What did we have for thirteen days of investigation since the murder?
Two bodies. Three bullets. An entire pharmacopoeia of drugs, a few which were illegal in most countries. So far, the Task Force had interviewed sixty-three people. The ME kept saying he should be able to release the body for burial “soon”.
We finally found the widow Jacqueline holed up in a serviced apartment in Bondi Junction where she went to recover from a touch of laser freshening-up. She looked pretty good now that the redness had subsided, and had been hard at work with her agent, the Saint Peter person, happily planning a huge funeral with her as the tragic star of the day, followed by a Jimbo’s Last Long Lunch at his favourite Paddington pub. If the body was released before Tuesday, the funeral should have been able to go ahead the following Thursday.
The Skype interview with Olivia Jameson was pretty useless and according to her, life was just lovely in Livvy-land. She was a paraplegic as a result of a skiing accident and wouldn’t be attending the funeral. Hadn’t been back to Australia in twenty years. She denied any knowledge of anyone who would want to harm her ex-husband. She said she didn’t know anything about a fatwah, even though it had been started when he was married to her. Didn’t know anything about death threats while she was married to him. She was either on industrial-strength anti-depressants or she wasn’t telling us something. She claimed that the skiing accident that left her in a wheelchair was just that – a terrible accident – and that Jimbo had led the rescue party that brought her down off the mountain.
Except…when asked about her son, Gabbie, she was evasive and said that she didn’t know where he was. I didn’t believe her. She confirmed that the father and son had had many arguments about Gabbie’s lifestyle and they had not talked for many years. I didn’t believe her. I felt we needed to find Gabbie.
Every lead was coming up zilch. Zero. Yes, there were a lot of people who had wanted him dead, but they all had alibis and/or really good lawyers. At one point it was thought that a specialist could have come down from Hong Kong, but the Federal Police couldn’t get their act together for a couple of days and no-one of interest came up on the passport reports.
Dominique, the French daughter, was in Australia and Saint Peter had advised us that she would be attending the funeral, but she was only eighteen and had never met her father. She arrived in Melbourne one day before he was killed, and she was in Melbourne with a friend’s family when it happened. I thought she was just staying around for a look at her half-brothers and sisters and to show off a bit.
Suzie the secretary quit after a big argument with Anna and Sam Bradley, and Lynnette was still in Bangkok. According to our people in Thailand, she was out of hospital and was staying at the Bangkok Intercontinental. There was also something about her being on crutches for a while because of an operation on her foot and it was doubtful if she would be back in Sydney in time for the funeral.
Tessa, who was wife number six, had been located by DFAT and she’d turned out to be a vegan Buddhist super-doctor who worked for Médecins Sans Frontières and talked to trees. She didn’t take Jimbo to the cleaners because she was already loaded before she met him. She was flying back from Somalia for the funeral.
We managed to locate the first girl from the hotel. The one who left first. Her name was Taylah Riker. She was only nineteen and was completely out of her depth. She said that she got scared when she realised who Jimbo was and when she saw the cocaine. She must be the only hooker in Sydney who doesn’t use, but anyway she said that she called it quits after a bit of a fiddle and an incomplete blow job. Jimbo didn’t come and told her that he wanted to switch to anal. Taylah told him that she didn’t do that, and he told her to get out. The redheaded woman, who she knew only as Chelsea, had watched from the lounge room where she had eaten her lunch from a brown paper bag. She told Taylah that she’d take over, Jimbo gave the girl $500 and he was alive when she left.
She remembered seeing a cleaner in the hallway and a pilot wheeling his cabin bag walking towards her. She couldn’t describe the pilot. Medium everything. The hotel is used by a couple of airlines for their flight crews; seventeen airline pilots had been identified and all had checked out.
There had been two women in the room with Jimbo. One was scared stiff. One was dead. Sam Bradley was still a logical suspect, but he was surrounded by lawyers and had a pretty good alibi. He and Jacqueline had the most to win. Could they have hired someone to kill Jimbo? Why was it so important to Jimbo that his financial settlement with Jacqueline had to be completed by the day before?
Bradley wouldn’t talk, and neither would the lawyers. Jacqueline was the widow, not just another ex-wife, so I assumed that she expected to get more money through the estate. Was that why Jacqueline had said “I win” when she identified the body?
And what was Jimbo’s surprise for Vinnie the Pole-Dancer’s birthday?
My brain was so tired that it hurt, but I laced on my running shoes as soon as I got home and ran around Centennial Park until I threw up. That always helps. But at least I was able to crawl into bed with a Four Seasons pizza and was asleep before I finished the fifth piece.