by Jean Harrod
“Any word from Susan?” he asked, quickly.
“Sorry, Tom.”
“Damn! Where is that girl?”
His face was pale with fatigue and worry. He was obviously under immense strain.
“I came to talk to your Deputy High Commissioner,” he said, wearily.
“I’m afraid he left a while ago.”
Sangster’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s he gone?”
Jess hesitated. “I don’t know.”
He stared at her. “Everything all right?”
How could she tell him she’d just had a blazing row with Nigel? What an impression that would make. “Fine.”
“Sure?”
She nodded.
“Only I’ve been ringing his mobile,” Sangster said, “but he’s not answering.”
“He left here a bit... distracted.”
“Distracted?”
“Oh, just internal issues,” she said.
It wasn’t so much the query in his eyes, as a softness she hadn’t seen in them before that threw her. “It’s nothing,” she mumbled.
He was standing close to her now, almost touching. She was so aware of him beside her that her hand was shaking as she tried to lock the front door again.
He took the key from her hand gently and locked it for her.
“Thanks,” she said, avoiding his eyes. She turned and walked back into the main office, while he followed. All the while, her mind was sifting through everything that had happened since she’d last seen him. Should she tell him about seeing Chen and Nigel in that café? Perhaps he already knew? Is that why he wanted to talk to Nigel? She stopped and turned. Looking into that exhausted face, she knew at that moment that she trusted him a damn sight more than she did Nigel. “I saw Chen Xiamen about an hour ago,” she said, quietly.
He looked startled. “Why didn’t you call me?”
There was a pause.
“He was in a café round the corner with my boss, Nigel Paxman.”
“What?” Sangster’s face hardened. “How did he know how to contact Chen?”
She put up a hand to stop his questions. “I don’t know, Tom. It seems I’m being kept in the dark.”
“You and me both,” he said, angrily.
She understood his frustration perfectly.
“I have to go,” he said. “What are your movements for the rest of the evening, Jess?”
“I’m going to work here for another couple of hours. Then I’ll check into the Riverbank for the night.”
“I still expect Susan to contact you.” His voice was low, but urgent. “You’re still our best hope of finding her and keeping her safe. And we must get that diary from her. You understand that, don’t you?”
She nodded. “I’ll call if she gets in touch.”
He gave a long sigh. “Right, well, I’m going to send an officer over to accompany you here for the rest of the evening. He’ll escort you to the hotel too.”
She could feel herself tensing. “Are you saying I’m in danger?”
“All I’m saying is this isn’t over yet.” He fixed her with one of his penetrating stares. “But please ring me immediately if you hear from your Deputy High Commissioner. Better still, tell him I want him to come down to the station?”
“I know he’s involved in all this,” she said, softly. “Can you tell me what he’s done?”
He held her gaze for a moment, then looked away.
“I see.” Her voice was cool now. She’d been kept in the dark by Nigel. Now he was doing it too.
“Jess...” Sangster touched her arm.
That touch both surprised and somehow reassured her.
“Look, you know Ellen Chambers was under investigation for corruption,” he said.
She nodded.
“Well, there were two other people in Australia under investigation with her.” He lowered his voice as if there were ears everywhere. “Anthony Harris... and your Deputy High Commissioner.”
“Nigel?”
He nodded, gravely.
Jess stood rooted to the spot. Nigel and Anthony Harris under investigation? She was so shocked she couldn’t think straight.
His ringing mobile interrupted. “Sangster,” he answered.
Watching him on the phone, Jess saw his face turn from weariness to shock.
“Where did the murder take place?” he asked, calmly, almost as if he were expecting it.
Another murder? Oh God, Jess thought, please don’t let it be Susan.
“I’m on my way.” He hung up and looked at her.
Her stomach was turning somersaults. “Is it Susan?”
He shook his head. “It is a young woman, but not Susan.”
“Who, then?”
“I’ll ring you as soon as we’ve confirmed her identity.”
“If you can’t confirm her identity, how do you know it’s not Susan?” Jess could hear the panic in her voice.
“I promise you, it’s not Susan,” he said, gently, as he stepped outside the front door. “Now lock this after me and don’t open it for anyone other than my police officer.”
26
Jess locked the front door and threw the bolts. She should have been feeling shocked and upset at the news of another murder. But she just felt numb. It was as if Ellen Chambers’ murder had released some contagion that was spreading out of control; and no one could stop it.
Desperate to find out who the latest murder victim was, she went back into the Consul-General’s office and switched on the TV. Tom said it was a young woman. How could he be so sure it wasn’t Susan? When the weather report came up, she knew she’d missed the news. Rushing over to the desk, she powered up her laptop to scan the media.
“Brizzie serial killer on the rampage,” screamed the headlines. “Psycho loose on the streets.”
Oh God! Jess read on. There was nothing about the latest murder, but they all had the full story on Anthony Harris and Danny Burton now. The bullet in the back of the head, and a stab to the heart, had them fascinated. Poor Tom! That’s just what he didn’t want. The pressure on him must be unbearable. She paused. Thinking back to that moment with him and the key earlier threw her into confusion.
She could hear a phone ringing persistently in the main office, but she wasn’t going to answer it. Anyone she needed to talk to had her mobile number. She had to get through some work. Clicking onto her inbox, the endless chain of emails popped up. She switched her mobile to silent to get through them quickly. But her mind kept coming back to that argument with Nigel. There was no way they could ever work together again. She’d have to request a move, a cross-posting to another country, which would be a shame because she didn’t want to leave Australia. But if she took that job with Western Energy, she wouldn’t have to.
What was she thinking? Nigel was under surveillance for being involved in corruption?
If it were true, diplomat or not, they’d throw the book at him.
Unable to concentrate, she headed out to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. It was so quiet, she could hear the soles of her shoes swishing on the carpet. In the kitchen, she filled the electric kettle with water and switched it on. Putting a teabag in a mug, she heard a strange noise. She listened. It sounded like tapping. Tiptoeing out of the kitchen, she looked around the main office. She could hear the TV still on low in the Consul-General’s office.
The tapping started again.
It was coming from the front door.
She crept into the reception area and looked at the CCTV monitor. No one outside. She went up to the front door and put her ear against it.
The handle rattled... someone was trying to get in.
“Open the bloody door!” a familiar voice shouted.
“Susan!” Jess threw back the bolts.
“Hurry up, Jess! Someone’s coming up in the lift.”
Fumbling for the key, Jess unlocked the door.
Susan barged in, and slammed the door behind her.
Jess scowled at Susan. “You frightened me to dea
th.”
“You frightened me too. I’ve been ringing for ages.” Susan was breathless from running. “I thought something awful had happened to you.”
Jess went back to the CCTV monitor and waited. But the lift didn’t stop on their floor. She glared at Susan and hurried back into the CG’s office to activate her mobile’s ring tone.
Susan followed her, and flopped down on the sofa to catch her breath.
“How did you know I was here?” Jess asked.
“I phoned your side-kick Sharon in Canberra,” Susan replied. “Snooty cow.”
“Where the hell have you been all day, Susan? I’ve been worried sick. You just ran out of that café. The police are looking for you.”
Susan huffed. “I’ve been completing my research on Ellen’s appointments in her diary.” She pulled out the list from her tote bag, and spread the pages on the coffee table. “It took time, Jess. I’ve been combing through it all day.”
“For God’s sake!” Jess shook her head in exasperation. “So what have you found?”
Susan slumped back. “Nothing.”
“Then give me that diary!”
Susan looked away.
“Where is it?”
Susan didn’t respond
“Where is it?”
Susan stared at her. “All that crap about a serial killer is rubbish. And you know it. It’s a diversion; a smokescreen. And a pretty sick one too,” she said, crossly. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“Because I don’t know.”
“My sister’s dead. I deserve to know. Please, Jess! You can trust me.”
“Trust you?” Jess stared back. “After the way you’ve behaved?”
Susan looked sheepish. “I’ve only been a journalist for a couple of years. But I know if something smells or not. This doesn’t just smell, it stinks.”
She’s right, Jess thought. As she looked into those intelligent, pleading eyes, she wondered how much she would have to tell Susan to make her give up that diary. Tom needed it, and someone had to save Susan from herself. But Susan was too smart to be fed snippets of information. That would only make her more determined to dig deeper until she got to the truth. She’d be more likely to gain Susan’s confidence if she told her the truth, and made her understand the danger she was in and how important it was to get that diary to the police. The trouble was, how would Susan react to news of her sister’s involvement? She was grief-stricken enough as it was.
“You can trust me,” Susan said, as if she understood the turmoil going on inside Jess. “And I mean that.”
Jess’s instincts were telling her she had no option but to trust Susan. “Okay. But only if you promise to keep the details to yourself; and to not publish the story, or get anyone to publish it for you. Is that a deal?”
“Absolutely.”
Jess sighed, deeply. “All I know is that the Federal Police are investigating allegations of corruption connected to Western Energy’s gas deal with China.” Jess paused. “The deal your sister was working on.”
“Corruption? What sort of corruption?”
“The authorities suspect the Chinese of paying bribes to someone in the Australian consortium to help them get a controlling percentage of the joint venture.”
“You mean, someone in Western Energy was working for the Chinese? What, like a mole?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Jess replied. “Your sister visited China recently, didn’t she? It’s in her diary.”
“That’s nothing unusual,” Susan said. “Ellen went a lot.” Her eyes widened. “Are you saying the authorities were investigating my sister?”
Jess nodded.
“What?”
“I’m just telling you what I know.”
Susan looked shell-shocked. “Ellen wouldn’t do anything like that,” she whispered. “Believe me, even as a kid, she couldn’t tell lies or take anything that wasn’t hers.” She frowned. “How did they find out?”
“Listening to phone calls.”
“Phone tapping?”
Jess nodded. “Now will you tell me where the diary is?”
“I’ve got it hidden, in a safe place.”
Jess slapped her palms on the desk in frustration. “I want to see those numbers and letters on the inside back cover.”
Susan pulled out her notepad. “I copied them down in here.” She turned to the right page and walked over to Jess to show it to her. “Why? What are you thinking?”
“Well, I was wondering if they could be passwords for internet banking. The first line would be a username, wouldn’t it?” Then Jess pointed to the letters tci at the end of the first line. “You see those letters. I think they might stand for the Turks and Caicos Islands. It’s a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, an offshore tax haven.”
Susan’s mind leapt ahead. “Are you saying my sister stashed Chinese bribes in an offshore tax haven?”
Jess didn’t answer. “The second line of letters and numbers would be a password; and the third memorable information to get into the account.”
“But there are six lines.”
“I think there must be two accounts.”
“Two accounts?”
“Yes.”
Susan slumped back on the sofa. “Is that why Ellen was murdered?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Because they thought she was taking bribes from the Chinese, and stashing the money offshore? Did the Government have her killed for that?”
Jess stared at her. “Why would they do that?”
“To shut her up?”
“It would have been easier to charge her with fraud.”
“Not if the Government wanted to hush it up. They wouldn’t want to upset the Chinese and jeopardise their precious LNG deal.”
“No, Susan,” Jess said, gently. “If that were the case, Western Energy would have just sacked Ellen and whisked her out of the country, with the Australian Government’s blessing.” She looked at Susan’s slumped body. “No, there has to be more to it than that.”
Susan bit her lip to stop it trembling. “Well I don’t believe for one minute Ellen was taking bribes. You wouldn’t either, if you’d known her.” Her voice faded, then she collected her thoughts. “What about Anthony Harris, then? Was he involved in the corruption too? Is that why he was murdered? Maybe the Government had him killed too? You people will hush anything up. You don’t care who gets caught in the crossfire.”
“You people?” Jess stared at her. “You’ve been watching too many movies.”
“So what’s the link between their two murders, then?”
Jess came straight out with it. “You were right. Anthony Harris was having a secret affair with your sister. DNA tests on the foetus confirm he was the father of her baby.”
Susan’s face turned from shock to pain. Tears sprang into her eyes. “He’s just the kind of man Ellen would go for,” she said, quietly. “Older. Distinguished. And he lives in Brisbane because his electorate is here. And he’s married with a wife and kids, so he’d have to keep their affair quiet because of his job and public profile.”
Jess nodded. “And someone wanted them both dead.”
“I know one thing, Jess. My sister wouldn’t get involved in corruption unless, well, someone forced her. Or... unless she was trying to protect someone.” She jumped up. “That’s it. I bet she was trying to protect that Anthony Harris.” She started pacing about. “How could he have had an affair with my sister when he’s married with kids?”
“Calm down, Susan.”
“I am calm!” Susan kept pacing around.
“Let’s just think this through,” said Jess, fighting to keep a handle on her temper. “In his official ministerial capacity, I’m sure Harris would have been kept informed about the LNG negotiations with the Chinese. So he’s bound to have been told about the Federal Police investigation into Chen Xiamen and your sister. The question is: did he tip Ellen off about the investigation? If he’d loved her, he’d have wanted to
protect her, surely?”
“Of course!” Susan stopped abruptly. “That’s why Ellen was so upset and scared of the police when I saw her on Saturday. By then, she knew they were investigating her for corruption... because Anthony Harris had told her?”
Yes, that sounded plausible. “Tell you what, Susan,” Jess said, getting up. “Get onto the internet, on my laptop. Look for banks in the Turks and Caicos Islands. See if you can access any online accounts with the codes and passwords you copied from Ellen’s diary.”
Susan rushed over to the laptop on the desk, as Jess started walking to the door. “Hey, where are you going?” Susan asked, suddenly plaintive.
“To make some calls.”
*
In the kitchen, Jess stood in the dark, reluctant to put on the light. Had Anthony Harris tipped off Ellen that she was under investigation for corruption? She looked at her mobile. Come on, Simon! There was so much she needed to know, but she resisted the urge to phone him again. He’d phone as soon as he had instructions from the High Commissioner about what they should do next.
The sound of a car backfiring in the street made her jump. The noise seemed to ricochet up the building’s concrete walls. It spurred her into action. The first thing she had to do was phone Tom Sangster and let him know Susan was safe. She tried his mobile, but it was engaged. “Tom, it’s Jess,” she said, leaving a message. “Susan Chambers is at the Consulate-General with me. She’s fine. She’s still got Ellen’s diary, although not with her. I’m trying to persuade her to give it up. When your police officer arrives, I’m taking her to the Riverbank with me for the night. I won’t let her out of my sight again.”
She had to get that diary and Susan safely into police custody.
She walked out of the kitchen determined to do just that. But when she went into the Consul-General’s office, she found Susan slumped across the desk. “Susan?”
When Susan raised her head, there were tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’ve found Ellen’s offshore bank account, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jess. You were right about those numbers and letters.” A strangled sob came from her. “Why’d she do it? She didn’t need the money.”
Jess frowned. “You found that account quickly.”
Susan nodded, morosely. “It was in the Turks Bank. Two sums paid in over the last six months. Both for a million dollars.”