Blake Tresscott had assigned his secretary as a point of contact between Samantha and his company she supposed, for confidentiality reasons.  He had also surprisingly allocated NPS very comfortable offices to work from. They had been there for the last three days pouring over financial data for the last three months. Samantha was not pleased to admit that she found Blake Tresscott ran a very tight ship, and a very efficient one at that.  All financial transactions and records meticulously adhered to corporate governance principles.  She started with records from twelve months ago, and had completed inspecting the records for a three month period, wishful that something will show up in records of recent months.

Since their initial meeting, she had not seen Tresscott. She had not asked about him from his secretary, but had overheard two of her staff mention that he was overseas.  She had yet to make the follow up meeting with him. Samantha was hoping to find any non compliance to tackle him about before scheduling the next meeting, but so far no non compliance was evident.  Even his tax records were exemplary.

You can rule out tax evasion Director Stanford.

'Have you checked out that hot bod?' Kate Jonas, one of the forensics analysts groaned.

'If Blake Tresscott is guilty of having a gorgeous body, I want to personally handcuff him, to my bed that is,' Kerry Becker cooed to Kate.

The giggling and whisperings simmered down, as Samantha entered their office.

'Ladies, have we established a pattern and reconciled purchase orders to invoices received?' Samantha enquired, without preamble.

'Er__ we're just finalizing that right now Senior Superintendant,' Kerry responded, handing Samantha an audit report linking orders to invoices.

'I'm expecting Mr. Jock Spencer, the Financial Director any minute now,' Samantha informed the ladies as she cast a professional glance down the audit report' 'he will put us in a more clearer picture.'

'Actually he's tied up in an urgent matter and Yours Truly is at your disposal,' Samantha heard the unforgettable voice from the doorway.

Unhurriedly, she raised her head up from the report to see Blake Tresscott leaning smugly against the doorframe. One very muscular leg crossed the ankle of the other, his arms folded across his taut chest.

'Mr. Tresscott, good morning,' Kerry gushed, flashing her pearls at Tresscott.

'Good morning Mr. Tresscott,' Kate joined the welcoming party.

'Ladies good morning, I trust my team have been hospitable and accommodating,' Tresscott, knew how to turn on the charm.'

'Yes they've been most helpful,' Kerry went the extra mile to offer a handshake to the Lord and Master of the Universe.

'What is it you require a more clearer picture about Senior Superintendant St. Claire?' he drew out.

Samantha's eyes narrowed momentarily at the mocking tone, then she not so calmly rose from the desk that her sexy bottom was perched on, picking up a marker pen, she raised it in the direction of Tresscott and exclaimed with an outward confidence that was inwardly lacking, 'let's see if we have our audit trail in sequence to the channel of activities Platinum undertakes from its point of origin to its destination,' she walked in her elegant stilettos to the brown paper strapped on the wall that auditors favoured in conducting an analysis.

Tresscott nodded, making himself comfortable on one of the nearby desks.

'The activity starts with Platinum generating an order to a mine requesting to purchase the diamonds, right?' Samantha drew on the chart.

'That's right,' Tresscott nodded.

'An invoice or Delivery Note or both from the specific mine should then be coupled to the Purchase Order Number of Platinum's?' Samantha drew an arrow indicating the second activity on the chart.

'Right again,' Tresscott nodded, his thumb and fore finger trailing a path across his chin.

'When that diamond reaches Platinum, a Goods Received Note should be generated, reflecting the Purchase Order Number together with the Invoice and or Delivery Note Number?' Samantha looked to Tresscott for affirmation.

'Right for the third time, Senior Superintendent St. Claire,' that mocking drawl was back.

Samantha observed Kate and Kerry hardly cast a glance at her or the activity trail she was trying to establish, their eyes were shamelessly glued to the arrogant Blake Tresscott.

'I take it payments are electronically made, marrying all the relevant documentation quoted above?' Samantha murmured, glancing at Tresscott and quickly looking away.

'Your insight is amazing, Senior Superintendent,' Tresscott stood up walking towards her.

Where do you think you're going?  Sit down again!

'With an audit trail as clear and articulate as that, I don't see where the loop holes come in,' he stood next to her towering over her, his eyes locked to hers.  And Samantha had thought Boyd was tall. He was so close she could feel the heat of his body deflect on her, his aftershave tinged her nostrils.

'What I need clarity on,' Samantha broke eye contact with him, and tried to inconspicuously shift away from him, 'how is each diamond physically scanned into stock?  How does Platinum tie up Diamond A with Purchase Order A?'

One very attractive eyebrow shot up, informing her he was aware of her ploy to escape from his presence. His back to the two ladies, his taunting eyes gazed into hers, and as he turned around again his face was a polite mask as he hauled out his mobile, hit the speed dial and called his secretary.

'Mrs. Carter, could you bring me the delivery that just arrived please.'

Samantha wondered if the secretary had had the time to respond as he hastily disconnected the call.

They had not long to wait, Mrs. Carter was on her skates, flying into the room with the said package.

Samantha observed Tresscott with fleeting interest.

'Thank you Mrs. Carter.'

The man was as charming as a snake.  She wondered if he treated his secretary with such politeness in the absence of company.

He unwrapped the contents, carefully removing the packaging, as if he was holding a new born baby. Samantha was fascinated and wanted to carry on watching him, but picked up the audit report as if she was bored, her eyes glued to the document in her hand, but her senses were acutely attuned to Tresscott.

'This is a diamond that has just been delivered from the Blue Moon Mine,' Tresscott spoke quietly as he came to stand next to her, she felt the warmth of his shoulder brushing against hers.

The two ladies wasted no opportunity closely surrounding Tresscott.

A crystal box about twice the size of a match box, held the most beautiful diamond Samantha had ever seen. The ladies sighed with their mouths opened.

'May I?' Samantha enquired.

He nodded, studying her face for any expression, but there was none.

Samantha turned the box over and saw a bar code reflected underneath the crystal box.  She made to open the crystal box, but first sought Tresscott's permission to touch his priceless asset.

He nodded again, a slight grin on his face.

A very fine gold thread surrounded the diamond, when Samantha lifted the stunning diamond, she saw the thread was as sturdy as fishing tackle, and held a small metal plate with the exact same bar code as on the outside of the crystal box.

'Can I see the paperwork?' Samantha demanded.

And sure enough there was an invoice together with a copy of the Purchase Order and the exact same barcode sticker was plastered across the invoice and the Purchase Order.

'Do I have your permission to photograph this?' Samantha enquired, not conceding anything, when she saw the smug look on Tresscott's face.

'Depends on your agenda,' he murmured seductively.

It was a long time, a very long time ago that a man had the ability to make that warm sensation race through her body.

'I'm conducting an investigation.  It's not for public consumption,' her eyes were cold and irritated as she responded. Irritated with herself, but she won't dwell on that now. She'll do a post mortem when she was alone.  On second thoughts, she will not spare any thoughts for Tresscott when she was not in his company.

Samantha snapped a few shots, removed the flash disk and handed it to Kerry.

'Please scan this and attached a copy to the file.'

'Yes Senior Superintendent,' Kerry responded, just the salute was missing.

Samantha caught a grin on Tresscott's face, as he tried in vain to mask it.

That's all we require for this morning, Mr. Tresscott.  It you'll excuse me, I have another appointment,' Samantha hastily dashed from the building. She was rather pleased she had rode her bike to Platinum that morning.  She needed the release of the full throttle of her bike, and to embrace the feel of the wind cutting across her body as she made her way back to NPS. She took the longer route back to the office, needing the elements and the wind for company.  Something about Tresscott disturbed her.  But damn she was not going to dwell on him. She had a boring meeting with her Director and then she needed to get back to the stifling environment of Platinum that afternoon.

Samantha had no good news for her Director.  All she could tell him so far was that he could scratch tax evasion off his list, in that area the man was clean. All her Director wanted was to put somebody behind bars if there was any illegal activity on his turf.  Samantha had a lot more ground to cover, she needed to dig deeper.  Whatever was going on, it was pretty well covered up.

Back at Platinum, Samantha studied the pictures, she had scanned.  The bar code stuff baffled her.  She hastily forwarded an email to Blake Tresscott.

"Have you seen any visuals of the rogue diamonds?"

"Are you able to ascertain from which mines those diamonds originate?"

"I'm guessing the rogue diamonds reflect the same barcodes as on Platinum's accounting system."

'Yes."

"Sierra Leone"

"Yes," Came the expedient response from Tresscott.

Man of many words!

She heard her email tone buzz again.

"And to your unasked question, "Yes Sierra Leone is a major supplier to Platinum"

Her brain had not even as yet thought to pose that question.

"Can you email a visual of one of the rogue diamond if you have one?"

Her laptop buzzed again, and she received an attachment of the rogue diamond.  If she thought the one she had seen earlier was beautiful, this astounded her, it was beyond description.  This stone glistened, from the one angle it looked like white gold, from another it resembled something with a tinge of sparkling blue dust, but it was just exquisite.

Samantha was no expert on diamonds.  She supposed Tresscott was an expert with a trained eye and accumulated knowledge to go with it.  She walked to the display of books on a nearby shelf.

Oh this did not require rocket science. She saw the book gave a description of each country that traded in diamonds and the respective mines' commodities.

Her mobile beeped, interrupting her, she answered distractedly, but noting it was the State Prosecutor's Office calling. 'Samantha St. Claire,' she answered, a cold uneasy feeling gripping her.

'Sam an air force helicopter is on its way to pick you up, you're to head east on the N4 to Mozambique__'

'What is going on Justin?' she demanded

She cringed silently when she heard the reason.

'I thought I run a Mickey Mouse operation,' she yelled.

'Get going Sam, we'll discuss this later,' she heard him sigh.

Samantha heard the helicopter approaching, she ran to the next office, looking at the women.  It's a good thing Kerry had jeans on, Kate she knew did not know how to ride a bike.

'Kerry, there's a helicopter here to pick me up, ride my bike back to HQ, will you,' she threw the keys at her, which Kerry caught with one arm.

'What the heck's going on?' Blake Tresscott swung around to glance out his ceiling to floor window, when he heard the rowdy twin engine helicopter hover outside his building.'

He looked out the window and saw Samantha St. Claire signaling to the aircraft. She had her arm in the air, forefinger rotating, then signaling to her right.

No! She's not going to attempt to jump into a moving helicopter.

She was obviously signaling for the pilot not to land.

So where's the fire Samantha St. Claire?

And then Tresscott saw her brace herself, lowering her body and raising her arms like one does when diving into a pool, her eyes focused on the doorway of the helicopter. And with the speed of lightening she was climbing over one point four meters into the air and landing into the craft, using her back to break the fall. And if that was not amazing, she was instantly, reaching for the headphones, and barking instructions to the pilot.

'But the State Prosecutor instructed us to head towards the N4!' Boyd was remonstrating.

'I am in command of this aircraft Agent Boyd,' Samantha instructed, 'we're going to the Blue Orchid.'

'Yes Ma'am,' he turned the aircraft around, called air navigation services to inform them of the change in flight plan.

Samantha forced her way up to Spike Gatting's office. Two body guards stood to attention outside the office. She used her weapon, slamming the butt over the head of the first guard, who went out like the light.  Immediately the second guard was reaching for his weapon, she buckled her knees, raised her arm, and swung her left elbow into his stomach, and simultaneously used her right fist to deliver a killer hook under his chin, the second guard joined his mate on the floor unconscious. Kicking the door open, she corked her weapon, as she moved in on Gatting.

'I didn't do it,' he raised his hands in the air.

'What didn't you do?' she spoke too softly, her gun pointed to his temple.

'Whatever it is, I didn't do it,' the weasel stammered.

Blake Tresscott was becoming increasingly intrigued by the elusive Samantha St. Claire.  He had never met a lady that projected such a complete antithesis to him previously. She portrayed this cold exterior, but he was damn sure that hot passionate blood ran through her veins and that sexy body.  Never before had a woman intrigued him as she did. 

He had demanded from NPS a file of the official that would be heading the investigation, as well as of others who would be on the case.  He thought she had looked extremely attractive, the long slender frame, the flowing mane of blonde hair, she was not smiling in the photo as she stared at the camera, but her gorgeous grey eyes expressed confidence and intelligence.

He had tried to find information on her, and no search engines even threw up a single sentence about her. And if he thought the picture captured the subject beautifully, he had a rude awakening, when she had stormed into his office in person, cool, calm and collected. No cold, calm, and all together too collected for him.   He was used to women falling over themselves trying to get his attention, but Samantha seemed intent on maintaining a brick wall between them.

Blake Tresscott switched on the television, hoping the eTV news channel would enlighten him, and there it was breaking news flashing across the screen.

"Druglord Errol Tobias had escaped out of C Max prison."

Just how did Tobias get that right?  C Max Prison in Pretoria was supposed to be a maximum security prison.  Specifically designed for violent and disruptive prisoners.  So how did Tobias escape when he was subjected to twenty three hours solitary confinement under heavily guarded conditions?

 The journalist was reporting that Supercop Samantha St. Claire had had Tobias under surveillance for more than eight months before she personally put the cuffs on Tobias after a drug deal went bad for him. And just hours ago, Tobias had staged a daring escape.

'Where's Tobias?' Samantha gritted, as she roughed up Gatting.

'I'm bleeding,' Gatting squeaked, feeling the blood from his lip trickle into his mouth.

'You're doing a lot better that your goons outside.  They're unconscious.  Now I'm going to ask you one more time__'

'He has not come here today, I swear__'

'He seems to have unfettered access around your club, how's that?' she questioned.

'He_ he promised to look after me, protect me if I allowed him the use of my club as his base.  I_I mind my own business, I don't ask him questions.  He keeps the sharks away from me.'

'I'm watching you twenty four seven Gatting. I'll have you thrown in jail for all the illegal aliens you employ without the proper paperwork,' she warned.

He looked away sheepishly.

'You tell Tobias, I've got his number, and get your house in order,' she slapped him over the head, and walked away.

'C_can I offer you a job, I'll pay you double what the force pays you,' Gatting offered.

Samantha walked back to Gatting, a cold smile across her face, 'I can't work for you,' she replied, 'you're on the wrong side of the fence and I never cross the fence,' she informed him and hurried out, signaling Boyd to pick her up.

-end Chapter Two-