Dawson sat up a little. “When was this, Mr. Calmy-Rey?”
“It could have been in April of this year. Or May, perhaps.”
“Did he say what this argument was about?”
“Not really, but I think money was involved.” He looked uneasy. “I’m sorry, perhaps it would be best to ask Sapphire about it. I feel uncomfortable that I may give you the wrong facts.”
Dawson nodded. “I understand. Are you aware of anyone who might have wanted Charles Smith-Aidoo and/or his wife dead?”
“There are any number of activists and advocates who see the oil companies as dire enemies bent on destroying the livelihoods of fishermen. Charles was our public face and the most accessible. Sure, one or two of these people might like to kill me-” a smile crept to Calmy-Rey’s face “-but it’s a lot harder to get to me than it was Charles.”
“You say ‘one or two people’ might like to kill you. Are you referring to anyone specific?”
“No, I’m not. I haven’t met any of these activist types, although Charles had. I do know that the most vocal is a man by the name of Quashie Quarshie, who is the head of an NGO called Friends of Axim, or FOAX, as they call it. Mind you, in mentioning him, I’m not directing an accusation at him.”
Something clicked in Dawson’s brain. “Reportedly, when the Smith-Aidoos visited Mr. Cardiman at Ezile Bay, they were coming from a function in Axim. Could that have been a meeting with the FOAX people?”
“It might have, I don’t know,” Calmy-Rey said, standing up, “but we can easily find out.”
He opened the office door, put his head around it, and asked Janice to look up Charles’s calendar for that week in July. She came into the office two minutes later and quietly handed Calmy-Rey a sheet of paper.
“You were right,” he said to Dawson. “This shows his schedule for the entire month, and on Monday, the seventh of July, he was due for a meeting at eight o’clock in the morning with FOAX.”
He leaned forward to hand the paper to Dawson, who studied it with Chikata looking on. Other meetings during the month seemed innocuous and routine, but the one with FOAX might have been significant. What if there had been acrimony between Charles and the activists, and one or more of them had decided that Charles Smith-Aidoo had to be eliminated? He, or they, could have followed him and his wife to Ezile Bay and ambushed them on their way back.
“Who else in the office, besides you,” Dawson asked Janice, “knew or might have known about Mr. Smith-Aidoo’s schedule?”
