The Intern Affair

A Novel

By

Claire Romance

Copyright page

The localities, landmarks and government organizations mentioned or described in this book exist. The characters and events are fictional. Their resemblance to actual events or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Sabodala’s gold deposits were discovered by French government geologists in the 1950s. It took over 60 years for the first gold ingot to be poured out of the smelter in March 2009.

PROLOGUE

Tristan
Resources Ltd., a publicly trading mining company located in
Vancouver
,
Canada
, engaged the services of Mr.
Abdul Karim
. He was to oversee the application for a gold exploration permit in NW Mali. Soon after Talya
Gilmore
’s arrival in
Bamako
,
Karim
disappear
ed
along with his niece,
Helen Dumarais
. Talya need
ed
to find them in order to clear
Tristan
’s name of any wrong-doing in the embezzlement of funds, alleged bribing of government officials and involvement in the murder of
Sergio Mendez
.

Talya’s investigation led
her to
Dakar
where she discover
ed
that the embezzled funds ha
d
been invested in the illegal mining of Sabodala in
SE Senegal
. With the able assistance of
Alhassan Sangare
, a Malian attorney, and Captain
Samir Mandalay
, a private pilot, she
unravel
led
the mystery behind
Karim and Helen’s
disappearance and the murder of
Sergio Mendez
.

Charles
then returned
his attention once more to the gathering, and closing the folder in front of him,
he said
,  “The rest of
Ms.
Gilmore
’s statement are only made out of notes, which will have yet to be recorded. So I will not impose further reading on you for the moment.” He turned to Talya. “I will, however, ask
Ms.
Gilmore
to summarize the conclusions that she has
drawn during the past few days.” 

With some visible efforts, Talya began, “
Mrs.
Dumarais
and gentlemen,
we do not believe that
Mr.
Kareef
killed
Sergio
Mendez
.
” 

At this announcement, there was a stir amongst the people around the table.
Talya waited until the rustle abated and continued, “
Mr.
Kareef
is guilty of ‘having murder in mind’ and should be found guilty of
two
attempted murders—” 

“Two? Two attempted murders,”
Ousmane
interrupted
an astounded look on his face. “
M
adame
Gilmore
, we, at least
I
don’t understand.”

“Yes,
Mr.
Ousmane
,”
Charles
answered, “
Mustafa Kareef,
your devoted associate has come back last night to haunt us.  He wanted to rape and kill
Ms.
Gilmore
.” Upon hearing these words, Talya saw
Helen
put a hand to her mouth looking horrified. She was reliving her nightmare.

“Where is he? 
I’ll kill him myself
,”
Ousmane
exploded, rising from his seat. 

“Calm yourself,
Mr.
Ousmane
, and please, sit down,”
Charles
said, looking in Chief Mubarek’s direction. 

When
Ousmane
lowered himself in the seat, Talya raised her head and saw Samir’s gaze focused on her.  She went on, “As I was saying,
Mr.
Kareef
wanted
Sergio
dead, of course, but he did not perpetrate the crime.

“
Sergio
was at the mine at the time.  He had been working again for you,
Mr.
Ousmane
, for a few weeks. Although
Sergio
should have arrived in Sabodala in December, he never completed his journey from
Nouakchott
to
Dakar
until weeks later.

“As
Charles
said,
Sergio
was an occasional drug user but he was a trafficker first and foremost.
When I read
the letter that was found on his body
, I told Maitre
Sangare
that I felt a sense of unreal. Not because it was written in the third person, but because it had been written by someone under the influence of some powerful drugs.
Later on, I concluded that, when
Sergio
was first in
Senegal
, he wanted to pursue his trafficking activities and he succeeded to some degree. He went from Sabodala to
Dakar
on a regular basis and sent messages to South America, contacted other mules and made plans to use
Mr.
Ousmane
’s connections in
West Africa
to further his endeavours.

“The one person who soon realized what
Sergio
was doing was Johan Van Bur
ren.  Johan may be many things – a mining foreman and a trouble-shooter – but
he is also from the old school and drugs are not even part of his vocabulary. Johan uncovered the scheme, a scheme, which I might add, involved
Mr.
Kareef
. When I was told that
Sergio
never made the last leg of his trip from
Nouakchott
, and when I was shown proof of
Sergio
’s activities in
Mauritania
under the auspices of some drug cartel operating out of
Florida
, I was convinced that our
Mr.
Kareef
was a drug lord, or occupied a place very near that echelon.

“It was only logical to think that
Sergio
at first had no connections to speak of on this continent. As Johan said to me, “It was
Sergio
’s first time in
Africa
.”  So
,
how could
Sergio
establish a drug ring in
West Africa
when he knew no one? The answer was obvious. Mr.
Kareef
was the link.  It couldn’t have been
Mr.
Ousmane
, otherwise, why would he have needed money?  There are many money-laundering opportunities floating about this world and he could have easily found one that would have served the purpose.

“Moreover, I was also convinced that the first purpose for which
Mr.
Kareef
got involved in Sabodala was to establish such a drug ring and a money laundering facility. However, with you,
Mr.
Ousmane
, being so suspicious of everyone,
Mr.
Kareef
couldn’t activate the scheme until
Sergio
came on the scene.

“So, when you went to
Toronto
,
Mr.
Ousmane
, and you engaged
Sergio
again, he saw his second opportunity on the horizon. He took the ticket and flew to
Nouakchott
where he met
Kareef
.  They re-opened the ring, and drugs were ready to flow through once again.

“Except for Johan finding out about the scheme, the two collaborators had no problems. However, Johan had a problem of his own, the nitro-glycerine. Using it without permit was not something he wanted to do.  He desperately wanted to find a mining partner for
Mr.
Ousmane
.  He went in search of such a company and even went as far as
Zimbabwe
in quest of people who would take over the project or lend a hand to
Mr.
Ousmane
in his venture.

“After verifying that in fact Johan was in
Senegal
at the time of the murder, I drew a picture—
A picture of an involuntary manslaughter
.”

Johan, who had remained silent and inconspicuous to this moment, looked at Talya with pleading eyes. She went on uncompromisingly.

“On the day of
Sergio
’s slaying,
Mr.
Kareef
decided to lure him to Yoff’s beach under
one
pretext or
an
other that they had to talk.  He brought with him a package containing drugs and a hypodermic needle.  Drug trafficking is a dangerous business and a user usually has no place in a ring, because when you’re under the influence, you might talk and say the wrong thing to the wrong people. Since
Sergio
’s drug use became more than occasional, he had to be eliminated for good. 

“When Johan heard of the proposed meeting, he came back to
Dakar
at the same time as
Sergio
did. Johan had in mind to try stopping
Sergio
on the one hand, and prevent
Kareef
from pursuing him or break the ring somehow, on the other.

“
Sergio
went to his appointment on Yoff’s beach first and waited. He was dressed in ‘an expensive Italian suit’ the police report told us. He probably planned to have an evening out or came back from dinner in town. Either way, he was waiting for
Kareef
. When the man arrived, they began talking under the watchful eye of Johan Van Burren. When Johan saw the package that was handed to
Sergio
, he couldn’t hold his peace any longer. He waited impatiently for
Kareef
to depart and went to join
Sergio
on the beach. They talked, the discussion heated up and finally Johan took the needle out of the package and told
Sergio
to go ahead and ruin his life. 
Sergio
, in need of a fix (as the saying goes), took the needle and injected
himself
the fatal dose of cocaine.”

Had there been a fly to pierce the silence, it would have been heard across the entire conference room. Talya reclined in her seat before concluding.  She was exhausted.

“You see, gentlemen, and
Mrs.
Dumarais
, there were several things that bothered me about
Sergio
’s death.  First, I looked at the reason for his slaying—to keep him silent about his past, his kidnapping or his alleged torture. No, that was not the entire motive for the murder. There had to be something else, and secondly, the timing of his death—months after he had left
Senegal
and upon his returning to this country.  Why
,
w
as the question I posed over and over
again?
 
Sergio
came back to do a job, on his own, not on behalf of a company but as a consultant. So, why killing him now after all those months had elapsed and the dust had settled?