CHAPTER TEN
Gary had turned off his phone before the start of the church service. Back in his car, he turned it on and saw that Vincent Drew had called. About time. He phoned Vincent, who answered.
"Axeman here."
"Axeman? Who's Axeman?"
"It's my new tag."
Gary considered asking why, but couldn't be bothered. "What do you want?"
"I've made some inquiries about the dude you're chasing."
"Good. What have you got?"
"I accessed his phone records. Arnott made four calls during the last week."
"Good. When was the last one?"
"Yesterday."
That meant that, unless someone else was using Arnott's phone to make calls, Arnott was still alive. Great. "Who did he call? Start with the first one."
"OK. A week ago, he called a guy called Anthony Tam. I checked on him. He lived next door to Arnott in Drummoyne. And guess what: he's the guy who landed in the swimming pool on Friday night."
"You're kidding?"
"No. I couldn't access the COPS database - I warned you that's hard - but I got into the Ambulance Service database. An entry said that, on Friday night, the ambos took Tam to the morgue."
What was going on? Patrick Arnott phoned his neighbour, Tony Tam a week ago. Then, on Friday night, Tam ventured into Arnott's apartment and encountered two thugs who threw him off the balcony. What did Arnott call him about? Why did Tam enter the apartment five days later? Why was he thrown off the balcony? Gary had no idea. "That's interesting. Who else did Arnott call?"
"The other three calls were all to the same guy."
"Who?"
"A dude called Richard McKenzie. Haven't checked who he is yet. Want me to do that?"
Well, well, well. Just an hour ago, Gary saw McKenzie prowling around a stage waving a bible above his head and preaching to his flock. Why did Patrick Arnott contact him? "Don't worry, I know who he is: he's the head pastor of the Sunrise Mission. In fact, I've just been to one of his services."
"No kidding? You belong to the church?"
"No, Patrick Arnott does. I was hoping he might turn up, but he didn't."
"I once went to a service there, with a different pastor, but it wasn't my scene."
"Why not?"
"Everyone was so fuckin' sweet. It felt like someone had dropped a niceness bomb. I wanted to get up and scream that life really sucks and they should all stop smiling."
"Nobody would have listened."
"That was obvious. Anyway, I don't believe in God, I believe in the Architect."
"The Architect? Who the hell's that?"
"He's the guy who designed the computer simulation in which we live. Our whole existence is just a program on his hard-drive."
"Are you kidding?"
Vincent sounded annoyed. "Of course not."
"Why the hell did he create the program?"
"That's not clear. My guess he did it for kicks. We're just entertainment value."
"How do you know all this?"
"Because sometimes the Architect makes coding errors and I pick them up."
Gary was actually quite interested in this weirdness, but had other priorities. "That's all very interesting. But we've gone right off track. Tell me, when exactly did Arnott phone McKenzie?"
"Oh, the first time was on Friday afternoon. Then he called him twice yesterday. Let me give you the exact times."
Vincent recited that information and Gary jotted it down.
"Thanks. Do you have McKenzie's phone records?"
"Nope, his account's with a different company. But I can probably get them."
"Do that. I want to find out what game he's playing, if any."
"Will do."
"Thanks, you're a champ."
"I'm the best, aren't I?" Vincent said with sublime self-satisfaction.
"Yes, though you could be more modest."
"Hah, modesty's for losers."
Gary hung up and pondered why Arnott phoned the Pastor three times on Friday and Saturday. He suspected that Arnott, a man on the run, reached out to his spiritual leader for emotional support. In that case, there was a good chance the Pastor knew where Arnott was hiding.
There were two ways Gary could find out if the Pastor had that information and, if he did, extract it. The first was to corner the Pastor somewhere and torture him until he spilled the beans. However, apart from being illegal and gruesome, torture often produced false data. The second, far more subtle approach, was to follow the Pastor around and hope he met up with Arnott. Gary decided to try that option first and, if it failed, reconsider the other one.
He did a lot of surveillance work while a cop and later private investigator. Indeed, watching workers' compensation claimants was the bread-and-butter business of Bloodhound Investigations. So he knew that, if he tried to follow the Pastor all over the city, alone, there was a good chance he would lose him or be detected. The best way to avoid that happening was to attach a tracking device to the Pastor's vehicle. Then he wouldn't have to stay in constant visual contact with it. However, he didn't have a tracking device and knew only one person who did - Ray Boland.
Hard Landing Page 10
