Monday 26 May 2014

Story Episode 14



Having had what in the end turned out to be an amicable breakfast time meeting with Nathan Roberts we were now ready to make our way to G4S HQ in Crawley for our meeting with Mr. Anderson. 

We drove up through West Sussex stopping at a nice country pub for lunch. Arriving at Crawley just before 2 pm we made our way to G4S reception where we were greeted by Mandy.

She told us that Mr. Anderson was waiting for us. We should take the lift up to floor five, turn left, and look for his office which has his name on the door. We found it OK, knocked, and following his call to come in entered the room.  It was similar in size and shape to Gavin's but much more luxuriously equipped. The sofa was a nice leather one; there was a thick carpet on the floor and pictures hanging on the wall. Anderson was behind his desk in his shirtsleeves, his jacket behind him on his chair. He had a thin looking face with a rather pointed nose and he was wearing spectacles.

"Do come in everyone" he said. "Please take a seat over there on the sofa". We did as he asked and he came over to join us. 

"First of all I must give you the good news from South Africa. Our representatives over there have found both your colleagues and got them out of the squatter camps. Not surprisingly they are very confused so what we have done is to take them to a nice hotel in Cape Town. They can rest there for a bit and gradually remember who they are and what has happened to them. Also they might as well enjoy something of the good features of the country now that they find themselves there".

I said that this sounded like a good idea but asked if I could have their contact details - the address and telephone number of the hotel. Then I could get in touch; maybe even have a Skype call with them.  Anderson said of course and picked up the phone to ask Mandy to have the information ready for us when we left. He then asked if we had the folder containing the report and the other files with us. I reached into my bag and handed it over to him. He briefly flicked through the contents and then opened a folder of his own. He took out a photograph of Kelly and pushed it towards us.  "Is this the man who imprisoned and questioned you down in Dorset?" he asked.

"Yes, that's Kelly" I replied.

"Oh, you know his name" said Anderson looking a little taken aback.

"Yes" I replied "We did manage to find that out",

Anderson told us that things had moved on a bit since we had spoken to Gavin. When Gavin had told him about our visit and what we had said he had not been surprised. He said that the senior people at G4S had been suspicious of Kelly and his cousin, also called Kelly, who worked at G4S HQ dealing mainly with the banks. As soon as he was told our story Anderson had sent someone down to Dorset to keep an eye on the Kelly down there and also to keep a watch on the Kelly at HQ. When they saw that Patrick Kelly, the one at G4S HQ, had booked two one way tickets to Spain from Gatwick they decided to move in on them. We might find it amusing to know that the two men were now being held down at the prison complex in Dorset being interrogated.

I asked what Anderson and G4S intended to do with the men. Were they to be handed over to the police? "Oh no" said Anderson. He told us that would create too much negative publicity for G4S at a time when they were trying to make themselves more acceptable to the public. Once they had been fully questioned and the money recovered they would be allowed to go on to Spain. Somehow this didn't surprise me although I couldn't help saying that I was disappointed in the approach they were taking. Anderson said that he could see our point of view, particularly after all we had gone through, but that he had a responsibility to put the best interests of G4S first.   At that point I told him that we were not pursuing the two jailers down in Dorchester either and he said he was very relieved to hear that.

He then turned back to our files reading through things very carefully. I thought he might ask Dave and I more as we were there but after a while he looked up, thanked us for our help, and said that Mandy should have the information we needed about the hotel in Cape Town ready for us by now, We took that as the sign for us to leave so, after shaking hands, we went back downstairs to reception to see Mandy.

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