Elena had been about to take a mouthful of coffee. She turned to look at Brinsmead as he spoke, blinking a little, frozen in that pose, cup in hand.
‘Would you have an example of one of these contracts?’ Harrigan asked Elena.
‘No, I’m afraid I don’t. I wouldn’t see it as relevant to our discussion,’ she said with a smile.
‘The people you contract in do your work for you. But you don’t pay them, they pay you.’
‘The original investment was ours. Unless people want to wait for our patents to expire and then do our research all over again, and, of course, pay for it again, this is the best way for them to access the knowledge we’ve already gained. It’s a legitimate enterprise. I have a waiting list of people who want to apply here. We can do a great deal of good.’
‘All owned by you, except for Dr Brinsmead’s project, which is in the public domain?’
‘Yes, that’s the exception. Daniel and I came to that agreement mainly because it was such a personal matter for him. Now, Commander, I have a question for you. You asked for Daniel to be here to answer your questions. But our discussion is about to focus on your interests. Would you prefer him to leave or stay?’
‘What can you have to say to the commander that I couldn’t hear?’ Brinsmead asked.
‘That’s his decision,’ she replied.
Harrigan decided the time had come to oblige. ‘I would prefer a one-on-one meeting, yes.’
Brinsmead looked from Elena to Harrigan. Snookered.
‘All right.’ He got to his feet. ‘I’ll pack up my tent and disappear into the sunset. Nice to meet you, Commander. I’m sure Elena will make you the offer of a lifetime. I’ll be in the lab if anyone wants me.’
He walked out without looking back. Harrigan watched Elena watch him leave. Just as it had been earlier, her face was expressionless, unforgiving. She turned to Harrigan. Again, her smile appeared at once.
‘I always keep a bodyguard with me but today I’m going to be different,’ she said. ‘I’m going to trust you. Sam, that will do for now. I’ll call you when I need you. Thank you.’
‘If that’s what you want, Elena, I’m on my way,’ Sam said. She glanced once at Harrigan and walked out.
‘Damien, if you could wait in the inner room.’
‘Sam is very professional,’ Harrigan said as soon as the door had closed and they were alone.
Elena seemed surprised. ‘I would hope so. All my staff are professional. Why do you say that?’
‘I wondered where you found her.’
‘There’s no secret to that. She came from a security agency my father and I have used for many years.’
‘Who are they?’
‘Why do you want to know? Are you considering offering her a job?’
‘Like you, I’m always on the lookout for good people, Dr Calvo.’
‘Please call me Elena. Sam was a policewoman once, but that was some years ago. She came from Griffin Enterprises. I was lucky to find her. I was very much in need of someone at the time and her skills are rare. You can ask her if she wants to change jobs but I don’t think your wages will match mine.’
‘May I ask why you need someone with Sam’s skills on your staff?’
‘I’ve received any number of threats in my life. Threats of abduction and murder. Threats from animal rights activists. I need someone to keep a discreet eye on the people who threaten me. Better than waiting for it to happen.’
‘Very wise,’ Harrigan said.
Elena smiled.
‘There’s another matter we need to discuss now, which is actually to do with your murder inquiry. Like everyone, I’ve seen the photographs of the victims at Pittwater. It’s a tragedy. Julian was a very troubled but gifted young man. I was ready to offer him a job. He had skills that could have been developed. I didn’t have the chance.’
A little unwillingly, Harrigan had to accept that her grief seemed sincere.
‘But what you really need to know,’ she continued, ‘is that I recognised the fourth victim, the one you haven’t officially identified. His name is Jerome Beck.’
‘Is there a reason you didn’t ring the hotline with this information?’ Harrigan asked.
‘I wanted to tell you in person. Jerome used to work here. Unfortunately, he’s not someone many people would choose to associate with.’
‘But you knew him. How did you meet him?’
‘He was an administrator in a research facility I was managing in London a number of years ago. The same place I met Daniel. Jerome tried to harass me late one night in the car park. He was drunk. Not long after I came here, he contacted me and said he’d come to Australia as well. Could I employ him? At the time, we needed someone very badly and I hired him on a short-term contract because he had the necessary experience. I soon realised he was an alcoholic and I had to dismiss him. After that, he started to make abusive phone calls. I asked Sam to watch him. She discovered he kept company with known criminals. In fact, at one time, he attempted to have one admitted to this facility.’
‘Do you know who this known criminal was?’
‘One of the other victims, Michael Cassatt. At the time, we were completely unaware of who he was. It was a great shock to me.’
‘We need to interview Sam if she’s been tailing them.’
‘I should warn you that everything she does for me is covered by a strict confidentiality agreement. All my security staff sign them. My solicitors have the information she collected. I’ll ask them to contact you. They’ll answer any questions you may have.’
‘We’ll need a formal statement from you as well,’ Harrigan said.
‘I’m happy to do that. Enough of this. We’re both busy people. This is my card, please keep it. As I’ve mentioned before, there are other opportunities here besides investment. I can’t offer you anything with the kudos of being the police commissioner, but I can offer you an executive position in charge of security with a very competitive remuneration package.’
‘I have to say I wasn’t expecting anything like that.’
‘I’m not offering you the position just because of our corporate needs,’ she said. ‘I’m an individual woman, a single woman, and I have to be sure of my personal safety. I want someone reliable, someone who’s on my side. You have a very good reputation.’ She reached over and extracted a sheet of paper from the folder on the table. ‘This is my offer. Please consider it.’
Harrigan’s budgetary habits had been formed by watching his mother spend hours carefully choosing his clothes at the local op shop when he was a boy. He was still careful with his money. If he accepted Elena Calvo’s offer, he would never have to be careful again.
‘What would I have to do to earn this?’ he asked.
‘I’m looking for someone who will know how to remove any threats to me, internal or external, while at the same time protecting my personal reputation. You would need to be prepared to put both my own and my corporation’s interests before anything else. You would have to sign a confidentiality agreement and I would expect your complete loyalty.’
‘What does “remove” mean?’
‘Make safe,’ she replied. ‘How you achieve that end is entirely up to you, but it would have to be effective. You could also expect my complete support for whatever action you undertook. I’ve always believed that loyalty works both ways. But I would also expect complete discretion from you regarding your actions.’
‘Do you want to be a little more precise about what these threats might be?’
‘Perhaps not until you’ve given me a firm answer to my offer,’ she said. ‘From what I know of you, I don’t think you would encounter anything outside your experience.’