‘Do you think this is the only piece of evidence I have relating to this incident? I have information that directly incriminates you in this man’s death. I’m sure you know exactly what it is.’
‘If you do, Dr Calvo, there’s only one place you could have got it from. Right now we have Cassatt’s body to go with it. Release any of it and you might end up being accused of murder. Do you want to risk all those negative outcomes when you’re about to launch on the ASX?’
‘Why should anyone trace its release back to me? Haven’t you spent your working life denying the truth of this event?’ She tapped the photograph with a manicured fingernail. ‘All I have to do is send what I have to the press anonymously. After that, even if you did report this conversation, who would believe you? You would have been shown to be a public liar.’
Harrigan looked at the photograph. In this environmentally controlled room, he had the sense of stepping into a locked and airless space that he was going to share with Cassatt permanently.
‘Give me forty-eight hours.’
She laughed. ‘Why should I do that?’
‘Because you’re right. It’s not my decision, it’s my son’s. I need time to talk to him about your offer. I’ll ring you within two days.’
‘Are you serious?’ she asked, seemingly a genuine question.
‘I never joke where Toby’s concerned.’
‘You obviously care about him a great deal. If you recall, I told you there was no time. But you sit there and ask me for forty-eight hours.’
‘Can’t you wait until after the launch?’
‘Yes, of course I can. You’re right, there is always time,’ she said, suddenly relaxing. ‘Does this mean your companion will still be attending?’
‘I expect her to, yes.’
‘Then I look forward to seeing her. Perhaps we can conclude this meeting now.’
‘Yes, I think we can,’ he replied, thinking gratefully of release.
Elena took her folder and laptop back to the desk where she picked up the phone. Immediately Damien stepped out of the inner room.
‘Sam, would you come and show the commander out?’ she said into the handset. ‘Thank you.’
Elena sat down on the lounge again. They didn’t speak. Shortly afterwards, there was a knock. Damien opened the door to Sam. Elena got to her feet smiling, offering her hand.
‘Thank you, Commander, for a most useful discussion. I’ll see you again.’
‘I think you will,’ Harrigan replied, even if he doubted that their expectations of that meeting were the same.
Harrigan walked with Sam in silence. She was watching him.
‘Did Elena get inside your head?’ she asked. ‘Is that why you’re so quiet?’
‘It was a business meeting.’
‘I don’t know if Elena distinguishes between life and business. Let me tell you something. Elena will do whatever it’s in her best interests to do, whatever those interests are. Don’t ever expect anything else.’
At one level Elena Calvo had been playing the poor little rich girl, Harrigan thought; at another, the tough businesswoman. I want someone to kill and possibly die for me. Probably all her life she had been led to expect that kind of loyalty with no questions asked. As for her loyalty to him, it would be purely conditional. If he didn’t do what she wanted just once, that would be the end of it. She didn’t hire people; she bought them.
‘Did she tell you how her father made his money?’ Sam asked.
‘No. We didn’t talk about him after you left.’
‘He’s an arms dealer. He started in the black market at the end of World War Two and he’s sold arms all over the world ever since, to every war you can name. Gene technology is just another line of investment for him.’
‘How do you know that?’ he asked.
‘Check Jean Calvo on the web. It’s all there. He doesn’t hide what he does.’
‘Does Elena ever talk to you?’
‘Me? God, no. I’m the hired help. It’s my job to be invisible. That suits me fine.’
Harrigan wondered if Sam realised how much antagonism she was showing. For whatever reason, her self-control was fraying at the edges, had been throughout his time here. Maybe she didn’t like being bought. Maybe this strange locked-up building disturbed her. It would disturb him if he had to work here.
They had arrived back at the entry to the car park. He collected his mobile and beeper. Sam saw him out to his car.
‘Your e-tag will get you out of the grounds. Once you leave, it won’t get you back in again. Like your badge, it’s dead as soon as you drive away from here.’
‘I’ll learn to live with the disappointment.’
She laughed and then her face went hard. ‘You never know when someone’s after you, Harrigan. Maybe you should keep an eye on your back. Bye now.’
He drove out of the car park, relieved to see the garage door slide open for him, the main gates swing back as he approached them. Out on the public road, he breathed free air. ‘I know a great deal about you,’ Elena Calvo had said. To Harrigan, this was an insult. She knew nothing about him. But what did he know about her?
In one way, she had told him a great deal about herself. None of it made her any easier to pin down. He could envisage much of what she had said being repeated by a lawyer in a court of law as an excuse for actions otherwise apparently incriminating. And she was a murderer: Cassatt’s murderer if no one else’s, and someone with the motive and the capacity to remove Beck and his cronies if only because they threatened her business. Her grief for Julian Edwards didn’t mean that she wished the result undone.
The visit had only complicated matters. He put her out of his head. What he needed was solitude and space to think. Right now, he didn’t have time for needy, controlling rich women and their ambitions, whatever they might be, whatever schemes they were juggling. He had a long drive ahead of him. There were other lives to protect.
16
It was well after midday, later than Harrigan had hoped it would be, by the time he was on the road to Coolemon. His first stop had been the underground car park at the Macarthur Square shopping centre at Campbelltown. While he was driving around, a parked car flashed its lights at him. He pulled into the nearest empty bay and walked over. Ralph got out of the car to meet him.
‘Hi, boss. It’s all ready to go.’
They swapped keys. Harrigan slid into the driver’s seat of the new car. Ralph took the suicide seat. He opened the glove box and took out a shoulder holster and a gun.
‘Here you go,’ he said, handing them to Harrigan.
‘Just call me the fashionista,’ Harrigan said, covering the whole kit and caboodle with his light summer jacket.
Ralph grinned. ‘Marvin knows nothing about these arrangements, boss. Trevor kept him out of the loop like you asked.’
‘What about putting a guard on my son?’
‘He’s got that in motion. Shouldn’t be a problem.’
This was more a precaution on Harrigan’s part than the expectation of a real threat. He was being careful. Cotswold House was a secure environment; no one could just walk in there off the street. Harrigan’s family had been threatened more than once in his career and Toby had had guards put on him before. Trevor had been obliging; doing what Harrigan had asked of him without asking too many questions.
‘Tell him thanks from me. I’ll be in touch as soon as I get to Yaralla.’
‘How’d you go with Elena Calvo? What’s she like?’
Harrigan had already spent time considering how much of his meeting he should conceal and how much reveal.
‘Tough and ruthless,’ he said. ‘She won’t be easy to deal with. She’s got her own agenda. Keep her in view. Everything you can find out about her-her corporation, her father, their connections-dig it up. She’s a significant player.’
‘We’ll handle her. Okay, boss. See you later. Good luck.’
Ralph would wait another half-hour, then leave. Harrigan drove out, the tinted glass of the car’s windows providing him with some anonymity. He hit the road with a sense of freedom.