‘Who is this entrepreneur?’
‘I’m not going to tell you that. The request was that Beck receive a visa. The understanding was that later on he would also receive a passport.’
‘Was Dr Calvo involved in this?’
‘She wasn’t involved in any of the discussions. What she knew about Beck beforehand or what connection they have, I really don’t know. She’s a very smart woman. She knows how to think ahead of people-I’ve seen her do it. I doubt we’ll ever find out what her real understanding was.’
‘Beck still had to get a visa,’ Grace said. ‘How was that arranged?’
‘It was more subtle than I’m making it appear. In fairness to everyone, including me, the full extent of Beck’s criminality wasn’t known, nowhere near it. In fact, it was very effectively hidden. My entrepreneur put Beck forward as a man reformed.’ He laughed a little too loudly. People leaving the function glanced in his direction. ‘I didn’t sponsor him myself, of course. I organised for someone else to do that-obviously a well-respected individual in the community. But I spoke to the then Minister for Immigration on his behalf myself. She was a long-standing acquaintance of mine; she took me at my word. I told her a very significant development was at risk. Which means the only person who can be blamed for Beck being here is me. You can see what it’s cost me.’
‘What about the entrepreneur?’
‘He can deny everything, but my involvement is on file at the Department of Immigration. The fact that I received the inducements I did is also recorded in my financial affairs. There’s nothing in those purchases that implicates the giver. It’s only me. Recently, before my son’s death, there had been intimations that I might be asked to provide more assistance to Beck in the future. How could I say no when I was already compromised? My son came to warn me that Beck wanted my help. He didn’t believe I could possibly be corrupted.’
‘Why are you telling me this, Senator? Have you received threats?’ Grace asked.
‘Threats? No. Should I have? I’m telling you this for the same reason that I’ve done everything since I found Julian. I want everything out in the open.’
He stopped speaking. His eyes were bright and focused on some unknown point in the distance.
‘When I received that dossier on Beck at my electoral office, I can’t tell you what I went through. I thought, I brought this man into the country and my ex-wife has brought him into my son’s life. The day I went to see her, that day I found them all, I was going to take Julian out of that house no matter what. My only comfort was, he was somewhere in Tasmania where no one could get to him. Except he wasn’t. He’d come home. Whatever happened in my ex-wife’s house in Pittwater that evening, I set that situation up. That’s what I can’t live with.’
‘You have to make a full statement, Senator. My advice is that you should also be very careful about your own safety, even if it’s only as a precaution. Have you spoken to Dr Calvo about any of this?’
He smiled. ‘I spoke to Elena about it just before the launch.’
As he said this, Grace saw one of Elena’s bodyguards appear in the doorway to the function room. He saw her talking to Senator Edwards and went back inside.
‘Are you sure you should have done that?’ she asked.
He laughed again, more softly. ‘I hope so. I hope I can rely on her. I asked her what she knew. Her reaction was strange. She said she’d come here because she had hoped it would be the new world. A long way from the many things she’d wanted to leave behind. But they’d followed her. I think she was trying to tell me that Beck had been foisted on her, possibly by her father. I almost asked her, did she have a choice? But I couldn’t. She was too distressed. It’s the first time I’ve seen her come close to losing her self-control.’
‘She seems to have regained it since,’ Grace said.
‘She does, doesn’t she? In there, she was more like the Elena I know. I don’t want to think about the implications of her relationship with Beck, whatever it was, if she even had one. I can’t bring myself to believe she could be implicated in my son’s death in any way. But I do intend to make a full statement; in fact, I plan to sign an affidavit. Most of it’s already written. I’ll make sure Commander Harrigan gets it as soon as possible.’
‘In the meantime, Senator, I think you need personal protection.’
‘Allan. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’ Elena had appeared, her two bodyguards either side of her. ‘Can I interrupt you? I need to introduce you to someone before they leave.’
‘Of course, Elena. I was just passing the time of day here with Ms Riordan.’
‘You were deep in discussion. What were you talking about?’
‘Julian. She was kind enough to listen to me.’
Elena looked at Grace but didn’t speak directly to her. ‘I thought Ms Riordan had left some time ago. I seem to find her in conversation with people wherever I look.’
‘I’m on my way now,’ Grace said.
‘Yes, you are.’ There was a faint pause. ‘The next time you see Commander Harrigan, please give him my regards. Presumably, whenever he gets back safely from wherever he is now and makes up his mind how he will invest.’
‘When do you think that will be, Dr Calvo?’
‘Why ask me that? Don’t you know? I could have no idea. Good night.’
Elena’s voice held a finely elegant malice, seeming to spell out the opposite of what was said. It implied expectation of harm, not good wishes. Already, she was on her way back to the function room, Edwards with her. Grace walked away into the night without looking back.
Harrigan had said before he left that he wouldn’t call her; he would be focused on what he was doing. No news was good news; she wasn’t to worry. He hadn’t said, don’t ring him. As soon she was home, she called and got his voicemail.
‘It’s me,’ she said. ‘I’m back from the launch. Edwards gave me some important information. He’s confirmed the connection between Beck and LPS and identified it with another organisation called Abaris. You need to talk to him as soon as you can and make it clear that he needs protection. Just ring me. I need to know that you’re okay,’ she finished abruptly.
She sat down at the table. There was something badly wrong wherever he was, she felt it powerfully. If anything did happen to Harrigan, would they tell her? Would she hear it on the radio first? Her tiny flat closed in on her. She couldn’t breathe. Most times like this, she would have called her friends, met them somewhere and gone dancing. Instead, without changing her clothes, she found paper and a pen and began to write up what had happened tonight.
Almost, she set down as the opening words: I’m waiting to hear if you’re dead. But no such words from the heart appeared on the page. Her usual disciplined report filled the blank space. She wrote in detail. Anything to fill in the time until she heard that Harrigan was alive, or if anyone called to let her know otherwise.
19
Voices at a distance woke Harrigan. He opened his eyes to the sensation that he didn’t know where he was. Time was dislocated; fleetingly, the room was an unknown precinct. Then he heard a shout: ‘Watch out!’ It was Harold’s voice. Events slipped back into place. He thought, I have work to do. Pulling himself up off the bed, he put on his gun. Then he went outside to see what all the fuss was about.