Emily and Jacob were busy building sand castles in front of their cabin, while one of the officers — the female — watched on from the verandah on her own cabin. Beth hadn’t bothered to learn their names. Last night she’d gone along with this holiday idea, the thought of Gail’s murder coming so quickly on top of Jill’s frightening her enough to want to run away. But now, as her children played on the sand under the watchful eye of the law, she felt like a coward. Would Gail have run away like this? Would her sister? No, she didn’t think they would.
“I want to go back,” she said to Louis as he approached the cabin, bread and milk in his arms from a shop run. She noticed he hadn’t bought the newspaper.
“We just got here,” he said, putting the groceries away and joining her on their own little verandah. “Look how much fun they’re having.” He laughed as Jacob jumped on the sand castle, knocking it down with a series of karate-style kicks before settling in to build it up again.
“I don’t mean them,” countered Beth. “You three should stay here. You deserve a break. But I can’t just sit around here with no connection to the rest of the world while complete strangers dig through my family’s business and lives. I should be there, Louis. I belong there.”
“You belong here, with us,” he replied. “You always put ‘the family’ first, Beth. What about us? What about our family? Someone has threatened you, threatened our children. Directly. Something you didn’t even see fit to mention to me. What has to happen in order for you to see that we are your family. Em, Jacob, and me. Where do we fit on your radar?”
“That’s not fair, Louis. You three mean the world to me. That’s why you should stay here, safe, with the police watching over you all.” She paused to watch the children, who had now rebuilt the sand castle and were trying to make a tunnel go all the way underneath it. “I just think I need to be at work right now. Something’s going on. The whole business is in jeopardy. A hundred and forty years of history. I can’t let that just crumble while I sit on a beach, Louis. I’m a major part of that business, you know that. You knew it when you married me. If it’s going down, I need to be there. It’s what Jill would have wanted.”
“If it’s going down, it’s not your fault. You heard those detectives last night, Beth. They’re talking about bikie gangs, and drugs. People are dead. This is serious. I really don’t want you anywhere near it. And it’s not what Jill would have wanted, not at all. That’s bullshit, and you know it.”
“Do I? How do you know what Jill would have wanted? Oh, that’s right. You spent more time with her than I did. She ‘helped you with the kids,’ didn’t she? What was really going on between you and my little sister, Louis?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You heard me.” Beth stood and turned her back to the children playing on the beach, lowering her voice. “Were you sleeping with Jill?”
“How can you even ask that?”
“Just answer the question, Louis. Were you sleeping with my sister?”
“No, I wasn’t.” He said the right words, but he couldn’t look at her. He was hiding something.
Beth sat back in the chair. “Talk to me, Louis. What’s going on with us?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Beth.” He looked up at her. “But I thought about it.”
“What do you mean, you thought about it?”
Louis went inside and returned with two cans of cold soft drink. He placed one in front of Beth, then opened the other and took a long swig. “There was a night, not long before Jill died. She was at our house, waiting for you to come home, but you called and said you were going to be late. She offered to stay and help me with the kids’ baths and bedtime, so I said yes.”
“That’s not unusual.”
“No, it wasn’t. But I’d had a hard day, and I was angry with you for being late home. Again. I know I was the one who quit work when we decided to have kids, Beth. I know I took that on. But so much of the time you’re not there, and I miss you. I miss our family.”
Beth felt goosebumps form on her arms and the back of her neck. She did not like where this conversation was going, not one bit. What was she thinking, accusing Louis of sleeping with her sister? He’d been quiet since she died, acting strange whenever her name came up. Beth had put it down to Jill’s death, but at the back of her mind there’d been a question. She was beginning to regret asking it, but it was too late now. She had to know the truth.
“Okay, so you were angry with me. What happened with Jill?”
“Nothing happened, not really. Once the kids were in bed we opened a bottle of wine and got talking, that’s all. I told her how I felt. I told her how I missed the times we spent together, you and me. We never do that anymore. She listened, and the thought crossed my mind. It was just a thought, Beth. I was lonely, and Jill was there.”
“But you didn’t do anything.”
“No. You’re my wife, and I love you. I feel terrible about this, Beth. I miss Jill, I really do, but every time I think of her I feel crazy guilty for that night.”
“But you didn’t do anything,” Beth found herself repeating.
“No, but I thought about it. I’m sorry.”
Beth opened her own can of drink and took a small sip, more for want of something to do with her hands than out of thirst. He didn’t do anything. He thought about it, but he didn’t do anything. She was never there, so he thought about sleeping with her sister. Her little sister. But he didn’t do it.
“I need some time to process this, Louis. You should stay here, keep the kids safe. I’m going to go back to the city.”
“Really? After everything I’ve just said, you’re still going to put your work family first? I nearly cheated on you, Beth. You spend so much time away from us that I nearly cheated on you. With your sister. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Of course it means something to me, Louis.” The children looked up from where they were playing, and she lowered her voice again. “I said I need time to process it. I can’t think straight right now. And I can’t be here.”
Louis took her hands in his. “I respect your work, really, I do. I just wish it didn’t take so much of you all the time.”
She pulled her hands free and went inside, picking up the suitcase she’d only half unpacked last night and putting it on the bed.
“Come on, love. Stop it. You’re being ridiculous.” Louis grabbed her arm to try and stop her packing, but she pushed him away. She’d made up her mind.
“I’m going, Louis. I can’t let stuff just happen around me, not anymore. Jill and Gail are dead,” she said, voice breaking, tears threatening. “Two others as well. If someone at Fisher & Co is responsible, I have to help catch them.” She stood up straight and wiped hers eyes. “I won’t let my family’s name be associated with drugs and murder.”
“What’s going on?” The female officer was at the door.
“Beth’s got it into her head that she’s going back to Sydney. Can you talk some sense into her?”
“That’s not a good idea, Ma’am,” said the officer, a worried look on her face.
“I never said it was,” replied Beth. “But I’m going anyway.”
“You can stop her, right?” asked Louis.
“I’m sorry, sir. She’s free to come and go as she pleases. We’re here to protect you all, but we can’t force you to do anything.”
Beth zipped up her suitcase and rolled it out to the car. She gave Louis one last look. “Please understand,” she asked him. “I can’t just sit here. I have to do something. We’ll sort everything out when I get back.”
He sighed, and kicked at the sand with his feet. “At least say goodbye to your children,” he finally said.
Beth lifted a hand and stroked his face, then went over to explain to Emily and Jacob that she had to go back to work for a while. They were disappointed, but brightened when she said she’d come back as soon as she was finished, and may bring them a surprise. She hated leaving t
hem, but this was more important.
Back at the car, Louis lifted her suitcase into the boot. “I hate this,” he said, handing her the keys. “You can’t even call to let us know you’re alright. Are you sure you have to go?”
“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” Beth replied.
She watched them in the rear vision mirror as she drove away, Emily and Jacob playing in the sand, Louis with his arms folded across his chest, and the police officer on the phone, no doubt telling Detective Cooper she was on her way.
38
“Shit,” said Cooper, hanging up the phone.
“Boss?”
“Beth Fisher’s on her way back to Sydney. She’s going to walk right into the middle of this.” He gestured to indicate the chaos going on around them in the offices of Fisher & Co. Warrants had been served simultaneously first thing this morning on both Fisher & Co and the Foundation. At the last minute Grayson had requested the warrant for Fisher & Co include the entire Operations Department, a request that had been granted. They’d been here for an hour already, confiscating computers and documents and transferring them back to police headquarters. Robert Fisher was not a happy man.
“Where is she?” asked Robert of his niece. “We’ve been trying to get hold of her since you people forced your way in here this morning. Have you been holding my niece?”
“No, Mr Fisher. Please calm down. We were concerned for the safety of Beth and her family, so we sent them somewhere safe. We were not holding them against their will, as evidenced by the fact that your niece has now left.”
“Then why couldn’t we call her?”
“We couldn’t risk having them tracked, so they don’t have phones or any other mobile devices with them. I’m sure Beth told your son, David, what was going on. They seem close. Where is he, by the way?”
“Probably over at the Foundation, doing the same as I’m doing here. Trying to stop you people from shutting our business down. Why won’t you tell me what you’re looking for instead of invading my office like this? It would save us both a lot of trouble.”
“It’s all in the warrant, Mr Fisher.” Cooper walked away then, not keen to get into another argument over the contents of the search and seizure warrant. They’d been through it twice already, and he was learning that the best way to deal with men like Robert Fisher at times like these was to engage as little as possible. He walked over to where Zach and Nora were finishing up.
“How are you going?”
“These ones here are the last,” replied Zach, indicating the boxes of files on the desk in front of him. “I’ve also set up remote access to their system, so I can log in back at headquarters. We can get the forensic accountants working as soon as we get back.”
“Good work.”
Cooper glanced around at all the office staff who were trying to make themselves look busy. If any of these people were guilty, they’d be plotting their escape right about now. He couldn’t let that happen.
“Mr Fisher?” he called out.
“What now?” Robert marched over to where he was standing.
“Sir, all of these people need to be interviewed. Would you prefer us to do that here, or back at the station?”
“For fuck’s sake, man, are we ever going to be able to get any work done today? Haven’t you interrupted things here enough?”
“Mr Fisher, I’ll caution you to watch your language. I’ll ask again. Do you want me to interview your people here, or down at the station?”
Robert lost his bluster. “Here, I suppose. Where do you want them?”
“Do you have a meeting room we can use? Also, can you get me an organisation chart for this department, please.”
Robert showed him to a nearby meeting room that was adequate for their needs, then went off in search of the chart. Or more likely to instruct some subordinate to retrieve it. Quinn joined Cooper in the room.
“We going to interview them all, boss?”
“No, just the ones who worked in the same area as Jill and Gail, anyone who had access to customs information. Grayson thinks someone in operations here had to be coordinating the deliveries with someone on the inside at customs. Go talk to Zach, tell him to let me know as soon as he finds anything.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Quinn left to deliver the news, while Cooper waited. He wasn’t at all confident this operation would help them find out who was responsible for the four murders, but Grayson thought they had a good chance of uncovering illegal activity of a different sort. It was just a matter of waiting for the forensic accountants and computer analysts to do their thing.
His phone rang, the caller ID indicating it was Meg Baxter. “What have you got, Meg?” he said, skipping the usual greeting.
“Had another chat with the neighbour, Janine. She only saw the backs of the guys who rode off on motorcycles, so we took some pictures of known gang patches to show her.”
“And?”
“She picked out the Chiefs patch, said they were both wearing it.”
“Like we thought. Okay, I’ll let Grayson know. What about the autopsy?”
“That’s where we are now. There was some powder residue on Gail Simmonds’s nose. Garrett tested it, came back as cocaine. He said it was a particularly pure batch, which makes the overdose theory seem likely. We’ll know more when we get the toxicology results though.”
“Thanks, Meg. Let me know if you get anything else.”
Cooper ended the call and threw his phone onto the table. How does someone so against drugs suddenly overdose on cocaine? Beth had been adamant Gail was not a user, although she did say Anton had been in the past.
“Quinn!” he called.
The detective returned to the door. “Yes, boss?”
“What did you find out about Anton Coffey? What’s his drug use history?”
Quinn consulted his notes. “Busted twice, eight years ago. Both times he was in possession of small quantities of cocaine. First time he got off with probation, second time he was ordered to attend rehab. Must have worked, he’s got no record since.”
“Thanks.”
“You want to start these interviews?”
“No, give me a minute, Joe.”
Cooper sat at an empty desk, took out his own book and started making notes. Beth had said Gail was aware of Anton’s previous drug use, but wouldn’t tolerate it in their relationship. He remembered meeting Gail when they were asking questions about Jill. She’d struck him as a woman not to be messed with. It seemed likely that Anton had been reformed, at least until recently. What was it Beth had told them? The day she died, Gail had gone to confront Anton because she suspected he was using again. She also suspected he was using the Foundation to bring drugs in from Thailand. She meets up with him at his home, and next thing they’re both dead from a cocaine overdose, possibly assisted by two men wearing Chiefs patches. There was no possibly about it, Cooper thought. Anton was mixed up in something, and Gail had been suspicious of it. Someone decided they both had to go, and forced them to overdose.
But how do you force someone to overdose on cocaine? And why cocaine? Wouldn’t it have been easier to restrain and inject them? That can look suspicious, though. Whoever did this wanted it to look like an accidental overdose. Maybe it was an accident? Perhaps the two thugs were sent to ask questions, find out what Anton and Gail knew. See if they really were a threat. Maybe they gave them the coke to help them relax. No, Gail still wouldn’t have taken it voluntarily. Perhaps the thugs wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Anton convinced Gail it would be okay. He’d used in the past: he knew he could handle it. But he didn’t know how strong the batch was.
Cooper was starting to warm to the theory. The Chiefs had gone there to ask questions, or maybe they had intended to kill Anton and Gail all along. Either way, they gave them the coke and told them to snort it, to relax them. Perhaps a gun in the face had helped convince Gail. They knew how potent the stuff was, so all they had to do was wait, and it would look like an accident
. It would have, too, if the friendly neighbour Janine hadn’t been keeping watch. Maybe there was something good about people living in such close quarters, after all.
It was all speculation, of course, until they had hard evidence. But one thing was certain, at least in Cooper’s mind. The Chiefs were up to their necks in this.
39
It was lunch time when Beth got to the offices of Fisher & Co, but she wasn’t the least bit hungry. She was headed for her office, still trying to process everything Louis had said hours earlier, when she noticed a crowd of people in the break room.
“What’s everyone doing in here?” she asked.
“Waiting to be interviewed,” replied Jacquie, from Operations. Beth took in the faces and realised this was almost the entire Operations team, minus Stan. Jacquie nodded her head towards the nearest meeting room, its door and blinds both closed.
“What’s going on?”
“The police have been here all morning. Mr Fisher’s been looking for you. They’ve taken our computers, we can’t do any work. And we can’t leave until they’ve interviewed us all.”
“Who’ve they got in there now?”
“Stan. He’s been in there a while.”
Beth was furious. She knew they were just doing their job, trying to get to the bottom of Jill and Gail’s murders, but as the company’s legal representative they shouldn’t be interviewing anyone without her present. Had the police used her threatening email as an excuse to get her out of the way? She shook her head. No, that was crazy. Still, it grated on her that she’d been sent off to the beach while her Fisher & Co family were going through this. She knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for a response.
“Beth,” said Detective Cooper. “I heard you were on your way back.”
The Dark Series Page 56