End It With A Lie

by Peter M. Atkins

CHAPTER 8

   

   

  Ben touched down at Mascot airport late on Sunday night. He felt tired, but not weary enough to call it a day, so after picking up his car he made his way directly to his office.

  The security man on the building’s door waved him through, as he had waved him through for over ten years now. He was used to Ben being around at odd hours, especially over the last three months since his wife had passed on.

  Ben had little to do at home, and no one to greet him if he went there. It was also a different type of quiet here at the office, and an easier quiet to cope with.

  At his desk he typed Sudovich’s full name into his computer. It took some time for the search to progress, first through the Federal Police files, State Police files, Customs files, aircraft registration and ownership, business registration and others. There was Sudovich’s pilot’s name to consider too, he thought.

  He wondered a moment before deciding he would give Stanley a call. Stanley worked for the Australian Taxation Office, and could track down anybody at short notice, quickly and quietly.

  After he had finished with Sudovich’s full name, he entered the company name Sudovich had operated under.

  Then it was time to do the same with Tom Lee.

  Every file accessible was searched, from traffic fines and up. It was a neat pile of papers that Ben carried away from the printer.

  This might take some time he thought, so he rang the security man at the front desk and told him to expect takeout food. He made fresh tea, sat down and began to read.

  The only Customs document read of a shipping delivery, which may or may not mean anything, other than to inform that imports by Sudovich Holdings were rare.

  As well the rest of the documents gave up little information. They confirmed that Tom Lee was a Sudovich Holdings director, and that Sudovich Holdings owned a small aero plane, as well as extensive real estate throughout Sydney.

  Ben wondered at the possibility of Tom Lee having the thirty million dollars, and his hand closed to a fist at the thought of it.

  Simon’s idea about the disposal of the money was preferable, and as Quinn had said, “Better there than in the Sudovich’s pocket.”

  Better there than in Lee’s pocket too, Ben thought.

  Unsure of what to do next, he reminded himself that he must find the pilot, but that task could not be performed until the next day.

  The papers fitted neatly into a thick file folder, and he dropped it into the lower drawer of his desk. He was preparing to leave when he noticed a thin file folder on the top of his in tray. It had the word ‘query’ written on the front of it in Laura’s neat handwriting. Ben picked it up and opened it; inside was just one sheet of paper.

  Written on it was the address.

  16 Grey Street, Alexandria.

  Below the address was a short, and to the point message. Owned by Sudovich Holdings and leased by a man named Steve Walters. Ben smiled to himself as he thought aloud.

  “Surprises! Like arrows out of the darkness.”

  A short time later he drove through puddles of coloured reflected light, on a deserted, wet city street.

  He was feeling far from tired after his long weekend, and the quiet traffic urged him to drive the long way home. 16 Grey Street stood out brightly in his headlights as he gazed momentarily into the rear yard of Kane’s engineering shop.

  There was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen, but for some unknown reason that bothered him.

  *****

  Monday morning saw Lee sitting at one of the tables in his restaurant bar. He had Sudovich’s diary, and he flicked through it as he waited for Larry to bring him the Sunday night figures.

  He didn’t like the smell of this place first thing in the morning. The strong odour of cigarettes and stale beer overpowered the sensitivity of his nostrils. Two people broke into his thoughts as they entered the room.

  Dan, big boned, strong and in good shape and Mika who was small, lightweight and well formed.

  They walked quietly across the floor.

  “How goes it, Mr. Lee?” Dan called ahead.

  Lee looked at the big man and smiled, realizing that Dan had obviously and recently seen an old English movie. He could always tell what movies Dan had been watching by the way he acted and spoke for sometimes days after the event.

  Lee played along as best he could.

  “It bodes well Dan. Is your arrival to be announced with glad tidings?”

  “Yes Mr. Lee, glad tidings abound. We found out as much as we think available, although it would seem that most of the local folk out there knew little until the story hit the newspapers. Mika discovered the most interesting part of the puzzle, so maybe she should tell.” Lee looked to Mika and noticed she was tired. It showed around her eyes for a second, before being lost beneath her smile as she shook off her weariness and got down to business.

  “It appears that Simon West was involved in some way with a local accountant in Bourke. It’s not clear whether this involvement was business or pleasure, but within a month of the murder she left the town and moved here to Sydney. People who knew her told me she just upped and left the town very abruptly. She brought her secretary with her, so it would seem she might have more than job prospects in mind.

  “What do you mean by more than job prospects in mind?”

  “Well, no townsfolk knew of any personal relationship between the two women. The two of them leaving abruptly as they did, had caused some rumour, particularly as the secretary left a boyfriend behind. I can’t see an accountant looking for a job in the city with her own personal secretary in tow. I’d say that they had a job, or a private practice waiting for them on their arrival.”

  “Did you have a chat with the boyfriend?” Lee asked.

  Mika looked at her hands and smiled briefly.

  “He was, and still is pretty upset about being left behind. He told me his girlfriend just came home one afternoon and told him that she was going to Sydney with her boss. He also said the decision was sudden. There had been nothing to suggest prior her announcement a career move, let alone a move from her home town. Although having seen the town myself, and then meeting the boyfriend, I can understand her decision.”

  Lee sat back in his chair and sniffed before he called to the bar manager. “Bo.” Bo stopped what he was doing and turned to listen to Lee.

  “Bo, I want you to buy some of those incense sticks like the hippies use. Get a couple of packets and leave them here for me to light whenever I come into this place. I’m never going to get used to the stink of cigarettes and stale beer, so I might as well try to mask it a little.”

  He looked back at Mika as she took a perfume spray from her handbag and waved it through the air above all their heads. Lee’s nostrils invited the expensive aroma.

  “What about the two women now? Where are they?” Lee asked.

  “I got a forwarding address for the secretary from the boyfriend,” Mika offered, “It’s a Post Office box in north Sydney.”

  “I got the same number from one of the accountant’s clients, Mr. Lee,” Dan chimed in, “It would seem that the two of them, the accountant and the secretary, are both sharing that postal address.”

  Lee looked at Dan.

  “When did you two get back?”

  “We drove through the night and came straight here.”

  “You’re confident these two women might know where the money is?”

  “It’s the best lead available,” Mika answered. “Both Dan and I had a strong gut feeling after talking to locals around the town. Something unusual seems to have caused the two of them to take off from the town. We wondered if maybe they might be involved in a sexual relationship, but the suggestion of that possibility seems to have only come about after they’d left town.”

  “The accountant spent some time with Simon West. The two were seen together just before the two murders, and she left town shortly after the
two murders. My gut tells me that she’s definitely worth following up,” Dan added.

  Lee considered this new information.

  “Larry and I will watch the Post Office box today and follow anyone who visits it. If we don’t have any luck, then I want you and Mika to work on it tomorrow. They haven’t been in Sydney long, so they mightn’t be expecting mail yet, but the accountant will have to keep in contact with her clients in Bourke. She’ll have to turn up at some time. We’ll keep watching until she or her secretary does. I want to know where they are working and where they both live.” Lee looked at his watch before adding, “In the meantime the pair of you had better take today off, rest up and start early tomorrow.”

  “You’ve both done well. Thank you.” Lee said as Dan and Mika both turned to leave.

  Lee knew the value of a little gratitude. A sprinkling here and there worked wonders for morale, and if morale was high then he got better value for his dollar. Better value for his dollar made Lee happy, and if he was happy then everyone around him was happy.

  Mika and Dan had brought good news, and he was feeling elated that the thirty million might be within reach. The thought of the money nearly outweighed the worry about the dirty deeds he was sure that Kane was up to.

  Lee sat back in his chair as Larry walked into the room. They were about to talk business when his mobile phone demanded his attention.

  “What time this morning, Shane?” Lee said before he listened, and then spoke into his phone again, “Next time something happens, I want you to call me straight away, right? It doesn’t matter what time in the morning. If there’s movement, I want to know. Do you understand?” Lee knew that Shane was covering for one of his brothers and said so, “Make sure that the other two understand as well.”

  He closed his phone and looked at Larry.

  “You’re early?”

  “Yeah, one of those overseas call centre’s woke me up at nine o’clock and I couldn’t get back to sleep again. I have too many of Sudovich’s numbers in my head. What’s happening here?”

  “It would seem that someone else is interested in Kane. Shane says that a car pulled up outside the engineering shop at about one thirty this morning and had a look at the place for some minutes.”

  *****

  In the old days, Ben would have been more economical with his man power. Now in the twenty first century he could put people on the street who could take their office with them. In this case, today, he would put Anderson out on a loose tail to follow Tom Lee, while Rodgers would find out what he could about the transformer crate.

  “Laura?”

  “Yes?”

  “Will you find out where Anderson and Rodgers are please? If they’re in the building, have them come to me as soon as possible.”

  He watched as she lifted her desk phone and cradled it on her shoulder as she continued to work the keyboard of her computer. At his own desk, he wrote two names on a sheet of paper along with some instructions.

  As he finished scribbling in his awkward handwriting Laura called. “They’re in the building, and they will be here in five minutes or so.”

  “Right, thank you.” He replied as he walked out to her desk and waited some seconds before he presented her with the sheet of paper.

  Laura viewed its written contents carefully. She scanned each word before she looked up at him, ready as she had been for nearly half of her life to hear his instructions. There was of course the decryption of his written word to discuss.

  “As soon as you are able,” he said, “I’d like you to find access to British army records. See if there’s any information on a mercenary whose name is Horton. He served with the British army in the early 1970’s, and I think he was dishonorably discharged by the mid 1970’s. If you can find out his full name, will you put in a request to Interpol for any up to date information they might have on him? I’ve written the best physical description available to me,” he added as he pointed to the sheet of paper in her hands.

  She looked back at him as a lightly dimpled smile touched her face. “Well there couldn’t have been too many people in the British army at that time named Horton.”

  Ben smiled back at her as he thought; she’s doing it to me again.

  At various times during the eighteen years she’d been his personal secretary, she’d deliver what sounded like a carefully crafted sentence, while at the same time showing a sweet smile. Ben never knew if the smile represented a small amount of sarcasm, or whether it was that she really did see everything in the light of simplicity. He was certain he’d go into retirement without ever knowing.

  Some minutes later Anderson and Rodgers arrived to stand before his desk; Ben greeted them, suggesting they sit.

  “Rodney, do you remember a man by the name of Steve Walters?”

  “Yes, Sir. He was questioned in connection with an insider trading investigation. Stock market corruption, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, that’s him. Well he’s back in the country, and he’s the new owner of an engineering shop in Alexandria.” Ben paused to sip his coffee before adding, “He may have no connection to what I’m about to tell you, so we’ll put him aside for now and I’ll come back to him in a moment.”

  Ben took the conversation off in another direction.

  “About five weeks ago, there were two murders near the outback town of Bourke. The two people killed, were friends of the man presumed dead after a boat explosion at sea last Tuesday. This yachtsman’s name was Simon West, and I’ve learnt over the week-end from an informant, that he intercepted over thirty million U.S dollars that was destined for...” Ben smiled at the two men before finishing, “Garry Sudovich.”

  Alan Rodgers repeated the surname in a way similar to Seinfeld when he spoke of Newman.

  “He’s never going to go away is he Boss?” Anderson reflected.

  Ben grinned at him.

  “Well at least he lingers in name only.” Ben joked before he got back to business.

  “The story goes that Sudovich had a thing going with a crook in the Sierra Leone Government, who would ensure payment for bogus bills supplied by Sudovich. Apparently West got into the act somehow and ripped the pair of them off, at the cost of two of his friends, one of them being his girlfriend. West’s death on Tuesday is being treated as a homicide, and if he was murdered because of his connection to the money; it suggests to me that the thirty million is still about and maybe even close at hand.”

  He sipped more coffee.

  “I also learned over the weekend, that Sudovich had a silent partner in the form of one Tom Lee.”

  “Makes you wonder which one was slumming doesn’t it?” Anderson mused as he lightly punched his other open hand.

  “Well the partnership has been broken now. The thing is, my informant told me what plans West had for the money, and I would like to know if it got to where it was supposed to. If it didn’t, then who has it? That’s my unofficial question. If Lee, who we now know was Sudovich’s financier, happened to get his grubby paws on it, he may have left a paper trail. If so, we might get a chance to knock Lee off his perch. My official question is, is Sudovich Holdings a working enterprise, or is it just a means by which Lee launders his drug money?”

  “There might not be anything at all in this,” he continued, “But there was a probable murder last Tuesday which may be connected to the thirty million. Sudovich was definitely connected to the thirty million. Tom Lee is connected to Sudovich, so he might also be connected to the thirty million. If Lee is connected to the thirty million, then it might be considered he’s also connected to the three murders which came about during the acquisition of that money.”

  “There’s a lot of ifs and maybes, Sir.” Rodgers stated the obvious.

  “I know there’s a lot of ifs and maybes Al, but when it comes to Lee, I’ll take any clue however slender it may be.”

  “Where do you think Walters fits in boss?” Anderson asked.

  “I�
�m not sure he does, Rodney. It may just be by coincidence that he’s operating his new business venture out of a building leased by him from Sudovich Holdings. Walters may, or may not be in league with Lee, I don’t know. If he’s not, then we’ll find out about it as we go along. If he is, then I’d like to know how he is connected to Lee. Walters arrived in Australia about four weeks before Sudovich’s death, and he’s in one of Sudovich’s buildings. It might all just be coincidental and not come to anything, but you never know until you’ve had a look, and that’s what I want you to do.”

  Ben drained his now near cold coffee and picked up a copy of the customs sheet from his desk.

  “There is also this.”

  He handed the paper to Rodgers who viewed it before handing it onto Anderson.

  “It’s a high voltage electrical transformer and the only thing imported by Sudovich Holdings in the last five years,” Ben continued. “Well the only legal thing anyway. Walters spent the year prior to his arrival back in Australia in England, and this transformer was imported into Australia from England. More coincidence? Why would Sudovich import a transformer, surely there are manufacturers within Australia?”

  “Alan, I want you to check out this transformer. Find out the carrier who picked it up at the shipping yards and where they delivered it to.” Ben handed him a photocopy of the customs sheet. “I think we might assume it went to Grey St. If so, did it go there directly, or was it off loaded somewhere else first? It might be that there’s no connection to Walters at all, but if it’s a new way they are using to import illegal shit, then we might just gain one more nail to hammer into Lee’s coffin. You’d better get onto Customs too. Ask them to tie a bell onto any future imports by Sudovich Holdings, or Walters and keep us informed. It might be good idea to do the same thing with the State Police. Get them to tie a bell to Walters and Lee’s names and any of their known associates. I want to be informed of everything from here on in, even if it’s just a traffic fine.”

  “Rodney, find Lee and stay on his tail for today. This might be a good time to get an idea on his movements these days. I’ve noticed his file hasn’t been updated for a while. You might also give the police in Bourke a call. Find out if there have been any new developments. While you’re speaking to them, ask them if there is a swimming pool with a concrete surround on the site where the outback murders took place.”

  “I assume you’d both be interested in some overtime?” Both of the men nodded as Ben continued, “As I said, there may be nothing in this, but I have a feeling there is certainly something afoot.”

  The two men turned towards the door to leave.

  “One other thing,” Ben added, “For the time being there’ll be just the three of us in the unofficial loop. If anything turns up, then we’ll make it an official investigation. Until that time, just poke along quietly.”

  Rodney Anderson’s first task was to check vehicle registrations to find out what type of vehicle Lee was driving. Then after gaining a telephone number for the Bourke Police, he drove to Kings Cross where Lee’s club was located.

  The street outside the club was busy and he drove through it a few times trying to locate Lee’s car. Having no luck, he drove the back lane behind the club.

  He found the vehicle easily enough, but while he looked around for somewhere to park his own to discreetly view it, Lee’s car began to move off down the lane way.

  Anderson couldn’t believe his luck; he’d expected a long wait and was happy at the surprise as he turned his car around and followed. Hoping it was Lee who was driving the car, before a frown creased his forehead as a pessimistic thought entered his head, and through it he thought aloud.

  “It’s probably his bloody mechanic taking the car to the garage or something.” It was a thought that proved groundless, unless the garage was on the north shore. The path the car’s driver was taking could only lead to Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, and very soon Anderson was paying the bridge toll.

  A space of four cars behind Lee was good for surveillance and he stayed at that distance until Lee reduced speed. Finally motoring slowly, as its driver searched for a parking place near a North Sydney Post Office. Anderson found a parking space nearby. It was not the best of places for observation he thought, before he decided he would venture a little closer on foot. Walking to a small coffee shop whose window gave a clear view of Lee’s car.

  Shortly after he’d seated himself with his coffee and a cake, he saw a man alight from the passenger side of Lee’s car and walk across the road to the Post Office.

  Anderson reached into his coat pocket and brought out his camera. The light of the day ensured a good photo opportunity when the man returned to Lee’s car.

  It may take some time he thought. The man loitered around the Post Box area, where it seemed to Anderson he watched every woman who entered. He paid little attention to the men who went in to check their mail, and no attention to the people who went into the Post Office itself. It appeared the man was waiting for someone to turn up, but wasn’t sure if he knew who he was expecting.

  It finally occurred to Anderson that the man was watching to see who would open a particular Post Office private box. A suggestion the man knew the box number, but not the person who owned the box

  Upon finishing his light meal, he left the coffee shop, crossed the road and entered the Post Office.

  He considered his police business important enough reason to disregard the ropes on chrome poles, and proceed directly to the counter. Some moments later a staff member approached him. She began to speak, but went silent upon seeing his Police identification open on the counter top between his cupped hands.

  She looked at the I.D wallet as he spoke quietly.

  “My name is Rodney Anderson, and I’m a detective with the Australian Federal Police.” The woman looked up from the card as he went on, “I need to know if you have a security camera that views the Post Office private box area?”

  The woman looked him in the eye.

  “Yes, we have,” she said.

  Anderson looked back at her and asked if he might be able to see the Post Master.

  “Of course, you can use this door,” she replied as she walked to the access door and unlocked it, “I will take you through to him.”

  Anderson waited a moment before the locked door opened. He followed the woman to an office, where a round man with a shaven head, smiling eyes and an intelligent looking face sat behind a much cluttered desk. After introducing himself to Mr. McGirr, he explained what he wanted. Five minutes later he saw through the lens of the security camera, the man he’d followed who was still loitering around the private box area.

  As McGirr showed him how the camera could be zoomed in, Anderson found he could read the box numbers quite clearly, and he began to note the people associated with them. Zooming in on the number first, and then closely observing the person’s face. He would not know if the right person had turned up, until the man he’d followed gave him some sign of his own success.

  The security cameras tape would accompany him when he left the Post Office as Ben would want to see it, and the Federal technicians would want to lift some still photographs from it.

  About an hour later the man left the private box area, and Anderson felt a feeling in his gut that he had missed something. The feeling passed some moments later when another man arrived in the post box area. Anderson relaxed a little as he zoomed in on the new man’s face, immediately recognizing Tom Lee.

  He zoomed out, and watched as Lee walked halfway along the private box room, to where he stopped and looked carefully at the black doors of the post boxes. Anderson could not know which number Lee had looked at, but he had a fair idea of the area of the wall where Lee’s attention had been directed. As Lee walked slowly back to the entrance way and looked out into the street. Anderson took advantage of the situation, rotating the camera so that its lens was pointed to the area where Lee had shown interest.

  His first at
tempt at maneuvering the joystick was a little heavy handed and the camera moved too far. When he moved it back to the right again, a strip of the mesh cage the security camera was housed in, imposed a dark shadow down the centre of the screen.

  With one more slight adjustment he was satisfied, and zoomed into a point where he could read the numbers clearly. It quickly became obvious that these particular boxes were the larger type reserved for businesses who expected volumes of mail.

  Anderson was on the verge of zooming back out, when suddenly a hand with a key in it appeared in the lower corner of the screen. It moved to a box, and hovered momentarily before the key it held slid into the keyhole of number 169. Anderson quickly zoomed out, and saw clearly a young woman on the black and white screen.

  He was a little disappointed that he could not see her face clearly, but almost at the same time he felt a sudden elation. Lee, who was silhouetted in the entrance way by the outside daylight, left the room.

  Anderson waited until the woman had also left the room. He pressed the STOP and the EJECT button on the video machine, and with the tape in his hand he walked quickly to the Post Master’s office.

  Mr. McGirr was behind his desk and looked up from his work as Anderson appeared at his door:

  “Mr. McGirr, I need all the information that you have on the business, and anyone associated with the business box number 169. If you can get that for me, I’ll be back shortly.”

  He made his way to the locked door at the end of the Post Office front counter and let himself out. Doubting he would attract any attention from the customers. To them he was just another postal person, but he felt the eyes of the Post Office staff on him as he walked to the glass entrance doors and stopped before them. Anderson wasn’t sure which way the young woman had gone, but he knew that Lee and his partner would unwittingly give him directions.

  He looked down the street; sure that Lee would be back to his car by now. His thought was confirmed by Lee’s partner, who was at that moment passing the Post Office and walking up the street.

  Anderson halted his progress in order to open the door for a lady with a pram, who wanted to exit the building. Glad to have a valid reason to let Lees partner get a little further ahead. He helped carry the pram down the front steps, and by the time he had done so, the partner was about ten metres further on. At the same time, a quick look down the street showed that Lee was having trouble breaking into the traffic. Anderson could see his turn indicator flashing, and knew that even when Lee got into the traffic he would still have to do a U turn.

  He set off after the partner; sure that Lee would be occupied for at least the next five minutes.

  After some minutes walking, the partner slowed to a halt and dawdled momentarily outside an office block, before moving towards the street to stand on the edge of the roadway.

  Anderson moved toward a council footpath bench, where he waited until Lee’s car came into sight, and for the partner to quickly cross the street on its arrival. As Lee’s car slowed down, he opened its passenger door and hopped in.

  Then Anderson watched as Lees car passed down the street, waiting some minutes before it came back into sight on his side of the road. Its turn indicator came on, suggesting that a parking place had been found just near the office block. He was sure the two of them would bide their time and watch for when the woman finished work for the day, in an effort to find out her home address.

  Anderson was sure he had that already, and her name.

  Both pieces of information would be on the Post Office box application form, along with address of the office block that the woman went into.

  As he walked back to the Post Office, he decided he would go to the woman’s address and just wait for Lee to follow her home. While he was waiting he could call up the local police at Bourke, and get them to forward any new information they had on the outback murders.

  The girl who escorted him through to Mr. McGirr’s office was younger than the first. More his own age, and proof that a good day could get better.

  *****

  Beth and Lynnette emerged from a residential car park below a small block of flats in a quiet suburban street. Lee waited until the two women disappeared behind the closed door of a first floor flat before he left his car. He crossed the road, and Larry watched as he made his way up the stairs to knock on the door they’d disappeared through.

  The older woman answered the door, and Larry wondered what Lee had said to her, for her jaw seemed to drop before Lee stepped through the doorway forcing her to step back and out of Larry’s sight.

  Lee turned and beckoned to Larry to follow, and as Larry left the car to walk across the road, he hoped to himself that this wasn’t going to go badly.

  He knew Lee’s temper.

  *****

  Anderson saw the two men go into the flat. Something of the gentleman in him shouted loudly in his mind to go and help these damsels in distress, but the detective in him shouted louder and he waited.

  He knew from Ben’s informant that Lee was after the thirty million dollars. There was no way that that amount of money was in the flat, so the women’s lives were not at risk, as Lee would need them to help him retrieve it.

  It’s probably in the Sarah-Ray Foundation he thought, it was where the Post Office box was addressed, and Lee would have to devote a bit of time to acquire it. He would be up in the flat now, bullying, and probably frightening shit out of the two women in an attempt to find out the best way of going about it.

  While he waited he called in the registration number of the B.M.W the two women had arrived in. He was not overly surprised when he learned the vehicle registration carried a Bourke address.

  Anderson waited for a half hour, and as the seconds ticked by he was plagued by the thought that his reasoning might have been wrong.

  Finally the flat door opened, and the man he didn’t recognize stepped out. Lee followed, and with raised pointed finger, threw some final words through the open doorway, before he walked toward the stair way to the ground level.

  Some minutes later, after Lee’s car disappeared down the road Anderson climbed the stairs and tapped on the flat door.

  He’d dealt with enough scared people in his time to know, to stand well back from the door and not crowd them.

  This he did, while at the same time holding his warrant card forward towards the lens of the peep hole in the door.

  A moment later the door opened, although this time held by a security chain. The younger of the two women, the one who had retrieved the mail from Post Office was a natural beauty. No makeup and her brown eyes flashed like polished bronze as she looked out into the afternoon sunlight.

  “Who are you?” She asked.

  Anderson held his identification card closer, and was fascinated as he watched her face as she viewed it.

  “My name is Rodney Anderson,” he answered after some delay, “I’m a detective with the Australian Federal Police. I’d like to, if I may, come in and talk to you about the two men who just left here?” She looked a little unsure as she glanced at his I.D card again, before she released the security chain to allow the door to open fully.

  Anderson walked through a small hallway to the sitting room where Beth was seated. She held a handkerchief in her hand, with which she dabbed her eyes. He reckoned her to be thirty years old, but she looked a little more than that at this moment.

  “Are you alright? I mean, other than that you are obviously upset?” She looked up at him at the first part of the question with a look of incredulity. It lasted until he finished the second part of the question, at which her face softened and she nodded.

  He looked at Lynette. Her face was set with a determination that suggested to Anderson, she was not going to allow herself to be upset. Strong girl he thought, or maybe she’d been down similar roads before at the hands of men.

  Beth was bringing herself back to composure and he introduced himself before he asked:

  �
�Those two men, was their visit connected in any way to a man by the name of Simon West?” Anderson felt almost at a loss as the older woman suddenly convulsed.

  A single sob, which sounded to him like it escaped from her very soul. She seemed to quiver a moment, as she hunched over with the handkerchief pressed firmly to her eyes.

  The younger woman’s look of grim determination was suddenly replaced with a softer sadder face, as she moved to the older woman’s side to console her.

  He knew then, that whoever Simon West was, he had touched both of these people, and that the time since his death had not been long enough for them to get through their grieving.

  Now he did feel at a loss and the unusual feeling of uncertainty stayed for some seconds, until he reached into his pocket and retrieved his mobile phone. He glanced at the women again as he waited for an answer, and then turned away from them to talk quietly.

  “Boss, I am in the company of our link to Bourke,” Anderson said as he walked into the women’s kitchen, feeling better able to speak freely there. He spoke for some minutes, explaining briefly the events that led up to this moment before asking, “Shall I bring them in?”

  Anderson listened as Ben replied, and then finished the conversation. “O.K, I’ll expect you then.”

  He returned to the sitting room where the two women were seated. “I’ve just spoken to my Boss and he wants to speak to you personally so he’s coming over here. We may have to wait an hour or so, as the Bridge traffic will be heavy by now.” Unsure as to what to say next he asked, “Can I make you a cup of tea or coffee?”

  A short time later with three coffees he returned to the sitting room and made small talk in an effort to try to calm them, so they’d be easier for Ben to question when he arrived.

  The pleasure was his, when after he’d seen fear, anger, determination, softness and sadness on the younger woman’s face; he was finally able to witness the slight smile which at last crept to her lips.

  He sipped his coffee and was content in his waiting.

  CHAPTER 9