on.

‘As it stands now, we are looking at a potential for universal disaster. The people in those tapes are older now. They have gone from being young, thoughtless, Lotharios to being the current leaders in this, and other, countries. They now hold positions of power in politics, religion, business and the military.

‘Imagine what would happen if those tapes were to fall into the wrong hands. Whoever controls those tapes will be able to exert power over our entire nation and, I believe, over numerous other nations as well. Unless those tapes can be found, then this country is at the mercy of whoever has them.’

He sat down and looked around the table. The Minister of Health stared down at the table, unable to meet anyone’s eye. The others were also deep in thought.

The Minister of Education spoke up: ‘But I wasn’t even around back then. It can’t affect me.’

The Prime Minister turned to him with a sigh: ‘It may not affect you personally, Minister, but can you vouch for everyone on your staff, or in your family. It only needs to be one person in your circle. That person can be forced to bring undue pressure to bear, and vital decisions could be influenced, one way or another.’

The Minister nodded, finally conceding the importance of the matter. ‘What do we do?’ he asked.

The Prime Minister took a deep breath and began: ‘We have to get our hands on the tapes before anyone else does. Then we have to evaluate what is on them. After that, we’ll make a decision what is to be done with them.’

‘Surely we destroy them,’ said the Minister of Health.

The Prime Minister smiled at his discomfort: ‘We probably will destroy most of them, but it would be entirely remiss of us not to use some of those tapes to benefit our own country.’

‘You mean blackmail,’ said the Minister of Education.

‘We would simply use them to guide outcomes that would be beneficial to our country and world peace as a whole,’ countered the Prime Minister.

Put in such well meaning terms, the ministers readily agreed to the policy, and passed the responsibility for getting their hands on the videos to Inland Security.