He grew more flustered. ‘Okay,’ he said and keyed the number into the computer. ‘Top floor. Bay 25. A white Toyota HiAce. Paid a month’s rental. Mr Robert Woods from Coolangatta. He’s a regular. He can’t be who you’re looking for.’
‘Do you have a key to that van? I need to open it.’
‘No, we don’t do that. You leave it at your own risk. I couldn’t give it to you anyway.’
Grace thought of what she might have in her bag.
‘I’m going to check it out,’ she said. ‘In the meantime, call the police and tell them it’s an emergency.’
‘I thought you said you were the police.’
‘Just do what I say. Call the police now!’
She took the lift to the top floor. Bay 25 was at the back in the corner. The van had been parked with its back doors against the wall, making it impossible to open them without moving the vehicle. There were cars either side of it, hemming it in. There were no side windows on the body of the van and both the windscreen and the windows in the doors were covered with blinds. Grace looked at her watch. It was well after six. If Toby was inside, he would have been there for over twenty-four hours. There was no one around. She took out her illegal gun and used it to smash the windscreen, put it away quickly, and then tore out the blinds, using them to clear away the remains of the smashed safety glass. The smell of human waste hit her powerfully.
‘What the fuck have you done? Shit!’
It wasn’t the attendant but whoever was in charge, a tall, thin and bearded man in his mid-thirties; Ray, she supposed. He had been running towards her but the smell brought him to a stop.
‘There’s someone in there,’ she said. ‘It’s a kidnap victim and he’s been left here to die. I’m going to ring for an ambulance. Can you get this van out of there and get the back doors open? And is there anywhere I can get some water around here?’
‘Hang on. I’ve got to check this out,’ he replied and levered himself into the van through the gap where the windscreen had been. He called out, ‘There is someone here. Yeah, it’s that crippled kid. But I don’t know if he’s alive.’
Grace was ringing for an ambulance. ‘Can you just get that van out of there so we can open the doors?’ she repeated.
She had barely hung up when the van came to life and moved forward, swinging around into the lane. Then shortly afterwards, the side door was opened and Ray got out.
‘You know how to do that,’ Grace said, with a relieved grin.
‘Years of practice,’ he replied, grinning back. ‘You wanted water, you said.’
‘And a clean cloth if you’ve got one.’
He was gone; she scrambled inside. Toby was dressed and on his side on a blanket. He had been tied with rough ropes and couldn’t move from the centre of the van. It looked as if a rag had been pushed into his mouth but somehow he’d spat it out. His mouth was open, as if he’d tried to speak or even shout before he’d passed out. His body was rigid. The blanket was wet with urine and Toby was dirtied but he was breathing. Grace checked his pulse. It was regular if weak.
Ray had come back. He handed her a bottle of water and a clean handkerchief. She soaked the handkerchief in water and put it into Toby’s mouth. Instinctively, he began to suck it.
‘You need to call the police,’ Grace said to Ray.
‘I already did that.’ He laughed. ‘I was asking them to come and get you. But there’s been some kind of explosion at the police building. There’s three people dead, one of them’s a government minister. Lucky I’ve got a mate over here at Redfern. They’re on their way.’
Was Harrigan one of the dead? She stopped and stared at Ray then shook off the question as quickly as she could. Everything in her rejected the possibility. And there was no point in trying to call him to find out what had happened. All she could usefully do now was focus on Toby and see him to hospital alive.
‘Do you have CCTV?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, we do.’
‘You need to give the police footage of the man who left this van here and anything else you have about him.’
‘I’ll do that.’
The ambulance arrived before the police. The paramedics cut the ropes with a fine disregard for forensic niceties. Grace went with Toby to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was washed and cleaned, then put on a drip and connected to the various monitors that read his body. The doctor told her he was badly dehydrated and in pain but it was most likely no lasting damage had been done.
By now it was growing dark. She tried to ring Harrigan again and again got his voicemail. It was too late to be messing around. She rang the commissioner’s assistant, a number she had been given in case of dire emergency.
‘I’m trying to get hold of Commander Harrigan,’ she said. ‘It’s very, very urgent and he’s not answering his phone.’
‘The commander can’t be disturbed. There’s been a significant incident here, as you may have heard, and he’s in a meeting with representatives from ASIO and the Australian Federal Police at this moment. I can take a message.’
As usual, Chloe’s voice dripped with frost. Grace took a few moments to draw breath over the fact that at least Harrigan was alive.
‘It’s to do with his son. He’s been found and he’s in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital right now. The commander may want to see him. You can tell him Toby’s going to survive but he’s badly dehydrated.’
She hung up. Harrigan could call her back if he wanted to. Instead, he arrived in person not long afterwards, hurrying down the corridor. She felt that odd, sharp shock of seeing someone you care about too much after they’ve been absent from your life for a while. The sight of the marks on his face made her heart tighten even though Trevor had already told her he’d been in a fight. He walked up to her and touched her face but didn’t speak, just looked at her. Then he went into the glassed-in room where Toby was asleep and touched his son’s hand. After some moments, he walked outside.
‘I didn’t believe it at first,’ he said. ‘I thought it must be a joke.’
‘I’d never joke about something like this.’
‘I didn’t mean you. I meant fate.’
‘He’s your other half,’ she said. ‘His mind reflects yours.’
‘His mind is clear. Mine’s clouded with too much past.’
He hugged her then, unexpectedly and tightly, almost too tightly, and they kissed. They held on to each other in stillness in the centre of the busy corridor. Time stopped and acquired depth in place of movement. Whether people were watching neither of them thought. For that short space of time, everything between them was in balance, all questions were resolved.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I’ll say it again. Thanks. I’ll never be able to thank you enough. Is he unconscious or asleep?’
‘He’s sedated,’ she said. ‘They’re trying to relax him and stabilise his body temperature. He’s very weak at the moment.’
Harrigan glanced around to see who was within hearing distance.
‘I’ve stabbed all my people in the back, Grace, and flushed everything I believe in down the toilet on a false promise. He left him there to die, didn’t he?’
‘Yes.’
‘Bastard,’ Harrigan said softly, shaking his head.
‘Don’t talk about it here. Let’s go into Toby’s room.’
Harrigan sat beside the bed. Toby’s skin was pale against the crisp white sheets, his eyelids dark. It was the same steel cot that had cosseted him all his life.
‘Is it true Edwards is dead?’ she asked.
‘He was blown sky high, him and his adviser. The blast killed one of the officers on duty at the front desk as well. There’s something else. Marvin’s dead. He was shot by a sniper. Assassinated. I’m asking myself when this is going to stop.’
‘Do you have any idea who?’
‘Possibly.’ He looked at Toby again. ‘How did you find out where he was? Someone must have told you.’
‘I gave my word that I wouldn’t say who it was.’
‘You have to tell me more than that,’ Harrigan said. ‘There’s a lot of dead people out there. We’ve got to bring this to an end.’