He was deep in these thoughts when he felt two hands pressing gently on his shoulders. He knew that touch and looked up. Grace was standing behind him. He leaned back against her. Her body was warm through her singlet T-shirt.
‘Didn’t you hear me come in? I called out.’
‘I was lost in my head. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.’
She looked down at the image on his desk. ‘So you were sitting here looking at pictures from the end of nowhere instead,’ she said.
‘It helps to pass the time. Where were you?’
She sat down in the spare chair, dropping her shoulder bag onto the floor. Her hair was loose on her nearly bare shoulders. He closed the book.
‘At the laundromat,’ she said. ‘I would have got here sooner but the dryer broke down.’
‘You were doing your washing? Why?’
‘I always do when I get depressed and I want to think things through. Have you ever sat in a half-empty laundromat on a week night when it’s getting dark? It’s a sad place. You can see things clearly in a place like that.’
‘You decided you’d rather be here with me than there?’ He had to grin. ‘I’m flattered. What does this mean? You don’t want to say goodbye after all? Or is this just a temporary reprieve for us?’
‘I don’t want us to think about that right now. All I want us to do is be in the here and now. When this is all over with, we can work out where we’re going. If you can live with that arrangement.’
‘You decided that sitting in a laundromat?’
‘Is it any worse than sitting here looking at pictures from the grave?’
Harrigan laughed. She smiled and rolled her shoulders the way she did when she was relaxing. The more she relaxed, the longer she stayed, the better the chance of persuading her to keep staying. Or so he hoped.
‘I’ve got to tell you something that will probably make you want to walk right out of here again,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to go to Coolemon tomorrow. Whatever Stewie and his mates were up to, it’s happening on his and his brother’s property.’
To his relief, she laughed. ‘I should have known there’d be something like that. How long will you be away?’
‘A couple of days. We’ve still got a little time now.’
Grace was about to speak when the phone on his desk rang. Again he didn’t recognise the number.
‘Harrigan,’ he said.
‘Commander Paul Harrigan?’ a female voice asked.
‘That’s right.’
‘I’m Dr Elena Calvo. Please forgive me for ringing you so late. I believe you’ve heard of me. We have a mutual acquaintance in Senator Edwards.’
Harrigan switched on the speakerphone.
‘Yes, we do,’ he said cordially. ‘The minister mentioned you to me in very positive terms. It’s not so very late, Dr Calvo. What can I do for you?’
‘Please, call me Elena. I know from our mailing lists and also from Allan that at one stage you were interested in investing in my corporation, Life Patent Strategies. I wondered if you still wanted to pursue that.’
‘Do you think it would be a good thing for me to do?’
‘I think it would be very worth your while, yes.’
‘In that case, I had thought seriously about it.’
‘Good. I always think it’s important to look after individual investors as well as the large institutional ones. Would you like to come and visit our research facility? I think you’ll find it very impressive.’
‘I can be there as soon as tomorrow morning if you like,’ Harrigan replied. ‘I’ll have a few spare hours if that suits you.’
‘That would suit me perfectly. I should warn you it’s quite a drive. We’re out at Campbelltown.’
‘That’s fine.’
‘Then we’ll expect you.’ She gave him directions for what would normally have been a journey to the end of the city. Tomorrow it would be a small diversion from his preordained route. ‘I have you down for our launch tomorrow night as well. I think you’ll find a visit to Campbelltown will be a very useful background to that occasion.’
‘As it happens, Dr Calvo, I have to be somewhere else tomorrow night,’ Harrigan said. ‘Can I send someone along in my place?’
He looked at Grace who nodded.
‘Certainly. Who would this person be?’
‘A friend of mine. Grace Riordan.’
‘Yes, of course.’ There was a faint edge of disappointment in her voice. ‘Are you sure you can’t be there yourself?’
‘I’m afraid it’s impossible.’
‘I’ll put her name down in that case. She will be able to understand what this is about?’
‘I don’t think she’ll have any trouble.’
‘Then we’ll expect her in your place tomorrow night and we’ll see you tomorrow morning. Good night.’
The room went silent.
‘Do you mind going to the launch?’ Harrigan asked Grace.
‘No, it’ll give me a chance to get frocked up. If you’re down at Coolemon, I can do something up here. How did she get your number?’
‘Legitimately. I would have put all those details down when I first applied for her company’s prospectus. She’s been thorough.’
‘She’s been digging into your life. She knew about me,’ Grace said. ‘Yes, of course. That was a slip. See if she doesn’t try and take your meeting down to a personal level in some way.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Just the way she talked to you. It was a little too intimate for someone she’s never met. And why should she be unhappy if I’m going to be at the launch instead of you?’
Harrigan decided to avoid the question.
‘That’s her problem, not ours,’ he said. ‘You said Sam Jonas was at Freeman’s house today.’
‘Yes. Why?’
Harrigan turned on his computer and displayed the photograph of Sam watching Beck and the Ice Cream Man in a run-down pub.
‘This is from Freeman’s CD. Jonas has been undercover, keeping an eye on Beck and his associates for her boss for months by the look of it. Until today, Freeman was the last of them left.’
‘She didn’t talk like she was planning on killing either of us. But she knew something was going to happen and she wasn’t going to interfere,’ Grace said. ‘She knew I had a gun. According to her, the question was whether I’d use it.’
‘She didn’t try to offer you a bribe or threaten you? Try to get this tape out of Freeman in any way?’
He passed it to Grace who looked it over.
‘No, she was completely hands off. She said that was how she did things. Why?’
‘I’m trying to work out her motivation,’ Harrigan said. ‘My guess is that tomorrow Elena Calvo is going to offer me a good sum of money for that tape. You’d think if Jonas was working for her, she’d have tried to get her hands on it as a matter of urgency.’
‘That kind of dirty work may not be Sam’s job. She might just handle the intelligence side of things. Have you listened to this? What’s on it?’
‘Information that seriously implicates both Calvo and her father in whatever Beck was up to and links LPS to money laundering.’
‘How would Calvo know you’ve got it?’
‘Marvin rang tonight. He wanted to know if there was any evidence at Freeman’s house that might affect the investigation. Specifically, did Freeman give you anything like a tape or photographs?’
‘Are you sure he wasn’t just being Marvin?’
‘No, there’s nothing in this for him. Everything he does is worked out to take him one step closer to the commissioner’s office. Today, he made a fool of himself in front of a federal government minister and put God’s nose out of joint, not once but twice, trying to get control of this investigation. I told him I had the tape and the CD, but I didn’t have them here and I hadn’t listened to the tape.’
‘Paul, that was a really dangerous thing to do. What if Marvin blows the whistle on you?’
‘He won’t. If these pictures ever get out, maybe he won’t lose his job but he’ll never get to be police commissioner. By his own admission, your gunman today has these pictures and I’m very sure he’s pulling Marvin’s strings. Half an hour after I tell him what I’ve got, Elena Calvo rings with a friendly invitation to morning tea. Marvin’s told his handler, his handler’s told the boss. My guess is there’ll be plenty of inducements offered tomorrow.’