‘One thing about this contract,’ Ralph said, moving on. ‘It’s got very strict provisions relating to the protection of intellectual property. Violate any of those provisions and you stand to lose everything you own. Why is that necessary?’
‘Isn’t it standard?’ Stuart said.
‘This contract is anything but standard,’ Trevor said. ‘If you were going to sign it, you must have looked it over. You must have realised that for yourself.’
‘My client has answered your question,’ the lawyer replied. ‘He considers the contract standard. There’s no need to pursue the point further.’
‘What about the money you were going to get for what you were selling?’ Trevor asked. ‘That’s a lot of money for very ordinary-looking produce. Why send it to Johannesburg?’
Stuart glanced at his solicitor before answering.
‘We were signing the contract because it was ready for harvest. It was just seed stock. It was being sent over there because that’s where it’d be used and they wanted to test it out first. That’s all I know.’
‘Was the contract going with it?’ Ralph asked.
‘As far as I know. I guess we’d have to exchange. Can we talk about something important? Nattie and Jerome are dead. What if these people come after me? I’m here helping you out. What are you going to do for me?’
‘Why would they come after you, Stuart?’ Ralph asked.
‘Someone may have a vendetta relating to Jerome Beck’s business, concerned with issues we possibly know nothing about,’ the solicitor said. ‘Two of my client’s business colleagues are dead. It’s feasible he may be on a death list.’
Remembering the scene on the patio, Harrigan looked at Morrissey through the window. The glass seemed to distort the man’s face. He had one hand stretched out on the table. In the artificial light, Harrigan saw the glimmer of his diamonds.
‘If we’re going to get you protection, we’ll need to justify it. You haven’t given us any reason why you’re in danger from anyone except maybe Ray Foster,’ Trevor said.
‘Nattie and Jerome are dead and you’re asking me to prove why I need protection?’
‘If you saw those pictures on the net, Stuart, you must have seen your old friend the Ice Cream Man up there,’ Trevor said.
‘Ex-Detective Cassatt is not an acquaintance of my client.’
‘Our intelligence tells us otherwise. Someone really worked him over before he died, by the look of it. He must have had information someone else wanted pretty badly. Do you also have information that someone else may want to get their hands on just as badly? Is that what you’re telling us?’
Stuart looked from Ralph to Trevor. His face was grey with fear.
‘Anything’s possible,’ he replied.
‘You haven’t told us enough, Stuart,’ Trevor said. ‘If you want protection, you’re going to have to tell us more about the consortium. What is there about it that could put you in so much danger? If you can answer that question for us, then yes, we can help you.’
Stuart looked at his solicitor who gave him the faintest of shrugs. Then he looked from Trevor to Ralph, calculating and frightened in one. With a movement so sudden it startled everyone, he slapped both hands on the table.
‘Then fuck it! This interview’s over. I’m getting out of this dump!’
‘You can watch your language first,’ Ralph said.
The lawyer stood too. ‘If you had treated my client with more sympathy and less sarcasm, he would not be reacting like this.’
‘Before he storms out of here,’ Trevor said, ‘let me say we’ll want to talk to him again.’
‘You’ll be lucky,’ Stuart said viciously.
‘Before we do anything,’ the solicitor said, ‘we’d like to know the source of some of the information you presented here today. I think my client has a right to know that.’
‘At the moment, it’s confidential,’ Trevor said.
‘It won’t be if we get to court. However, there’s another very important matter we have to address. That contract on the table is my client’s property. I will be going to court as soon as possible for an injunction to have both copies returned to him immediately. You have no business holding on to them and you have no business examining them.’
‘I think you’ll find we do,’ Trevor said. ‘Why does your client want the contract back if he’s decided against continuing with the business?’
‘The information in that contract is still commercial-in-confidence. It relates to my client’s personal business affairs and is of no concern to anyone else,’ the solicitor said.
‘You can go to court if you want,’ Trevor said. ‘I don’t like your chances but it’s your client’s money. Meanwhile, this is evidence from a murder scene and it’ll be examined thoroughly by a forensic scientist as soon as possible. She’ll go through it in detail and tell us what it means.’
‘How soon is that?’ Stuart asked sharply.
‘I expect to have her on deck about four days from now. It’s the earliest she could make time for us.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ the solicitor said. ‘You’ll be hearing from me. Good morning.’
Trevor let them out of the room. They walked outside to see the small group of watchers.
‘I didn’t know we had an audience. This isn’t a sideshow,’ the solicitor said with irritation.
Stuart zeroed in on Harrigan.
‘Commander Paul Harrigan,’ he said, just short of being mocking. ‘You’ve come up in the world. You were just a sergeant when you blew into my home town all those years ago. None of that baggage weighed you down, did it?’
‘Time’s moved on even if you haven’t changed,’ Harrigan replied.
Almost, Harrigan asked if Stuart had seen his brother lately. As Ralph had suggested, Yaralla would be a good place to base a company that dealt in experimental crops. But with Ambrosine and her children in hiding down there, it was better for now to keep his mouth shut.
‘Let’s go. We don’t have the time to waste here,’ the solicitor said.
Silently, the two men were escorted out. After a single glance at Harrigan, Marvin’s sidekick followed them.
‘What was he doing here?’ Trevor asked.
‘Marvin’s eyes and ears,’ Harrigan replied. ‘I think you’ll see a lot of him.’
Ralph had joined them. ‘I thought we had him there. It was bad luck he jumped the wrong way.’
‘Maybe someone’s threatened him. See if you can find out who’s been in touch with him in the last forty-eight hours or so. Other than Ray Foster.’
‘We’ll get the dogs on him.’
‘It’s a good idea keeping it quiet that we only have one copy of that contract,’ Harrigan said. ‘It won’t do any harm to keep them guessing for a while.’
‘Boss,’ Trevor said, ‘I had the rare and strange experience of actually believing some of the things old Stewie said in there. I don’t think he’s involved in this shooting.’
‘No, he can’t be. If he’d been there at the time, he’d have been sitting at the table with everyone else. Someone wanted to remove all the signatories to that contract before they signed it.’
‘According to Stewie, they were ready to harvest,’ Ralph said. ‘It looks like someone wanted to put the brakes on the whole thing before it got started. Maybe this is about industrial espionage.’
‘Maybe. If they did want to stop it happening, they succeeded. The venture died that night on the patio even if old Stewie’s still with us,’ Harrigan said. ‘Next time you talk to him, put more pressure on him. Find out what this consortium really did. Check the contract first. It’d be nice to know why he’s so anxious to stop us from looking at it.’
‘He didn’t want us checking his farm either, boss,’ Trevor said.
‘No, he didn’t, did he? Look into the legalities of getting on that property without his consent. Be very careful that you’ve got them sorted out before you go down there.’
They had reached the incident room. Ralph disappeared inside. Harrigan stopped at the door. He looked at the people crowded inside the busy room and felt he couldn’t breathe. He decided he wouldn’t go in there a second time that day.
‘I’m finished here, mate,’ he said to Trevor, who had stopped with him. ‘I’ll go now.’
‘Boss,’ Trevor said, ‘are you running this investigation? Or are you on leave? Because if you’re not here, it’s Marvin in charge.’
Grace couldn’t have asked the question better herself. The way things were, the commissioner had left it to Harrigan and Marvin to fight it out in the mud.
‘Consider me in charge,’ Harrigan said. ‘I may not be here all the time but when I said nothing is going to happen I don’t know about, I meant it. You map out your main lines of investigation and then we work out where this investigation goes together. You take direction from me, not Marvin. If he gives you grief, you call me. I’ll put him back in his coffin with a stake through his heart.’
Trevor laughed. ‘No worries. It’ll be good to have you on board. Did you get on to Ambro?’
‘I couldn’t make contact last night. I’ll try again today. You’ll hear from me as soon as I do. A word of friendly advice before I go. Edwards was right. Watch your back. I don’t know what’s Marvin’s up to but be very careful what you say to him from now on.’
‘He’s just an arsehole. For all I know, he wants to big-note himself in front of a federal government minister.’
‘Maybe. Just don’t let him bait you.’
There was more to this than Marvin’s ego, unbridled as it was, but Harrigan kept this judgement to himself. The tension and strain about Trevor was deepening. The Tooth was good at pressuring people; the ultimate aim always being to drive them out of their jobs. In Harrigan’s opinion, this time it was personal as well as political. Marvin was indulging in a very private antagonism towards Trevor. Probably it added spice to the exercise.
Driving out of the car park, Harrigan contemplated a world that existed outside of his job. Maybe one day he would discover how to inhabit it. He should try to contact Ambrosine but right now he needed to feel human. He rang Cotswold House to see what Toby was doing.
‘Come over,’ Susie said. ‘Have a late lunch.’
Harrigan had turned off his phone just before he had gone into the commissioner’s office to meet the minister. There were messages waiting for him but he ignored them. He turned the phone off again. He needed an hour in which no demands were made of him. Like Grace, Toby was someone he could talk to. A relief from being always locked inside that dark enclosure in his head. There were times when his own thoughts were the worst kind of solitary confinement.