Harm's Reach

by Alex Barclay

  ‘Yup,’ said Ren.

  ‘Good work,’ said Gary. ‘Now, all we need to do is catch the real Shark Bait Bandits …’

  Silent scream.

  Ren called Janine when Gary left. ‘Hey there,’ she said. ‘I’m throwing a case in yo’ face.’

  ‘Have we moved on to rap?’ said Janine.

  ‘No, I’m staying country,’ said Ren. ‘But Safe Streets is passing the Conifer robbery back to you. We think it’s a copycat.’

  ‘Really?’ said Janine.

  ‘Yes,’ said Ren. She explained the details.

  ‘Well, done, lady,’ said Janine.

  ‘Now, gather round,’ said Ren, ‘and I’ll tell you the tale of the evangelist and The Darned Heart …’

  36

  Days passed with no new information on bandits, genuine or tribute. The Flynn case hovered, waiting for direction. Ren arrived at Safe Streets on an empty, tight stomach after a poor night’s sleep, filled with scattered, panicked thoughts.

  Stand back, people. Do not approach the beast.

  ‘Good morning, Ren!’ said Everett.

  She smiled. OK, that helps. Enforced interaction with kind humans.

  ‘I can see it,’ he said. ‘The lack-of-caffeine-thousand-yard stare …’

  ‘Visible only to those similarly afflicted,’ said Ren.

  ‘Allow me to take care of it.’

  ‘God bless you, Everett.’

  Everett dropped the coffee to Ren’s desk within ten minutes. ‘Is it safe?’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Ren. Irritated. Why am I irritated?

  ‘To talk you through what I have before you’ve finished your coffee?’

  ‘No – it’s perilous,’ said Ren. ‘Give me fifteen minutes to find the way to my human side … or work out how to mimic yours.’

  ‘OK,’ said Everett.

  ‘Thanks for asking, though.’ And not drowning me in information when I’m delicate.

  Everett came back when she was finished.

  ‘OK,’ he said. ‘You were talking about the Denver Tech Center a few days ago. Well, Robert Prince has interests there.’

  ‘No way,’ said Ren.

  ‘Two things,’ said Everett. ‘One is a charity called ACORA.’

  ‘I know that name,’ said Ren.

  ‘Yes,’ said Everett.

  ‘Pause and reflect,’ said Ren. ‘It’s Robert Prince’s mother’s name! Acora Prince.’

  ‘Correct,’ said Everett.

  ‘Anyone else involved in this charity?’ said Ren.

  ‘Yes … all six of the board members attended the same private school as Robert Prince – Harmon’s. This is some interesting network.’

  ‘He likes networks,’ said Ren. ‘Why does he need a charity when that Catholic organization he’s in is all about giving?’

  ‘The OCBLA is not all about giving,’ said Everett. ‘They’re all about earning billions and influencing the government.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ said Ren.

  ‘The second organization is an energy company called NOVA,’ said Everett. ‘It’s very strange. Just to give you the background: when Robert Prince’s mother, Acora, died in 2001, she left Robert, among other things, a tract of land in North Dakota: five hundred acres in the Williston Basin. Her father, Walter Prince, had bought this land back in ’53.’ He paused. ‘What do you know about fracking?’

  ‘That it wasn’t invented in 1953 …’ said Ren.

  Everett smiled. ‘Exactly. Walter Prince either knew the people involved in the Bakken Shale discovery or he got a lucky break, but either way, he bought himself five hundred prime acres. Like you said, fracking wasn’t invented; a few years passed, no one was any closer to extracting the oil, so Walter Prince leased the land to a rancher and got a steady income from it. Cut to 2004 and the technology’s been developed to access the oil reserves. When the oil companies come in and start throwing money at North Dakota landowners, Robert Prince, owner of said five hundred acres, is very excited. He’s already a wealthy man, but, as we know, the bulk of it was inherited. He is keen on making his own money by setting up his own energy company, but to his great embarrassment, he discovers that he doesn’t own the mineral rights. He had just assumed he did; his father was in mining – why would he buy land without the mineral rights? Those mineral rights, instead, are owned by the federal government. So, basically, Robert Prince loses out on millions and millions of dollars …’

  ‘Yeah … fuck his life …’ said Ren.

  ‘I know, right?’ said Everett.

  ‘So, why did he set up his own energy company without owning the mineral rights to the land?’ said Ren. ‘I don’t get it.’

  ‘He could be planning to buy other people’s mineral rights,’ said Everett. ‘Apparently the oil and natural reserves there were massively under-rated. There’s a lot of money to be made.’

  ‘This DTC thing is weird,’ said Ren. ‘There’s Wellness Partners – The Darned Heart’s rehab facility, along with Robert Prince’s energy company and charity. Could you check if there’s some connection between Robert Prince and the ranch that we don’t know about, something financial … nothing to do with Conor Gorman staying there. Isn’t it all a little cozy? The Princes, the rehab, the ranch … could Laura Flynn have stumbled across something that everyone is happy to collude in covering up?’ She paused. ‘Does Robert Prince by any chance own that rehab facility?’

  ‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Everett. ‘I checked that. But sit tight. Don’t approach him with this yet. There is more digging to be done.’

  ‘Thank you for all this,’ said Ren. I like your style.

  Ren’s phone rang. It was Janine. She listened as Ren went through what Everett had found on Robert Prince’s finances.

  ‘My bombshell is bigger than yours,’ said Janine.

  ‘No competitions,’ said Ren. ‘Ever. I told you …’

  ‘I just got off the phone from Barry Tolman,’ said Janine. ‘He has the DNA results on million-dollar baby Flynn/Prince.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘In words borrowed from Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, and co.: “Robert Prince, you are not the father.”’

  ‘What the what?’ said Ren.

  ‘He’s not a match,’ said Janine. ‘It’s Ingrid Prince plus A.N. Other.’

  37

  Ren slapped the desk. ‘You are shitting me. What the fuck? How does that work? How could he just let me take a swab like that?’

  ‘Mix-up at the fertility clinic?’ said Janine. ‘Maybe this will be news to him too.’

  ‘In that case we may just have found our motive …’ said Ren. ‘The baby was the target.’

  ‘If the Princes found out that the lab had screwed up and the baby was not Robert’s, they could have wanted to end the pregnancy.’

  ‘They could have told Laura Flynn about the mistake, they could have asked her to have a termination …’ said Ren. ‘Maybe that was why she was researching on the neighbor’s computer.’

  ‘And she could have run away if that’s not what she wanted,’ said Janine.

  ‘There’s another possibility here,’ said Ren. ‘What if there was a fertility problem with Robert Prince, but he didn’t want to admit that to his wife? He pays off the lab, they take care of the rest.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Janine. ‘What if he wanted to leave his wife? If there’s no pre-nup, the baby would be the only thing tying them together …’

  ‘If he really is a staunch Catholic, he won’t believe in divorce, so it’s very likely he didn’t have a pre-nup,’ said Ren. ‘Wow, if you really wanted to excel at gold-digging, make sure your target is anti-divorce.’

  ‘He could have met someone new,’ said Janine.

  ‘If it’s a straightforward case of the lab screwing up,’ said Ren, ‘could Laura Flynn have found out in some way without the Princes knowing?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Janine. ‘Could that happen?’

  ‘What if the lab realized their
mistake and approached Laura to cover it up, tried to pay her off, instead of having to face Robert Prince? Maybe she didn’t agree. Maybe they were never going to tell anyone. Maybe someone was hired to drive her off the road, make it look like an accident. It didn’t work, so they were forced to do something else.’

  ‘If Laura Flynn had died in an accident, or even if she had survived, but lost the baby,’ said Janine, ‘the lab’s mistake would never have come to light – it would have been unlikely that any testing would have been done on the fetus.’

  ‘The fertility industry is big business,’ said Ren. ‘The clinic that did this would have had a lot to lose by this going public. Can you imagine? If they can’t get it right for a high-profile couple like the Princes, how is a regular couple – who’ve used all their life savings or remortgaged their home – going to stand a chance?’

  ‘What if Robert Prince was told, then he told Laura, but she wanted to keep the baby?’ She paused. ‘Then what about the internet search into abortion clinics? Unless that was him … but I’m not really feeling that.’

  ‘How will we work this?’ said Janine.

  ‘I’m going to arm myself with some religious research and give that lying man a call,’ said Ren.

  ‘Speaking of religion … I have an interesting one for you. You know I watched those Jesse Coombes videos. Remember the comment about the flames underneath one of them? Her username was worriedmom354.’

  ‘I love the insight the numerics brings,’ said Ren. ‘We know that there is a minimum 354 worried moms out there. Who knows how many more? “We are now boarding Worried Moms 294 through 327” … Yes, though, sorry … what about her?’

  ‘I did a couple more searches and she’s shown up on other sites,’ said Janine. ‘And commented on the Coombes again too; none of them favorable. She’s from Texas. She seems to know them personally. There’s nothing specific enough that will get our bosses to put us on a flight there, but I’ve emailed you her details – maybe you can get someone from the Dallas field office to go talk to her. Her name is Terry Ragland, she’s a nurse, doesn’t seem too crazy, but definitely has an issue with the Coombes. Her posts about them specifically start about two years ago. Her most recent one was last week. The stand-out phrase for me was “deviant firestarting sociopath”.’

  Ren got off the phone and looked up the Dallas field office. She got an email address for one of the Assistant Special Agents in Charge and forwarded Terry Ragland’s postings and contact details.

  Ren spent the next half hour researching the Catholic Church’s teachings on surrogacy, before she called Robert Prince.

  Holy shit do I have some shocks for you, Robert Prince.

  He picked up immediately. ‘Agent Bryce,’ he said.

  ‘Hello, Mr Prince, I would like to set up a meeting.’

  ‘I’m flying into Denver in the morning,’ said Robert. ‘We can meet then. But I don’t want anyone else present. I presume this is about the results of the paternity test …’

  38

  Ren stood in front of the mirror in the ladies’ room in Safe Streets, dressed in a fitted silvery gray cotton shirt, navy blue pants and belt, and navy blue patent high heels. She powdered her face.

  There’s only one way I plan on shining this morning.

  By whupping Robert Prince.

  She grabbed a fistful of hair and turned to the side.

  Hair up or down? Up or down? What do misogynists take more seriously? When a woman spends an extra five minutes pinning her hair up to look less whorish? Or when a woman is too busy cleaning the house and baking cookies to even consider her appearance?

  Ooh.

  Be fair to this man …

  … who is a dickhead.

  Stop.

  Be fair.

  Ren twisted and pinned her hair into a tidy knot at the base of her neck and walked down the hallway to the conference room. She stopped dead when she saw Gary Dettling standing inside with Robert Prince, both of them laughing, neither of them aware of her presence.

  WTF?

  Ren stood, watching, as the laughter stopped and they both turned serious. Gary was nodding intently. He shook Robert Prince’s hand and left. Ren stepped back into the shadows before he had a chance to see her.

  What was that all about?

  Ren went to Gary’s office and knocked on the door.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, sticking her head in. ‘Just checking is there anything I need to know about Robert Prince before I go in there?’

  Gary put down his pen and looked up at her. ‘In what sense?’

  ‘In the sense of you laughing and joking with him in the conference room just now …’

  Gary looked at her with great patience. ‘Don’t hate the player …’

  ‘So that’s all that was …’

  ‘Yes, Ren,’ said Gary. ‘You do remember that I got a call on day one to hover around this bullshit because he’s an important man. But you and I both know that important men are behind some of life’s shittier events. So though I’m laughing, and hand-shaking—’

  ‘Deep inside you’re blue?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Gary. ‘If you set aside your suspicion of Robert Prince, and imagine him as a victim in all this, you would see him as someone who has lost his child, along with an employee/family friend, and it is perfectly reasonable for him to ask for an update on the investigation. My interaction with him was carried out with an open mind and a keen eye on what I have to do to keep my superiors happy.’ He paused. ‘You should try it …’

  Ren smiled. ‘Will do. Sorry.’

  Robert Prince stood up as Ren walked in.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Prince,’ she said. She shook his hand and sat down.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Robert.

  ‘Why didn’t you come to me earlier about this?’ said Ren. ‘When I took the swabs.’

  ‘Why would I do that?’ said Robert.

  Liars often reply to a question with a question.

  ‘To assist right away with the investigation,’ said Ren. ‘This is a significant development.’

  ‘It’s not a “development”,’ said Robert. ‘It’s a simple fact.’

  ‘You’re a smart man,’ said Ren. ‘You know it’s not that simple. You have told an extraordinary lie to the surrogate who was carrying your baby – both now murder victims – and to the mother of that baby – your wife. That’s no small lie. It’s lying on a grand scale. These women made huge life decisions based on false information. How is it possible that you can’t see the repercussions that could have?’

  ‘I can see that,’ said Robert. ‘But I know that neither of them knew.’

  ‘Really?’ said Ren. ‘You really think you can be absolutely sure that your wife hadn’t found out about this?’

  ‘What is the scenario you have in mind?’ said Robert. ‘That my wife became aware of this and … what? Killed her unborn child and the woman who was bearing it? Don’t be ridiculous. Ingrid wouldn’t hurt a fly. You’ve met her. I’m sure that it’s as obvious to you as it is to everyone else. Ingrid is gentle, she’s kind, she’s …’

  Trusting? Easily manipulated? Malleable? Easy to lie to? Which is it?

  ‘She’s?’ said Ren.

  ‘She doesn’t deserve any of this,’ said Robert. ‘She just doesn’t deserve this pain. And I hope you’re not going to make it any worse for her.’

  ‘Me?’ said Ren.

  ‘The FBI, the Sheriff’s Office …’ He leaned forward. ‘Let me explain. Ten years ago, I had a vasectomy.’

  ‘Were you trying to buy time by not telling us this right away?’ said Ren.

  ‘Excuse me?’ said Robert.

  ‘Were you trying to buy time?’ said Ren. ‘It’s been – what – nearly two weeks since I took the swabs? Did you need that time for some reason?’

  ‘Why would I need time?’ said Robert.

  ‘You knew we would find out,’ said Ren.

  ‘I’m telling you now, am I not?’ said Robert. ‘To g
et back to what I was saying … ten years ago was the height of the “Robert Prince, what a catch” nonsense in the media. I was a wealthy man, the perfect target for a gold-digger. At that time, I chose to protect myself by having a vasectomy. It’s a reversible operation, I knew that. Now, though, my fear is about the health of my child because of my age. It may be an irrational fear, but it’s a very real one. I don’t have any specific health problem, just fears.’

  ‘Did you consider genetic testing?’ said Ren.

  ‘I did, but I rejected the idea,’ said Robert. ‘It may sound selfish, but I didn’t want to know if there was a death sentence hanging over my head.’

  ‘I understand that,’ said Ren. ‘Why did you not discuss your concerns with your wife?’

  ‘I … I didn’t want to appear weak to her,’ said Robert. ‘I love my wife, I want her to be happy, that’s all I want. I didn’t want her to pay the price for falling in love with an old guy.’ He smiled.

  ‘You’re hardly old,’ said Ren, smiling back. Come on, open up to me. Please. It’s clear you love this woman and you are lying about something so monumental.

  ‘So, what did you do?’ said Ren.

  Make this make sense to me.

  ‘I talked to the fertility doctor, explained my situation,’ said Prince. ‘He and I went through lists of donors, we found someone who looked like me … he took care of the rest.’

  ‘How is your wife?’ said Ren.

  ‘She’s heartbroken,’ said Robert. ‘She’s at our house in the country.’

  ‘That would be the Hamptons,’ said Ren.

  He nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Does she know about this now – that you’re not the father of the baby?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘She has no idea. Nor will she.’

  ‘Were you not concerned we would tell her the results of the swabs?’

  ‘I knew you’d have to talk to me first,’ said Robert.

  ‘Did Laura Flynn know that you were not the biological father?’ said Ren.

  ‘Laura? No,’ said Robert. ‘Absolutely not.’

  ‘Is there any way she could have found out?’ said Ren.

  ‘No … there was no paperwork about this, it was all done in private with the doctor and his office. He’s a personal friend.’