DAKAR: The Savoi Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 4)

Preamble

PreambleAs soon as they arrive in Angouleme in the south of France, Talya and Samuel visit Madame Leroux; a woman Talya knew before the troubles started. Madame Leroux asks Talya to recount the story that has seen her land on her doorstep that morning.

Talya goes back to THE BEGINNING.

Nearly four years ago now, James Flaubert, the President of Carmine Resources Ltd., engaged Mr. Amadou Savoi to act as the company’s agent in Mali in view of obtaining a gold exploration permit in an area located in the northeast area of that country.

With the able assistance of his niece, Mrs. Rheza McLean, Mr. Savoi applies for not one but twelve permits, promising the landowners that Carmine would mine gold on their properties and extorting them out of $2,000 for the opportunity. Once Carmine is advised of the fraud, the Board of Directors sends Talya Kartz to Mali to investigate the “irregularities” in these applications as well as the embezzlement of some $500,000 of the company’s funds. In Bamako, Talya and her friend, Mrs. Chantal Gauthier (the wife of their on-site geologist), uncover the plot and make light of the fact that Mr. Savoi is involved with some unsavory parties in Dakar, Senegal. Meanwhile, Talya engages the services of Maître Hassan Sangor, a local attorney, to help in redressing the company’s damaged reputation, in locating Mr. Savoi and his niece and to find the links that now obviously exist between Mr. Savoi, a wealthy proprietor by the name of Ousmane Ahmed Hjamal and his assistant, Mr. Abdul Rasheed.

It does not take long for Hassan to discover that he is in love with Talya. However, she, for some reason, cannot return the love and constantly pushes back his advances until they decide to let a friendship develop between them.

Upon the discovery of the body of a man by the name of Richard Gilman on Yoff’s Beach in Dakar, Talya decides to elucidate the mystery of her alleged involvement in his death, and makes her way to Senegal at the invitation of Mr. Hjamal. On his way to Dakar to join Talya, Hassan tells his friend, Khalid Sahab, the pilot who took him on this trip, of Talya’s discovery and what he suspects would be elaborate troubles brewing in Dakar.

Part 1: Dakar, here we come!