‘Then why pay Edwards to get him into the country?’ Frankie asked.
‘The department did have enough information about Beck’s real past to make them think twice,’ Trevor said. ‘It’s a fraction of what he was involved in but it does make his application questionable. The way he was presented, with testimonials that he was a changed man, he was being whitewashed from the start. Someone really wanted him over here.’
‘Also, paying Edwards implicates him from the start,’ Parkin said. ‘It ties him in to whoever’s paying him. Call it a guarantee. Someone wanted to make sure he was onside.’
‘Is there anything to connect Beck to the Democratic Republic of the Congo?’ Harrigan asked.
‘Nothing in the files,’ Trevor said.
There would have been a means to make the connection if the tape that Harrigan had given du Plessis still existed. Like Marvin, Harrigan had covered Elena Calvo’s tracks for her. But there was still Grace’s information from Brinsmead if he could find some other facts to substantiate what she had told him.
‘Find out where Beck was really going when he left London four years ago,’ he said. ‘If you can, get hold of the manifest for his flight. I’d like to know who else was on that plane.’ Harrigan was tapping the table with his fingertips. ‘What do we know about World Food and Crop Providers, the organisation that was supposedly receiving seed stocks from this International Agricultural Research Consortium, so called?’
‘Frankie’s people have been looking at it. Frankie?’ Trevor said.
‘The contract gave us their contact details in Johannesburg. Lucky we recorded those details before it got stolen,’ she said. ‘They don’t have a website or an email address. We rang the contact number and it was disconnected. We contacted the local police and asked them to check out the offices for us. According to them, the address we gave them is just vacant rooms. Whatever this company was supposed to be, they’ve wiped themselves out of existence.’
‘You say Tooth said this du Plessis was his handler,’ Parkin said. ‘Is there any information how he got into the country?’
‘Not as yet,’ Trevor said. ‘Immigration are still checking him for us. He’ll be using false papers.’
‘Where does all this information lead us?’ Parkin went on. ‘I can’t see that you’ve actually analysed any of it yet.’
There was a whiteboard beside the screen. Harrigan went over to it and began to write.
‘Possible scenario,’ he said. ‘A connection exists between Beck and Calvo at the north London facility where they both worked. Whatever there is between them, it doesn’t make her happy. Our secret service agency sends an undercover operative in to watch Beck and they discover this connection. What they made of it, we don’t know. Whatever Beck is up to, this operative goes with him to Africa. Who that operative was, what happened over there, all that information has been expunged from the file. Why? Maybe because it all went badly pear-shaped. Four years later, Calvo comes here, establishes the dream of her life. Beck turns up on the scene out here at the same time, doing something much more undercover. His arrival here is organised by the same people funding Elena Calvo. One way or the other, he goes to work for her. Question: did Calvo have no choice but to take him on?
‘Whatever the answer, everything bumps along the way it’s supposed to for a while. Then three people get shot up at Pittwater. What’s the immediate outcome of these murders? The International Agricultural Research Consortium was due to harvest whatever they were growing. That seed stock was supposed to be sent to the World Food and Crop Providers company for testing somewhere in Africa. None of that happens because all the principals of the IAR Consortium except one have been murdered, and the last man standing is so shit scared, he goes to ground. Next point: whoever the killers are, they splash a photograph of the murder scene all over the web. Jacquie, you told us the main point of that picture. A meal they couldn’t eat. What was the IAR Consortium growing? Food crops mainly. My judgement is, that scene was a comment on exactly what the IAR was growing and the killers threw in their own death figure, the Ice Cream Man, as a final touch. I think we were looking at genetically modified crops that don’t do what they’re supposed to do.’
‘As far as I know, all those crops were destroyed,’ Parkin said. ‘How do we prove this?’
‘Harold Morrissey was badly injured handling the tobacco. We have documented proof of that.’
‘If it was the tobacco that caused those injuries and not a farming accident. What happens next in this scenario of yours?’
Harrigan almost announced that crop samples did exist, then changed his mind. It was information he would share later with Trevor.
‘Whoever shot those people, after they’re dead the shit hits the fan,’ he replied. ‘Calvo goes into survival mode. She wipes the IAR Consortium off the face of the earth. She tries to shut down this investigation and stop anyone from implicating her and her company in whatever Beck was doing. Which means that whatever Beck was up to, it was dynamite.’
‘Hold it right there,’ Parkin said. ‘You’re telling us she’s behind this sabotage. She hired the man who blew a government minister, his adviser and a police guard to eternity. We know that Elena Calvo was a good friend of Edwards. She’s also the CEO of a cutting-edge scientific institution he helped bring here. Besides which, the senator doesn’t refer to her in his affidavit. Also, he makes no connection between Beck and LPS. Given who he has accused, surely he would have voiced any suspicions he might have had about her? Especially since he knew from the dossier that she did have this connection with Beck.’
‘Given the senator’s friendship with Calvo, he may not have wanted to face up to the possibility that she was implicated in these events,’ Harrigan said. ‘Secondly, he may not have wanted to bring down a company he’d worked so hard to establish here. That affidavit is almost entirely a personal attack on the man he accuses of bribing him, so much so it undermines what he has to say. I’d like to know what his state of mind was when he wrote it. If we’d had the chance to go through it with him, it might have been a different story.’
‘That can’t happen now.’
‘That’s the point.’
‘This is all conjecture. Do you have any real evidence to back this scenario other than these assertions?’ Parkin asked. ‘Because let me tell you, Commander, even if this was true, you’d have the devil’s own job proving it.’
‘Proof is what we’re looking for,’ Harrigan said. ‘Trev. I asked you to look into Sam Jonas. What did you find out about her?’
‘She’s on the books of the same security firm as du Plessis,’ Trevor said. ‘Griffin Enterprises. She gave their name and number as a reference on her resume. When we rang, they confirmed that, but as soon as we said who we were they put the phone down and now they won’t take our calls.’
‘Who is this person?’ Parkin asked.
‘One of Elena Calvo’s security people,’ Harrigan said. ‘She’s a wild card. I think it’s worth finding out who she really is.’
‘Do you have any reason to believe she’s involved in any of this?’
‘We’ve just heard she shares an agency with du Plessis. My information is, she was tailing Beck for months before his death. Yes, I think she’ll have something to tell us.’
‘Then we’ll wait to find out what she has to say. But all these things you’ve put forward need proof,’ Parkin said.