The Kiwi Target

of the pub supported that idea; the owner had refused an offer, and he was put out of business a few days later. It might even explain the murder of Ned MacTavish, who also had refused to sell his property. But it didn’t account for the attack on Constable Fisher or for throwing a body onto my car. More than that, if the men doing all this were professionals, then why were they going about it in a totally wrong way?
    “Terrorist actions may frighten some people, but much more often they only make them mad. Even if I wanted to sell my property, I would never let it go to people who tried to burn me out and who nearly killed both me and my manager. I’d be dead right now except for the fact that Jack McHugh’s daughter is a crack shot with a rifle.
    “As I thought it out, one point in particular came to me. What if I had been killed? It would have thrown my estate—which means the station—back into the courts. No one would have been able to buy it until all the legal questions had been settled. That, combined with several other things, convinced me that the ‘muscle-in’ theory wouldn’t work.”
    Minister Cooper nodded his acceptance of that, then said, “Go ahead, please.”
    “Next, I thought about Pricane. It’s a ruthless organization; Mr. Kincaid said so himself. It buys a lot of political clout. Public officials who are in the way are bypassed or maneuvered out of office. Recently, it’s been publicized that Pricane has been passing out substantial sums under the table both at home and abroad. For several years it’s been building an image of invincibility; if Pricane was coming after you, the best you could do was to grab any deal you could get and run for the exit. So far, would you say that I’m being accurate, Mr. Kincaid?”
    Kincaid was caught unaware, but he recovered quickly. “Substantially, yes. The nature of conglomerates is well known.”
    “Because of all this, I thought it possible that through the Hong Kong group the Australian terrorists were actually working for Pricane. Using straw men—people not known to be part of the organization—has been a favorite Pricane tactic for years.
    “But there are two substantial objections that throw this theory out the window. Pricane has been relentless in some of its manipulations, and it’s done many things that were illegal, but it’s never been known to resort to murder. This isn’t so much ethics as practicality. If the company were to be caught in anything like that, its stock would go down ten points in one day.”
    The minister looked at Kincaid. “Do you still agree with him to this point?” he asked.
    This time Kincaid was ready. “What he has said has been in Published reports.” It was a neat way of deflating Peter, and everyone present knew it.
    “In reputable media?”
    “Yes, sir,” Kincaid answered. “We’ve entered suit.”
    “I expect that you would,” the minister commented. “Please go on, Peter.”
    “The second reason why blaming Pricane won’t hold water is the fact that the company is under congressional investigation. Legally, it’s walking on eggshells at the moment, so it’s no tim e to try any kind of questionable tactics. Pricane has been pulling in its horns as fast as it can.”
    Kincaid leaned forward to take the floor. “For the record,” he said, “Ferguson is right about Pricane’s non-involvement in the violence here. I’m in charge of our New Zealand activities. For both business and ethical reasons, I wouldn’t condone anything like that for a moment. You have my word on it.”
    “Accepted,” the minister said.
    Peter hitched his chair forward an inch or so, just to give his muscles a little exercise. “Now comes something that gave me an important clue. I told you that my companion and I arrived at the Bay of Islands just after a local resident had been murdered. His name was Ned MacTavish. He owned a small piece of property at a prime site, one badly wanted by developers to put up a large hotel. Mr. MacTavish was pressed to sell, but he refused. Then Mr. Kincaid tried to buy an option on the property, without success. I was there at the time.”
    Peter glanced at Kincaid, but the Pricane executive was maintaining his role as a dispassionate listener.
    “Murdering the owner would be no way to convince his widow to sell out to his suspected killers. Also, there was bound to be a backlash of public outrage, particularly in a very small community where MacTavish was well