It was late by the time Harrigan got back to Birchgrove for the night, and later still when he went to bed having spent some time thinking the case through over a glass of whisky. When he woke in the morning, it was early. He felt unexpectedly refreshed from a short sleep. He took a little time to prepare for the day. There was a phone call he had to make; a course of action he had agreed on with Trevor the previous night. He dialled the number, certain there would be an answer even at this early hour.
‘Elena Calvo.’
‘Good morning, Dr Calvo. I didn’t think you’d mind me ringing you so early. You struck me as the type to be at your desk first thing. How are you today?’
‘Are you making this call in an official capacity?’
‘No, I’d see this as a personal call. A very personal and confidential call.’
‘I can think of no reason why you would have anything personal or confidential to discuss with me.’
‘I thought you’d like to know we’ve found my son and he’s alive.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear it on your behalf, but it has nothing to do with me.’
‘I think it does. I’ll get straight to the point. I think you should make some time to see me, Dr Calvo. Because how long do you think it’s going to take us to find du Plessis?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said.
‘Whatever you do, whatever strings you pull, whatever money you throw at it, we’re going to get to him sooner or later,’ Harrigan continued. ‘Do you want to know how many people are out there looking for him right now? He can’t leave the country. All the exits are blocked. Do you think he’s going to keep his mouth shut when we do get him? We can send him back to South Africa any time we want to. He’s looking at a lifetime in gaol over there. He’s probably got a lot of enemies waiting to get their hands on him back home. I don’t think they’ll be very gentle when they do get hold of him. Those are prospects that might make him very talkative.’
‘I don’t understand why you’re saying such things to me,’ she replied. ‘I asked you a number of days ago if you wanted us to undertake scientific research into your son’s physical condition. You said you needed time to make up your mind. I can see you in relation to that. That would make sense to me.’
‘Then let’s get together. I’m busy most of the day. I can see you later on this afternoon. You can come to me this time.’
‘We can compromise,’ she said, almost with sarcasm. ‘We have a city office in the Australia Square building. I’ll be here until this evening. You can find the address in the phone book. Come to the entrance to the car park. Someone will meet you.’
They hung up on each other almost simultaneously. Harrigan felt detached; it was a relief. Revenge was not part of the strategy he and Trevor had put together last night but it was still in his mind. He had never had so much desire to exact it as he did now.
When Harrigan drove into the police headquarters car park for his meeting, Chloe was waiting for him.
‘Does the commissioner want to see me?’ he asked.
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I’ve got something for you.’
She handed him a cassette tape. He looked it over.
‘Sharon gave that to me yesterday evening. Apparently, the special assistant commissioner requested it go to the commissioner in the event of anything happening to him. It’s a recording of a recent phone conversation between the two of you.’
‘Did she listen to it?’ he asked.
‘She says no. I haven’t listened to it either. I’m not quite sure why the commissioner would need to be concerned with it. I thought you’d be the best person to decide whether he does or not.’
‘Thanks,’ Harrigan said.
‘You’re welcome. They’re waiting for you upstairs,’ she said, raising her carefully waxed eyebrows at him before walking away.
Harrigan locked the tape in his briefcase and made his way to the briefing room feeling like a liar and a thief. He accepted people’s congratulations for his son’s safety like the hypocrite he was, barely able to thank them in return. His people put his mood down to relief and exhaustion. They were generous; it galled him.
Officers from the federal police arrived. Two men and a woman, dressed in what seemed almost identical grey suits. They sat together at the back of the room. Their boss, Kevin Parkin, was a thin-faced man in his early fifties, his hair slicked forward to hide a bald spot. They carried nothing other than their notepads and, in the hand of the woman, an audio recording device. Supposedly they were part of a cooperative investigation, but even in his meeting with them last night, Harrigan had felt them drawing a fence around themselves.
The second guest was an inspector from the task force set up to investigate Marvin’s assassination. Meredith O’Connor arrived in what looked like full dress uniform, her hair and make-up immaculate. Approaching retirement, she’d been around for more than thirty years, a biography that suggested impressive survival skills. Experience had taught Harrigan she was a dogged worker and a rigid thinker.
Trevor did the introductions to a group of weary people in a room that smelt of takeaway food and coffee. Harrigan stood to the side, leaving it to his 2IC to run the show.
‘Meredith doesn’t have a great deal of time,’ Trevor said. ‘I’m going to ask her to quickly go through what we know about Marvin’s shooting and then let her go. But before we start, some news.’
There was a laptop computer on the table. Trevor hit a key and the first page of the dossier appeared on the screen behind him.
‘This hit the net at seven this morning. It’s Edwards’ copy of the dossier. He left instructions that if anything happened to him, this was to be posted on the net as soon as possible. His staff did just that and there’s no taking it back. Anyone can download it whenever they want to and I’m sure they already have. I’m waiting for the agency who owns it to come pounding on our door. At least Edwards was responsible: his staff blacked out any names that might identify any innocent parties.’
‘There wasn’t much information of that nature in there, Trev,’ Ralph called. ‘There were no agents’ names.’
‘He also had this put online,’ Trevor went on. ‘Most of you have read it already. It’s a digital copy of an affidavit he swore that says he was bribed to get Beck into the country. He accuses one person in particular, a very well-known entrepreneur. If we weren’t all so cynical to start with, the name might surprise us. Apparently there are already enraged denials out there in cyberspace. Lucky you can’t sue the dead. Now, Meredith. Can you tell us what you know about Marvin’s shooting?’
‘I’d like to ask the commander a question about Marvin Tooth first,’ Parkin called from the back of the room. ‘You’ve stated that he called you back to confess to you that he had been under duress to sabotage this investigation. He did this because he was shocked by the deaths caused by yesterday’s bombings and now wanted to help identify who was responsible. Is that correct?’
‘So he said,’ Harrigan replied.
‘That’s quite a confession given what had just happened. Implicating himself in the murders of a government minister and his adviser is no small thing.’
‘I don’t believe that was his motive at all, whatever he may have told the commander here.’ Meredith interrupted with her usual brusqueness. ‘My own judgement is that he realised his position was becoming untenable. He must have known it was only a matter of time and was seeking to justify himself.’
Thank you, Meredith, Harrigan thought. She had moved forward, taking over the laptop and projecting a map of the streets surrounding police headquarters onto the screen.
‘The initial findings are that the special assistant commissioner was shot by a high-powered rifle from vacant office space on the fourth floor of this building here, on the eastern side of the street that our building backs on to,’ she said. ‘We have no sightings of the killer and obviously no descriptions.’
‘How could they know their target was going to be there?’ Parkin asked.
‘They couldn’t. Our consensus is, this was an opportunistic shooting. That building has a public gymnasium on the top floor. Anyone in a tracksuit, either in the elevator or on the fire stairs, carrying a sports bag perhaps, would attract no attention at all. One of our team has argued, convincingly, I think, that the special assistant commissioner was possibly being cased for assassination. His controllers may have considered he was becoming a danger to them, as indeed he was. That building overlooks the entrance to our building’s garage where his entrance and exit could be watched. There’s also a line of coffee shops at street level that everyone here uses. But then, all of a sudden yesterday, the special assistant commissioner is out there on the street and he’s the perfect target. They took their chance when they could.’
‘Bye, bye, Fang,’ Ralph muttered.
‘I think this also solves the question of how vital evidence—a contract, I believe—was stolen from the evidence room,’ Meredith said. ‘It seems almost certain that the special assistant commissioner was responsible.’
‘Can you tell us anything about how they blackmailed him?’ Trevor asked.
‘We won’t be able to answer that question until we’ve finished searching his office and house. Those searches are happening now. If that’s all you need me for, I’ll leave it there in case some information does come through.’
‘That’s fine, Meredith. Thanks for being here.’
She left the room. There was a stir among those remaining. A sense of distaste and betrayal was written on people’s faces. Harrigan wondered what they would think of him if they knew that he’d handed over evidence in a way no different from Marvin. They’d see its uselessness; he could have said no to Toby’s kidnapper and still got his son back. Either way he would lose their respect.
‘Kevin,’ Trevor was saying. ‘What can you tell us about the minister’s death?’
Parkin got to his feet but didn’t walk to the front of the room, forcing those present to turn and look at him. ‘We know where the bomb was,’ he said. ‘In his adviser’s laptop. It was detonated when the adviser and Edwards were talking together at the front entrance. They were both killed instantly. The driver survived but he’s critical. As we all know, the blast also killed one of the guards at the door.’
‘When was the bomb planted?’ Harrigan asked.
‘We haven’t narrowed down any times as yet. According to Edwards’ PA, the senator’s adviser always took the laptop home with him. He rents a house in Summer Hill and he’s frequently out in the evenings. Our bomber would have had the fairly simple task of breaking into a not very secure house and doing a fairly straightforward job. In my opinion, the adviser was careless. He should have kept the laptop in more secure storage.’
‘In other words, Edwards could have been singled out for assassination some days ago?’
‘How was the bomb detonated?’
‘It was almost certainly a timing device triggered by a mobile telephone call. I would speculate that the bomber was watching Edwards and his adviser leave his electorate office, which is at Ashfield, for police headquarters. That way he could be sure they were travelling together. He would have followed them for some distance and then started the countdown. The bomb must have been intended to explode where it did. There was ample opportunity beforehand to detonate it almost anywhere else.’
‘Marvin didn’t want you to go down to that front door by yourself, boss,’ Trevor said. ‘He asked you to take me along as well.’
‘Could he have known?’ Parkin asked sharply.
‘Of course he fucking knew!’ Frankie retorted softly, looking away.
Again there was a stir of anger throughout the room. ‘Pity they didn’t shoot him earlier,’ Harrigan heard someone mutter. ‘Dog!’ someone else said. With a nod to Trevor, Harrigan moved forward to shut down the mood as quickly as possible.
‘Okay, let’s stand back from what we know,’ he said. ‘In my opinion, there’s no chance that having detonated a bomb at our front door, the bomber would wait around to watch what happened next. Whoever the bomber is, he didn’t kill Marvin. He wouldn’t have had the time. Also, Meredith’s scenario means that someone was already in position, spying out the land.’
‘What are you suggesting?’ Parkin asked. ‘Two dirty tricks men?’
‘Before I make any judgements on that, I want to hear what the task force has turned over in relation to what happened at Pittwater. Okay, thanks for that, Kevin. Trevor. Where are you taking us from here?’
‘Jacquie, you’re on,’ Trevor said. ‘Dazzle us.’
Parkin sat down. Jacquie, young, new to the squad and ambitious, was proving herself. She began by projecting a photograph of the murder scene onto the screen. The dead sat at the table, waiting for nothing. Harrigan glanced quickly at his federal counterparts. They were poker-faced.
‘We were asked to reconstruct the murder scene,’ Jacquie said. ‘Okay, so what’s the key to this picture? They’re at dinner. How did that meal get there? One of the neighbours told us that a van from Sweet Delights Catering at Mona Vale drove up to the gates at about 8.10 the night of the murders. No one got out so we have no descriptions. The gates are automatic. They were opened for the van, it drove in and then the gates were closed again. Our neighbour didn’t see the van leave, but a man walking his dog saw it on its way down the hill just after nine. So the killings took up to fifty minutes maximum.’
‘Could this man see into the van?’ Harrigan asked.
‘No. The windscreen was reflective. He could see his own face but not who was inside. He didn’t look at the number plate. We went to Sweet Delights. It turns out that someone claiming to be Natalie Edwards’ private secretary—she does have one—’
‘Was it a woman or man?’ Harrigan asked.
‘A woman.’
‘What did her voice sound like? Any accents, anything unusual?’
‘Nothing they noticed. She rang and cancelled the arrangements Natalie Edwards had made two hours before they were due to deliver the meal. They did what they always do when that happens: they put the charge through on her credit card. The van the neighbour saw arrived exactly when it was supposed to. She’d asked for an evening supper. Our murderers not only knew about Natalie Edwards’ arrangements; they impersonated the caterers to get into the house and went to some trouble to do it. But taking you back to this picture. What’s on the table? A meal. The killer, or killers, whichever, must have brought this food with them. Our murderers catered a meal they knew their victims were never going to eat. Why?’
‘Were they shot at the table?’ Harrigan asked.
‘I think it worked like this. The killer walks in, maybe Natalie Edwards meets him—’
‘Him.’ Harrigan interrupted again. ‘But the person who rang the caterers was a woman.’
‘And she could have been the killer, no mistaking that. Whoever they were, they made everyone lie down on the lounge room floor and they restrained them. Everyone had restraint marks. Because of where the blood was, we know the meal must have been set out beforehand, presumably by the killer. Then I think they took the victims out to the patio one by one.’
‘All of them?’
‘All of them, including Julian Edwards.’ Her voice broke a little over this. ‘Then they unloaded the Ice Cream Man, took this photograph and went home. Then they released it on the net under the subject line: They gather for the feast. It’s the food that’s important here. That’s the imagery they’re projecting.’
Briefly, people were silent.
‘Why kill the boy?’ Parkin asked. ‘Could he identify them?’
‘That’s a motive. But there’s also a question of leverage,’ Harrigan said. ‘Shooting that boy was a terrible crime. His father was a government minister. We know they made sure Edwards saw his son dead because they sent him the combination to the gate by SMS. That combination of circumstances means there was no way this investigation was going to be swept under the carpet. They wanted us to dig.’
‘That is so cold-blooded,’ Ralph said.
‘Does that assume they knew Edwards?’ Frankie asked.
‘Maybe they did,’ Harrigan replied.
‘They wanted us to dig, you said, Commander.’ Parkin got to his feet. ‘That seems to assume they wanted this murder solved. That is, we have the means to catch them. I’ve never come across that scenario before in this type of context. It’s true that people who do this kind of thing often want to claim responsibility and give a motive. But there’s been no statement put out to that effect. Am I right?’
‘Not so far,’ Harrigan said. ‘But it hasn’t been that long.’
‘Long enough, unless they’re planning something else. Also, while people like this may want to draw attention to what they’ve done, they don’t want to be apprehended. If your theory is going to fly, you need to give us a reason for it.’
‘I didn’t say they wanted to be apprehended. I said they wanted us to dig,’ Harrigan replied in his detached voice. ‘My theory does fit with one undeniable point: the possibility that the killer or killers were expecting resistance to this investigation. That’s proven to be true. Someone has gone to great lengths to sabotage it.’
‘Again you’re implying we have two parties involved,’ Parkin said. ‘Do you have any evidence for that?’
‘It’s like I said before. We work through what we know, then we make a judgement. Jackie, is that it?’
‘There’s more. It’s to do with Beck.’
‘Let’s hear it,’ Harrigan said.
Parkin sat down again.
‘We checked his movements and telephone records. We know he got to Pittwater about ten to eight. Just before he arrived, he made a call on his mobile. He spoke for about fifty seconds. I think he probably left a message. It was the last call he ever made. At about 1 a.m. he got a call back from that same number but obviously he didn’t answer it. It went through to his voicemail where the call was disconnected without anyone leaving a message. That number called Beck another three times over the next eleven hours and then stopped.’
‘Someone was checking up on him,’ Ralph said.
‘I’d guess they wanted to know whether the contract had been signed,’ Harrigan said. ‘Could you trace the number?’
‘We rang but the number was discontinued. We’re tracing its history now.’
‘Anything else?’
‘One final thing. When we checked Beck’s wallet, we found this.’
Another image appeared on the screen, a black and white photograph showing a man with a woman carrying a baby, both standing in the midst of a ruined city.
‘It was the original and it wasn’t in good condition. On the back, it says in pencil Dresden 1946. We know that’s when Beck was born. I think that’s him with his mother and father. But if that is his father, then he either walked out on them or he died, because the dossier says father unknown. There was only his mother and she died in 1997.’
‘Do we have any names?’ Harrigan asked.
‘None for the father. His mother was married during her life but not until after Beck had left East Germany. There were no children from that marriage and the husband is still alive. There’s no record of any earlier marriage.’
‘If she knew who her son’s father was—and from this picture it looks like she did—she would have told her son, surely. When she died, if not earlier,’ Harrigan said. ‘Beck had that picture on him when he died.’
‘Yes. I think it meant something to him,’ Jacquie said. ‘That’s it.’
‘Good work.’
She smiled and sat down.
‘All right,’ Harrigan said. ‘It’s time to talk about Beck. Trev?’
‘First off, we searched his house. Frankie. Do you want to take us through what you found?’
‘The first thing is that someone got there before us,’ Frankie said. ‘Whatever they were looking for, they found it in a drawer in the lounge room because they didn’t even bother to close the drawer. They stopped right there and left.’
‘Did you find an LPS badge?’ Harrigan asked.
‘Not a whisker. Maybe that was what they took away.’
‘What do you mean, LPS badge?’ Parkin asked. ‘We know the minister was involved with that corporation. Was Beck?’
‘According to the CEO, Dr Calvo, he was briefly employed by them earlier this year,’ Harrigan replied. ‘The badges are security passes that get you in and out of their facility at Campbelltown. I was given one when I visited there a few days ago. It’s a sophisticated tracking device. You get to keep it as a memento, but once you leave it’s deactivated. If Beck was an employee, he would have had one. We know from other sources that he was, so what happened to his?’
‘Couldn’t he have lost it easily enough?’ Parkin asked.
‘Not if it was his key to the door. I think we should question whether he really was sacked as Elena Calvo says he was. Frankie, anything else?’
‘No, boss, we found zip,’ Frankie said. ‘Beck had a nice house with a lovely view of the harbour but there was nothing personal in there. We did find out a few things about him. He suffered from high blood pressure and liver disease, he had the meds to prove it. He liked the best. The clothes, the booze—there was a lot of booze, he obviously drank very heavily—it was all nothing but the best. There was money in the house and a lot of money in his various bank accounts as well. We’re tracking his financials now. There was a lot more information about him in the dossier.’
‘Ralph, do you want to talk to that?’ Trevor said.
‘Yeah, the dossier.’ Ralph moved to the head of the table. The image of the dossier’s front page reappeared on the screen. ‘We don’t know the name of the agency that owns this document, but now it’s out there in cyberspace, I’m sure they’ll find us soon enough.’
‘Stop there, Ralph,’ Harrigan said.
‘What is it, boss?’
‘What you just said. Now it’s out there in cyberspace, its owners will find us. Given what’s been put out on the net already, why wasn’t this document online as well?’
‘I’ll tell you,’ Parkin called. ‘Because it could identify them.’
‘That’s right. I think this will signal to someone out there who these people are. Okay, Ralph. What can you tell us?’
‘Mainly that this is a very long-standing document. It incorporates information from the various agencies who’ve been watching Beck since 1970. He had a long career as an illegal arms dealer dating from the late 1960s right through to the 1990s. He’s involved himself in theatres of war from South East Asia to Africa. He met du Plessis in the 1980s when he was working for the South African apartheid government. In 1990 he went back to Europe. The apartheid regime was on its last legs and he’d made too many enemies over there. By now the Berlin Wall is down. He became involved with the Russian mafia, wisely not for too long. His mother died in Berlin in 1997 and, like a dutiful son, he was there with her.’
‘You’re breaking my heart,’ Frankie murmured.
Ralph grinned. ‘That’s just one side of the story. In fact, Beck was a double agent, a very useful source of intelligence for the agencies who were watching him. He did business for himself and provided information to the British government at the same time. In exchange for which they left him alone and paid him. It’s a common enough arrangement. After his mother died, he went to London. And here the first part of the dossier is ruled off. The final note is: Minister’s direction is discontinue and hands off. It was a thirty-year connection. They closed it down without a murmur. There’s no indication they even debriefed Beck.’
‘No reasons given? Nothing?’ Harrigan asked.
‘Nothing that’s on this file,’ Ralph said.
‘Why would it go to the minister? Was Beck that important?’
‘He wouldn’t be,’ Parkin said. ‘Ministers don’t deal directly with operatives at that level. Somehow he must have drawn attention to himself.’
‘There’s no indication on file as to what he might have done,’ Ralph said. ‘Then five years ago, the dossier was reopened. Not because of Beck but because of du Plessis. Du Plessis was in London. At the time, he was wanted for murder in South Africa but the government there agreed to the agency keeping him under surveillance rather than arresting him. That warrant is still out against him. At the time, he was known to be involved in illegal diamond trading. The agency’s main concern was with the kind of activities financed by that trade, such as illegal arms dealing. The surveillance operation caught du Plessis meeting with Beck. It was the first time Beck had been on the radar for years. They met often enough for the agency to conclude they were in business together and they needed to watch Beck as well as du Plessis.
‘After this, they traced Beck to a scientific research facility in north London. At the time he’d been employed there for several years. The investigation identifies him as a manager of some kind. From this point on, the agency put an operative into that research facility to watch him. This operative is referred to by a number only. This is where Elena Calvo turns up, boss. You said she was a player. She was the CEO there, and while she was there, she had an encounter with Beck. That brings us to this series of photographs. The time and date stamp says 22:38 one night in June four-and-a-half years ago. They must have both been working late.’
Up on the screen, there flashed in succession pictures of Elena Calvo standing beside her car in an underground car park, talking to Jerome Beck. The body language made it clear there was a fierce argument going on. Towards the end he was pushing his wallet at her. She refused to look at it. The last photographs in the series showed her slamming her car door and driving away.
‘That argument went on for eighteen minutes,’ Ralph continued. ‘Pity we can’t know what was being said. Or shouted.’
‘That’s where Beck kept his photograph,’ Jacquie said. ‘It was in his wallet like that. At the front, behind a window.’
‘Did he have it with him then?’ Ralph asked.
‘If he got it from his dying mother, why not?’ Harrigan said. ‘What do we know about this research institute?’
‘So far we’ve only checked its website. There’s nothing to indicate it’s anything but legitimate. There is one significant fact. Although this is hidden behind various companies, it’s owned by Jean Calvo. The dossier traces that ownership in detail.’
‘Did Senator Edwards see those photographs of Beck arguing with Calvo? Did he know they had this previous connection?’ Harrigan asked.
‘He must have done,’ Ralph said. ‘I spoke with his adviser any number of times this last week. He told me they’d both been through the dossier in detail. Now the poor bastards are dead.’
‘Did the minister mention this to her?’ Parkin asked. ‘Did she know this dossier existed?’
‘She’s the only one who can answer those questions now,’ Trevor said. ‘Edwards told us no one besides his staff knew about it and he could trust his staff. We’ve also kept its existence confidential. Maybe the boss can add something to this. He’s spoken to Calvo.’
‘Why did you do that?’
‘Her connections to the minister make her significant in this. She told me about this same incident while I was there,’ Harrigan said. ‘She was explaining it away. Beck was a drunken bum who harassed her. She hired him over here because she needed someone, then fired him almost immediately because he was a drunk. He started making abusive phone calls and she got one of her security people to watch him for her. I don’t think she would have told me any of that unless she expected me to know it from another source.’
‘Why couldn’t she be being truthful?’ Parkin asked.
‘She’s not someone who tells you things unless it’s in her interests. In my opinion, the connections here are too close to ignore. Also, Marvin had his own copy of this dossier. Which means he would have told du Plessis about its existence. Did Calvo know about it because du Plessis was working for her and he told her this information was out there? Maybe she even got her own copy that way. That’s another line of possible communication we can’t ignore.’
‘Something else for you to prove, Commander,’ Parkin replied.
‘I think it’s something anyone involved in this job has to consider,’ Harrigan said.
There was a brief silence.
‘Why would you waste eighteen minutes talking to a drunken bum late one night in a car park?’ Frankie asked, spiking the tension. ‘If he harassed you, why would you go ahead and hire him again? Only if you had to.’
‘What happened after those pictures were taken?’ Harrigan asked.
‘They kept a watching operation on Beck,’ Ralph said. ‘We get a series of weekly reports from their operative. Whoever this person was, they weren’t able to gain access to the research projects Beck was involved in. Access to the laboratories was tightly controlled and there was no public information available concerning the projects themselves. Instead the operative formed a personal connection to Beck, close enough to get a good view of his lifestyle. Whatever Beck was doing, it paid well. He liked to gamble; not always successfully, but he never seemed to have any trouble paying his debts.’
‘Just Beck?’ Harrigan asked. ‘There’s no indication this operative’s assignment extended to Elena Calvo?’
‘If they did, boss, it was extracurricular. There’s no information about it here.’
‘What happens then?’ he asked.
‘There’s a note on file that says the operative’s last report was removed because it had been requested by the under-secretary to the Ministry of Defence for use at a briefing. That report never made it back to the file. After that, there’s no more information from the operative. The reports stop.’
‘Is that the end of the information?’
‘No. As well the operative’s reports, the surveillance team’s reports are also in the dossier. Now according to them, Beck was still meeting du Plessis regularly. Their reports record that their operative was at the last two meetings these men had. Usually there are photographs of the meetings, but on this occasion those photographs have been removed.’
‘By who?’ Harrigan asked sharply.
‘By the agency. There’s a note to say they can be found on another file. After the final meeting, du Plessis left the country, flying to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That’s the last piece of information on file. The last page is stamped: Operation terminated: Archive. After that, there’s no indication it did anything but go back into the filing cabinet.’
‘What was the date of du Plessis’s departure?’
‘November four years ago,’ Ralph said.
‘Do we know what Beck was doing between then and now?’ Harrigan asked. ‘Do we know if he joined his mate over there?’
‘We do, and we can thank Edwards for that,’ Trevor said. ‘He fast-tracked the information out of the Department of Immigration. It hit our desks by courier yesterday morning. Otherwise, we’d still be scratching our bums for it six months from now. Beck left for Africa two weeks after du Plessis. He said he didn’t go to Kinshasa, he went to Nairobi.’
‘Do we know what either of them was doing over there?’ Harrigan asked.
‘We’ve got no information on du Plessis. But according to the information immigration had from Beck himself, he went to Africa as part of a religious educational aid project.’
Even the federal police contingent laughed.
‘Would I lie to people?’ Trevor said. ‘The project was based in Nairobi. It was called Christian Educational Initiatives, providing education at village level. Supposedly, Beck was their financial manager. Probably he spent most of his time sitting around playing pocket billiards.’
‘Does this charity really exist?’ Harrigan asked.
‘Apparently. There was correspondence between its head office in the UK and the Department of Immigration. The High Commission sent people out to have a look at its Nairobi office. Obviously, anyone can hang out a shingle and ask a few mates to hang around some rented rooms for a day or two. But you can see the department being able to justify what it did. Beck spends a number of years supposedly as an administrator in a respectable scientific research facility, then goes back to a country he’s had a long association with to work in an aid program. If that’s all the information you’ve got, on paper it doesn’t look so implausible. He came here from Nairobi via Johannesburg a year ago. His visa was handled through the Australian High Commission in Kenya.’
‘Then why pay Edwards to get him into the country?’ Frankie asked.
‘The department did have enough information about Beck’s real past to make them think twice,’ Trevor said. ‘It’s a fraction of what he was involved in but it does make his application questionable. The way he was presented, with testimonials that he was a changed man, he was being whitewashed from the start. Someone really wanted him over here.’
‘Also, paying Edwards implicates him from the start,’ Parkin said. ‘It ties him in to whoever’s paying him. Call it a guarantee. Someone wanted to make sure he was onside.’
‘Is there anything to connect Beck to the Democratic Republic of the Congo?’ Harrigan asked.
‘Nothing in the files,’ Trevor said.
There would have been a means to make the connection if the tape that Harrigan had given du Plessis still existed. Like Marvin, Harrigan had covered Elena Calvo’s tracks for her. But there was still Grace’s information from Brinsmead if he could find some other facts to substantiate what she had told him.
‘Find out where Beck was really going when he left London four years ago,’ he said. ‘If you can, get hold of the manifest for his flight. I’d like to know who else was on that plane.’ Harrigan was tapping the table with his fingertips. ‘What do we know about World Food and Crop Providers, the organisation that was supposedly receiving seed stocks from this International Agricultural Research Consortium, so called?’
‘Frankie’s people have been looking at it. Frankie?’ Trevor said.
‘The contract gave us their contact details in Johannesburg. Lucky we recorded those details before it got stolen,’ she said. ‘They don’t have a website or an email address. We rang the contact number and it was disconnected. We contacted the local police and asked them to check out the offices for us. According to them, the address we gave them is just vacant rooms. Whatever this company was supposed to be, they’ve wiped themselves out of existence.’
‘You say Tooth said this du Plessis was his handler,’ Parkin said. ‘Is there any information how he got into the country?’
‘Not as yet,’ Trevor said. ‘Immigration are still checking him for us. He’ll be using false papers.’
‘Where does all this information lead us?’ Parkin went on. ‘I can’t see that you’ve actually analysed any of it yet.’
There was a whiteboard beside the screen. Harrigan went over to it and began to write.
‘Possible scenario,’ he said. ‘A connection exists between Beck and Calvo at the north London facility where they both worked. Whatever there is between them, it doesn’t make her happy. Our secret service agency sends an undercover operative in to watch Beck and they discover this connection. What they made of it, we don’t know. Whatever Beck is up to, this operative goes with him to Africa. Who that operative was, what happened over there, all that information has been expunged from the file. Why? Maybe because it all went badly pear-shaped. Four years later, Calvo comes here, establishes the dream of her life. Beck turns up on the scene out here at the same time, doing something much more undercover. His arrival here is organised by the same people funding Elena Calvo. One way or the other, he goes to work for her. Question: did Calvo have no choice but to take him on?
‘Whatever the answer, everything bumps along the way it’s supposed to for a while. Then three people get shot up at Pittwater. What’s the immediate outcome of these murders? The International Agricultural Research Consortium was due to harvest whatever they were growing. That seed stock was supposed to be sent to the World Food and Crop Providers company for testing somewhere in Africa. None of that happens because all the principals of the IAR Consortium except one have been murdered, and the last man standing is so shit scared, he goes to ground. Next point: whoever the killers are, they splash a photograph of the murder scene all over the web. Jacquie, you told us the main point of that picture. A meal they couldn’t eat. What was the IAR Consortium growing? Food crops mainly. My judgement is, that scene was a comment on exactly what the IAR was growing and the killers threw in their own death figure, the Ice Cream Man, as a final touch. I think we were looking at genetically modified crops that don’t do what they’re supposed to do.’
‘As far as I know, all those crops were destroyed,’ Parkin said. ‘How do we prove this?’
‘Harold Morrissey was badly injured handling the tobacco. We have documented proof of that.’
‘If it was the tobacco that caused those injuries and not a farming accident. What happens next in this scenario of yours?’
Harrigan almost announced that crop samples did exist, then changed his mind. It was information he would share later with Trevor.
‘Whoever shot those people, after they’re dead the shit hits the fan,’ he replied. ‘Calvo goes into survival mode. She wipes the IAR Consortium off the face of the earth. She tries to shut down this investigation and stop anyone from implicating her and her company in whatever Beck was doing. Which means that whatever Beck was up to, it was dynamite.’
‘Hold it right there,’ Parkin said. ‘You’re telling us she’s behind this sabotage. She hired the man who blew a government minister, his adviser and a police guard to eternity. We know that Elena Calvo was a good friend of Edwards. She’s also the CEO of a cutting-edge scientific institution he helped bring here. Besides which, the senator doesn’t refer to her in his affidavit. Also, he makes no connection between Beck and LPS. Given who he has accused, surely he would have voiced any suspicions he might have had about her? Especially since he knew from the dossier that she did have this connection with Beck.’
‘Given the senator’s friendship with Calvo, he may not have wanted to face up to the possibility that she was implicated in these events,’ Harrigan said. ‘Secondly, he may not have wanted to bring down a company he’d worked so hard to establish here. That affidavit is almost entirely a personal attack on the man he accuses of bribing him, so much so it undermines what he has to say. I’d like to know what his state of mind was when he wrote it. If we’d had the chance to go through it with him, it might have been a different story.’
‘That can’t happen now.’
‘That’s the point.’
‘This is all conjecture. Do you have any real evidence to back this scenario other than these assertions?’ Parkin asked. ‘Because let me tell you, Commander, even if this was true, you’d have the devil’s own job proving it.’
‘Proof is what we’re looking for,’ Harrigan said. ‘Trev. I asked you to look into Sam Jonas. What did you find out about her?’
‘She’s on the books of the same security firm as du Plessis,’ Trevor said. ‘Griffin Enterprises. She gave their name and number as a reference on her résumé. When we rang, they confirmed that, but as soon as we said who we were they put the phone down and now they won’t take our calls.’
‘Who is this person?’ Parkin asked.
‘One of Elena Calvo’s security people,’ Harrigan said. ‘She’s a wild card. I think it’s worth finding out who she really is.’
‘Do you have any reason to believe she’s involved in any of this?’
‘We’ve just heard she shares an agency with du Plessis. My information is, she was tailing Beck for months before his death. Yes, I think she’ll have something to tell us.’
‘Then we’ll wait to find out what she has to say. But all these things you’ve put forward need proof,’ Parkin said.
‘If we get du Plessis, we have a good chance of getting some of the information we need. This is where your people and mine could cooperate.’
‘Commander, we all know that du Plessis supposedly abducted your son. Are you sure you’re not letting any personal feelings get in the way of your judgement?’
‘I never do. If you knew anything about the way I work, you’d know that was true.’
‘So you say.’ Parkin stood up. ‘In my eyes, we’re already cooperating. Every law enforcement agency in the country is out there searching for this man. But if this scenario is where your antenna is fixed right now, I prefer to follow my own investigation. Is that the full body of information you have for us so far?’
‘Pretty much,’ Trevor said.
‘Then thank you again.’ Parkin’s two colleagues got to their feet as well. ‘We’ll get to work. We’ll certainly be in touch with what we find, and we expect to hear from you too. In the meantime, Commander, if you get any proof of that scenario, you bring it to us. I’m happy to hear facts but I’ve never been interested in fantasies.’
Harrigan didn’t reply. They walked out.
‘Arseholes,’ Frankie muttered.
There was silence.
‘Where do we go from here, boss?’ Trevor asked.
‘Where you’re going now,’ Harrigan replied. ‘Keep looking into Calvo’s background. Check out Sam Jonas. Sit down and work through the information again. In my opinion, you’re on the right track. Meantime, I think everyone here needs a break. Get some fresh air. Trev, your office now.’
At his desk, a change came over Trevor. The public face had gone; he seemed to have trouble looking Harrigan in the eye.
‘I got your wire, boss. I’m guessing that’s why you wanted to talk to me.’ He passed the paraphernalia over to Harrigan. ‘Are you sure you just want to record? You don’t want us to listen in?’
‘No, what you’ve given me is fine.’
‘Boss, your son being snatched like that. What was it really about?’
‘What do you think it’s about?’ Harrigan said.
‘He wanted something from you, didn’t he?’ Trevor asked quietly.
Harrigan shook his head.
‘Come on, boss. Was it what Freeman gave Gracie, maybe? Did you give it to this du Plessis? He didn’t even tell you where your boy was. Gracie found him, thank Christ.’
‘Grace got some information for us,’ Harrigan said, changing the subject. ‘She gave it to me last night. She says there’s a connection between Jonas and Brinsmead.’
‘How can she know that?’
‘To put it simply, she found it out talking to Brinsmead. He’d met her at the LPS launch. He wanted to tell her how he got his burns. He’s got a connection to the DRC with du Plessis and Beck. According to him, all three of them were there together.’
‘Are you telling me Brinsmead is our anonymous operative in the dossier?’ Trevor asked.
‘He’d have all the right qualifications,’ Harrigan said.
‘You didn’t say that to the boys and girls out there.’
‘Grace thinks Brinsmead and Jonas might be legitimate operatives from a secret service agency and their brief is to find out what Beck and LPS are up to. Now that scenario makes sense, but we have to find out whether it’s actually true. If we advertise this information, we could be sabotaging their investigation. But if they’re rogue, then they’re right in the picture for this. They’re an obvious source for the dossier, for example.’ Harrigan spoke more quietly. ‘I’d also be looking at Sam Jonas for Marvin’s shooting.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘Gut. And the fact that it couldn’t have been du Plessis.’
‘What are you going to do, boss?’
‘See the commissioner as soon as I leave this office. Ask him to take the question to ASIO. If Brinsmead and Jonas are legitimate, then they’re the ones who should be able to find that fact out for us. Until we know that, I don’t want this information going anywhere. It’s between you and me. That’s why I’ve waited until now to discuss it with you. I wanted to think it through first.’
‘What about getting a statement from Gracie?’
‘We do need to do that. I’ll talk to her about it. In the meantime, add Brinsmead to your list of people to check out. There’s something else you need to know. There are crop specimens in existence. Harold Morrissey took some and gave them to me to bring back. They’re at the Millennium lab right now being tested.’
‘You didn’t enlighten our federal friends about that.’
‘Right now I want this information kept confidential until we know who Jonas and Brinsmead are.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you had those specimens before, boss? Was it because of Marvin. You knew he was being run, didn’t you?’ Trevor said.
‘I guessed.’
‘Look, as far as I’m concerned you’re still the boss. I haven’t forgotten what you did for me in the commissioner’s office the other day. But Jesus, mate, if you had an idea about Marvin you could have told me. Maybe we could have worked something out. We’ve lost enough evidence as it is.’
‘I warned you, mate, if you remember. I spent a lot of time and effort keeping him at bay. It’s why I’m going after Calvo now. I want her to incriminate herself.’
‘Isn’t she too smart for that?’
‘It depends on how desperate she is.’
‘All right, we’ll go with it.’
‘There are no secrets from now on, mate,’ Harrigan said.
‘You’ve got nothing left to hide, boss. Is that what you mean?’
‘I mean you can trust me.’
‘I always have, mate. Believe it or not, I still do.’
The commissioner made time for Harrigan as soon as he heard his request and then listened to what he had to say intently. Once Harrigan had finished, it took him some minutes to reply
‘That’s one way of getting information,’ he said. ‘But I know Ms Riordan was a police officer and my understanding is she still works in the field in some way. Her reputation says her word is reliable. She was also able to find Toby.’
‘Our investigation can’t move forward until we get the status of these two individuals cleared up.’
‘I’ve found your judgement dependable, Paul. Leave it with me. I’ll ask ASIO the question. We can’t be assured of an immediate response but we’ll see what they have to say. If they tell us hands off, we’ll know where we stand.’
When Harrigan finally left the building, he was wired for sound. He had Elena Calvo to see; it wasn’t a prospect that made him happy. Later this evening he wanted to see Grace if he could, badly. Someone to make him feel human, to get him out of his head. At the moment, the idea had the appeal of a very welcome change.