26

Nobody said anything for nearly a minute. Tears pricked my eyes. It made me sick to my stomach to hear from someone who was there at the time, that the people Evan trusted most, his legal team, had betrayed him so callously.

Eventually Ron took a deep breath. `Do you know who she is?'

`I think so.'

`What happened to her? Is she dead?'

`Oh no. She's done really well since then.'

`Like those coppers. You said they done okay.'

`Do you know who they are?'

`No. I can't remember their names. I don't look at police business now either.'

I gave him the names of the two police officers who'd been co-opted to a murder and rewarded handsomely as a result. Assistant Commissioner Paul Eldrich and Chief Superintendent Jeffrey Nelson.

`Jesus,' breathed Ron Graham.

I guessed that footage of the shooting itself was confiscated from the media for `forensic investigation'. They wouldn't have got that back and they'd have known about the cuts. Technology was less sophisticated then.

Everyone arrived back in the room just as the light was fading. I turned on a lamp and started my lecture.

`We still don't know what crimes Evan had unearthed—' I looked straight at Maggie. `—But we have some clues about who was involved.'

I laid out the background of the story. When I'd finished I looked around. The Grahams and the girls were staring at me, round eyed. Maggie was staring at the tabletop.

I continued. `As of tonight, thanks to Ron Graham here, we see that Evan's death involved police cooperation.' I laid out the rewarding wages of sin. `But, for some reason, nothing more happened for thirteen years.'

Kayla dropped her head onto her hands. `I told you, this is all my fault. If I'd left it…'Her voice trailed away.

I dropped my arm around her shoulders. `No Kayla. This has very little to do with you. I told you what you might have done is force them to speed things up and they're making mistakes as a result. Hopefully they'll be fatal mistakes.'

I told them about my trip to Canberra. About meeting people I believed to be involved in the renewal of hostilities. I said I thought I'd found out who sabotaged Ken's aeroplane but raised a hand against the immediate uproar.

`I can't prove anything but I also have an ally up there.' I looked at Maggie. `Reginald Powers.' She blinked and looked away. I immediately wondered if I was wrong to trust him, but sometimes you have to rely on your judgment. The girls looked at me, questioning. `He's a client of Ken's. After an…incident, he's working with me, with us.'

I smiled and one end of Maggie's lips twitched. It was the closest thing to any expression she’d had since I started speaking.

`So what's happening now, Harry?' cried Kayla. `Is that all you're here for? To just tell us that stuff. You haven't mentioned any names, or what they've done, or anything.'

`Because I only have suspicions. Until I get more information about the old crimes I can't know how they connect with new ones. I came to talk to the Grahams and your mother. I probably won't need your stuff. Now, Maggie can we go somewhere private.'

She climbed slowly to her feet and I was surprised at how she'd aged in the last week. We sat side by side on the lower bunk in the room with the rock band posters and the guitar in the corner. After a few minutes I checked the door for eavesdroppers. The only sound was the television and an intermittent low murmur of chatter.

Maggie was leaning against the wall and said nothing as I sat down facing her. I took her hand. `You know Maggie, don't you?'

`What do you mean Harry?' She sounded as tired as she looked.

`Please don't. We can't get through this if you don't tell me everything. You know everything Evan knew and you know where he put all the copies of the evidence he had. So tell me now how you stayed clear for this long from the people who have now found you?'

`How did you know, Harry?'

`I didn't but I guessed. A few hours ago Ron Graham and a video made it clear that the police were in on Evan's murder. That means that it wasn't witness protection that was hiding you. If it was you'd have been dead within weeks, if not days, after Evan died. So you must have set it up before he was killed. You organised that if he was, you were to disappear. Right?'

She stared at me, her eyes huge and dark in her white face. `I thought we were safe. I didn't count on Kayla getting curious enough to track down the past.'

`It was always only a matter of time. Whoever had Evan killed would never have walked away from their crimes for thirteen years. It wasn't Kayla's fault. If anything it was mine. My high profile made me a target that I guess they always hoped would lead to you. And it did. Ken saw me on TV and talked to someone who guessed who his wife's famous brother was. Because of that he was silenced and they sent out the assassins that night. It was only Kayla's quick thinking that saved us.'

`Do you have any idea who is behind it? You said you had some names.'

`Foot soldiers. These are new players. They're ruthless and they move fast. They had a driver set up to kill us only hours after Ken's crash. But instead of destroying us they put us on high alert. A major mistake.'

`But why, Harry? If it wasn't Kayla, why now?'

`As I said, new blood in town. I suspect that because they couldn't find you it was kept at a lower level but I bet it's been bubbling along under the radar the whole time. Now that's not enough for someone.'

She closed her eyes. `I don't care, Harry. Crime is everywhere. Dying never stops anything.' Her eyes snapped open. `Does it Harry? Yes, I know all about what was happening back then. When Evan found out he told me what Robert had done. He asked me what he should do about it. It was me who told him what to do. It was me who insisted that the whole thing should be exposed no matter what. I got my lovely, honest husband killed, then ran away. As far as I could. Well, so much for that. How far can I run this time?'

`You can't. You have four children to protect. Unless we stop these bastards they'll never know peace either. We don't have a choice, it's them or us, Mags.'

`So how?'

`First, what and where is Evan's evidence?'

Evan had got an American friend, Tyler Crouse, from his University days to set up the storage for all the records involving the case on the then new Amazon Web Services. Specifically on Amazon Simple Storage Service, but also used the Amazon Elastic Cloud 2 as backup. Tyler managed and upgraded it every time the upgrades became available ever since.

`But AWS has to be paid for doesn't it?'

`Yes, we organised an ongoing payment arrangement. We didn't want any hint of what we'd done to be found here.'

`And it's still there?'

`I haven't asked Tyler about it for years, so I suppose so. It was until further notice.'

`Have you contacted him at all since then?'

`Yes, every year I send a card to let him know I'm alive. That's all.'

I had an idea. `Is there anyone else you knew before Evan died that you contact regularly?'

`No. Could that be how—? How could I have been so stupid?'

I smiled and took her hand again. `I don't know. You held them off for thirteen years. If that's how they even got any clues.'

I was impressed. She and Evan had been absolutely up to the minute in their data storage. There was no way anyone could have known where the evidence about them was. She'd also outsmarted them in getting herself hidden. No wonder they wanted her.

I checked the door again. I didn't want any word of what she told me next to leak. I still didn't know if Rocco was part of the original crimes and I didn't expect he'd bug his own holiday house, but stranger things have happened. So I searched for the little blighters. I found nothing but I still played some very loud music when Maggie told me about the crimes.

They were what I expected. Things that the news media at the time had postulated. Corruption in the political process regarding casinos, mining leases, major real estate developments and the like. Those seeking favours had bribed, bullied and extorted. All the usual.

`But to get to even presenting a case in court you must have had to produce evidence by the ton. I mean you were implicating some of the most powerful people in the country.'

`We did. Our lawyers went to the Crown prosecutors and a judge before we did to see if it could all be kept under wraps. That's why we went to court that day. To see a judge. But we never made it.'

`So somebody knew and set you up. What was your solicitor's name again?'

`You're wrong. He would never have—he was Evan's father's solicitor. It doesn't matter now anyway.'

She dropped her head into her hands and wept. Silently, her shoulders shaking, grief overwhelming her. But it did matter now. Evan had been murdered. And now Ken. It might have been a professional hit man who fired the bullet, but those who hired him handed him the gun. It looked like the police and the barrister's clerk knew something. Was Evan's lawyer involved, too?

Somebody had betrayed Evan even before the judge got to rule. So the hit man was already in place. According to Maggie, only her legal team knew. I hugged her.

`Go to bed, Mags. We'll talk in the morning.' I faced her and wiped away her tears with my thumbs. `We will win, you know. I'm sure of it.'

She managed a shaky smile. `Ah, my little Harry, still a Master of the Universe.'

With that she closed the door and I headed for the sofa, now turned down into a bed. But sleep was far away. I grabbed my notebook and as usual used it to clarify my thinking. I still didn't have the names of the people who were involved in the original scheme. I needed those to see who was still around.

My last thought as I drifted off to sleep was that it was time to release the evidence Maggie had into the public domain. As long as only Maggie knew where and what it was she was a target. I slid into sleep with a smile. How dumb can you be?