you can zap it.’
‘Plates?’
James opened a cupboard over the sink and passed Ryan a plate.
‘So how’d it go?’ he asked, as Ryan grabbed two slices and set the microwave for ninety seconds.
‘Mixed,’ Ryan admitted, as the pizza rotated. ‘I didn’t get inside Uncle’s cabin, but I might have a lead. There was a shed with a whole bunch of oil pumps and drilling equipment. And these consoles, all manufactured by a company called Offshore Marine Exploration.’
‘Did you ask Uncle what they were?’
Ryan nodded. ‘He said they strip the equipment for parts. I just found it interesting that half the hangar was full of oil stuff.’
‘Definitely interesting,’ James said, as he grabbed his laptop from under pizza boxes. ‘I had a preliminary report from the forensic accountant. The scrapyard is Uncle’s biggest earner by far, but it’s reported big losses for the past three years. He said it was because they’d been purchasing a lot of gear at auction, but only realising a small fraction of its cost at resale.’
‘Money laundering?’ Ryan suggested.
‘That was my first thought,’ James said. ‘Channelling profits to an overseas subsidiary to avoid UK tax. I’ll give the accountant a call and see what he can find.’
As James grabbed his mobile, Ryan opened his phone, Googled Offshore Marine Exploration and began to read a Wikipedia entry.
Offshore Marine Exploration (OME) was an Aberdeen-based company, specialising in the design and manufacture of oil drilling equipment … OME was a technology pioneer during the development of deep-water oil fields in British and Norwegian waters in the late 1970s … Company expanded aggressively in the 1980s, with over 300 employees producing oil drilling and extraction control systems for oil markets throughout the world … Floated on the London Stock Exchange 1986.
Shares hit hard in the Black Monday crash of October 19th 1987. OME was declared bankrupt in 1991 and assets bought by Texas-based rival GeoPump Inc … GeoPump moved production of OME equipment to Mexico … Manufacture of OME-designed equipment ceased in 1995, when GeoPump filed for bankruptcy.
‘Hey, Georgiou,’ James told his phone. ‘I want you to run a search on the accounts of Uncle’s scrapyard. Any invoices related to oil drilling equipment, especially if it says it’s manufactured by OME … Really … ? Really … ?’
Ryan looked round at James, who seemed properly excited.
‘So?’ Ryan asked, when the call ended.
James was grinning. ‘I think you’ve lucked into something on your little tour, mate. Georgiou says he’d already noticed that Uncle’s yard was making large purchases of surplus equipment from oil exploration companies in Scotland and Norway. In 2015 almost two million pounds went out, but then all the equipment gets written off as scrap in the company accounts.’
Ryan looked baffled. ‘Which means?’
‘No idea,’ James said. ‘But Georgiou did give me a number for a company called OME911. Apparently they were paid to do some repair work on OME equipment at Uncle’s scrapyard about two years back.’
Ryan found a link to the OME911 website through Google, but the link bounced to a domain registry: Buy this and thousands of other domains from just $99.
James was peering over his shoulder. ‘Use Wayback Machine.’
Ryan quickly found a 2012 version of the OME911 site on Wayback and read aloud, ‘OME911 is the leading solution for onsite repair and maintenance of Offshore Marine pump and control systems. Our three engineers are former OME employees. We are the only company with full access to OME schematics and software diagnostic tools.’
James tried a phone number on the site’s contact page, but it rang dead.
‘Looks like they shut up shop,’ James said. ‘Print off the contacts page.’
James took his laptop and logged into the security service database. This gave him back door access to company, tax and banking records for most EU citizens. It took a few minutes for James to interrogate tax databases and make a Word document containing the names and last known addresses of the UK employees of OME911.
Ryan grabbed a printout of these details from an inkjet in James’ bedroom, settling back on the sofa as James began checking out the names, hoping to find someone who might have a clue why Uncle was buying up OME equipment.
‘Holy crap,’ James said, as he turned the laptop to show an article from an Aberdeen newspaper.
Oil man Chris Carlisle dies after drug overdose in Birmingham Airport Hotel.
Ryan realised Carlisle was one of the three engineers pictured on the OME911 website, as James started Googling the other two.
‘Birmingham airport’s only a couple of miles from Uncle’s