The Tattooed Man

by Alex Palmer

  ‘Did Falcon debrief you?’

  ‘In depth. For them, the operation had been a complete failure. There was no firm evidence they could use and they were worried their secrecy had been compromised. It wasn’t until I got the video back that we had the key we needed and they were prepared to move forward. I was still suspicious enough to take a copy. I’m glad I did now.’

  ‘What’s Elena doing out here?’

  ‘Trying to shake off her father. It was supposed to be a new start after the African debacle. He didn’t let her get away completely. He insisted she take Jerome on whether she liked it or not.’

  ‘Why should she agree to taking you on after what happened in Africa? She must have known you knew about her.’

  ‘Guilt, pure and simple. That’s why she put my project in the public domain. I didn’t want Abaris to own it. It’s her way of assuaging her conscience.’

  ‘Are you sure you didn’t blackmail her with that video?’ Grace asked.

  ‘I know too much, Grace. It was as simple as that. I knew too much and I was still alive. She couldn’t lock me out.’

  ‘If she and her father are the sort of people you say they are, why didn’t they have you killed?’

  He smiled.

  ‘I often wonder how they reacted when they heard I was back in London, still alive if barely. There must have been panic. We had no real proof at the time that would stand up in court, but there was enough information to bring pressure to bear on Jean. I’m pretty sure Falcon would have made it clear to him they didn’t want one of their ex-agents being executed. He knew not to push his credit too far.’

  ‘Did they also ask him to shut down the biological weapons program?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know. That would have depended on who his clients were. That was something we never found out. What he did was move it offshore.’

  They sped down the motorway in silence. Brinsmead was staring at the road. Grace weighed the alternatives. In the first, Daniel Brinsmead was the murderer Harrigan said he was and this was some kind of trap, the reason for which she did not know. But why would he want to harm her? If he wanted a witness, she was a reliable witness. She had given him no reason to hurt her. She glanced quickly at him. He was too frail and in too much pain to threaten her physically. Harrigan had told her that no guns were allowed in the LPS building. She remembered his description of a place full of people and activity.

  In the second alternative, there were the dead. The people she had seen on the net, murdered and then buried in a makeshift grave. She could see this as the kind of operation she did in her own work. Staying with the target, calling in backup when she needed it. But in this case, the man she would have called her target, Brinsmead, clearly wanted to die. Maybe that was the most merciful thing to let happen.

  When she had been a singer out on the road with her ramshackle band, she had liked driving those long empty roads in the outback. The name of the town they were going to had never mattered much. She had been driven by a different compulsion. For her, the destination was always a vanishing point in the distance. That was why she was driving towards it, to find out what it was. A hunger to see what was next. She had lived all her adult life with that need; it was a way of cleaning away all that emotional dross from the past that was otherwise stuck to her. That compulsion was in her mind now, driving her to what was next.

  One day your judgement has to be wrong. Harrigan’s voice came back to her.

  The images of the dead were more powerful than his words. She was on the trajectory; she would see this through.

  29

  Harrigan drove the distance from the police building to Australia Square in clear sunlight. It was a quick journey in light traffic. Yesterday’s bodyguard was again waiting for him at the ramp leading down into the car park. He delivered Harrigan to the thirty-third floor, where Damien showed him into Elena Calvo’s office.

  ‘Please sit down,’ she said. ‘Coffee?’

  ‘Thanks. We’ll have to make this very quick.’

  ‘We will. Damien, could you get the commander coffee, please? And some for me as well. I think we’re ready to talk business.’

  ‘I’m ready when you are, Dr Calvo,’ Harrigan said as the bodyguard moved to the door. An instant later, the door was kicked open and Sam Jonas walked in, her gun in her hand outstretched to be fired. She shot Damien in the chest, her actions making up a single movement so fast that to Harrigan’s eyes, paradoxically, it seemed to be in slow motion. Red markings appeared on the man’s shirt. He fell to the floor. The shots had been quiet. Sam had her gun aimed directly at Elena.

  ‘Put your hands where I can see them, the two of you, now! If you move, Harrigan, I’ll do to both of you exactly what I just did to Damien. Believe me, you’ll be dead before you can blink. If you don’t believe it, try me.’

  Elena was standing behind her desk, her mouth open in shock. Harrigan had pushed back his chair and was on his feet, but was stopped where he was. Standing at the door, Sam was too far away for heroics.

  ‘My other bodyguard,’ Elena said in a shaking voice. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Gone to meet his maker as well,’ Sam replied. ‘Don’t think he can help you now.’

  ‘How could you do that?’ Elena, staring at Damien where he lay, could barely get the words out. ‘He had a wife and a child.’

  ‘That’s a joke coming from you. You don’t get to see this sort of thing, do you? Other people do it for you.’

  ‘You work for me,’ Elena said, dumbfounded. ‘Who are you? Why are you doing this? I don’t understand. I pay you.’

  ‘It’s a different sort of payday now, Elena. That’s all you need to know. It’ll all become clear soon enough.’

  ‘Payday for what?’

  ‘Africa, Elena. The DRC.’ Sam laughed. ‘You know what that means. I can see it in your face. You know what happened there, don’t you? You keep standing. Don’t move a muscle, I’m watching you. Now, Harrigan. Do you have a gun? You do. Don’t try anything with it. Throw it as far as you can across the room. Your phone, turn it off. Then get your wallet and your buzzer. Throw them to the other side of the office. Is there anything else? What about a wire? Let’s see. Come on. Get your gear off. Don’t be shy.’

  Slowly Harrigan began to undress. He unbuttoned his shirt to expose the wire he was wearing. Again, Sam laughed. Harrigan saw Elena give him a single look of direct and unforgiving accusation, then she refused to meet his eyes again.

  ‘You can’t trust anyone these days, Elena. There are some people you just can’t buy. Who’s listening?’

  ‘No one’s listening. I’m just recording.’

  ‘Throw it on the floor over here! Go on!’

  Harrigan threw the miniature recording device to the floor. Sam smashed it to pieces with the heel of her boot.

  ‘Put your clothes back on and then lie on the floor away from the desk, face down,’ she said. ‘Stay there. Remember, I’ve got a gun trained on Elena.’

  He heard her walk to the dead bodyguard. She disarmed him, taking his gun for herself.

  ‘All right, Elena, I want your mobile. Where is it?’

  ‘On my desk.’

  ‘Hands where I can see them. Wait there.’

  Harrigan looked up from the floor. Sam had moved around to Elena and taken her in a grip that made her bend over. She had her gun at the back of her head.

  ‘Face down, Harrigan. Now! Elena, wait. Someone’s going to call you. You’re going to tell them you’re not going out to Campbelltown today. You’re going to be very calm or you’ll be dead.’

  They waited. Harrigan heard the phone ring.

  ‘Elena Calvo. Hello, Daniel. Why are you ringing me so early? No, I won’t be out there today. I’m too busy here. I won’t be able to help with that, I’m sorry. Goodbye.’

  ‘What did he say?’ Sam asked.

  ‘He said he couldn’t get out to Campbelltown today. Could I check with his staff if his test results had come thro
ugh? I never involve myself with his work. Why would he ask me to do that?’

  ‘Maybe you’ll find out. Turn off your phone and give it to me. Now sit down at your desk and turn on your computer.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Just do it. Don’t move, Harrigan. For your information, Elena has her own personal high-speed secure network here and at Campbelltown. It’s separate to the rest of the IT out there and it’s very fast. I want your log-on code and your password, Elena. You have three seconds to give it to me or you can join Damien.’

  ‘That’s a bluff.’

  ‘No, it’s not. Because if you won’t do that, you’re useless to me and you might as well be dead. Remember that. You only last as long as I find you useful. Take your choice. Write it down for me.’

  Elena did so.

  ‘Good. Now log on for me and prove it works. Then log out and shut down. Good girl. Now, we’re ready. Where are your car keys?’

  ‘In Damien’s pocket.’

  ‘Stand up and get them, Harrigan,’ Sam said. ‘We’re going down to the car park. You walk in front of us out to the lift. Do anything and you’ll have a dead woman on your hands. You can die a hero as well.’

  ‘What’s the point of this?’ Harrigan said. ‘I’ve got backup waiting for me. This is just going to put you in gaol for the rest of your life.’

  ‘How much backup and where are they? How do they know when you need them?’

  ‘Why should I tell you that?’

  ‘Because if you don’t answer my question, I’ll kill you and I mean that.’

  ‘They’re at the police building. They’re waiting for me to call,’ Harrigan said.

  ‘I thought so. My guess is, right now this is the last place anyone would expect to find me. Now get the keys, including the lift key.’

  ‘How did you get in here?’ Elena asked.

  ‘I’ve had after-hours access to this office for months, Elena. I don’t know why you’re so surprised. You hired me because I can do this sort of thing. I’ve been watching you for a long time. That’s the good thing about being undercover. No one knows what you’re really up to.’

  Harrigan went through the dead man’s pockets. He found the keys and straightened up.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Sam said. ‘Keep your hands where I can see them, Harrigan.’

  They walked through the empty office. The other bodyguard lay dead inside the door. They walked past him to the lift.

  ‘You get in first and stand in one corner,’ Sam said. ‘Elena and I will stand in the other. Harrigan, when we stop, you get out first. Now, you can feel that gun in your ribs, can’t you, Elena? If either of you does anything, it fires and keeps firing. Down we go. If anyone gets in, everyone act normal.’

  ‘They’ll pick us up on CCTV,’ Elena said.

  ‘So what? It’s a Saturday. We’ll be long gone before they do anything about it. Anyway, what’s to see? You with your bodyguard stuck to you like glue and someone who looks like a driver. What’s so different about that?’

  On a Saturday morning this early, no one did get into the lift. The only sound was Elena’s shallow breathing and a single, sharp comment from Sam. ‘Keep it quiet, Elena. You’re annoying me.’

  There were few vehicles in the car park. They stopped by Elena’s car, a Mercedes with tinted windows. Harrigan glanced at his own car, parked a short distance away. No one would find it here.

  ‘Open the car, Harrigan. Elena and I are getting in the back. You’re driving. We’re all getting in together. Nice and cosy in the back, Elena. That’s right. Drive, Harrigan. Carefully. Don’t attract attention.’

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Where do you think? Campbelltown. We’ve got an appointment.’

  ‘Who are we going to meet out there?’

  ‘Maybe we’ve got a date with destiny. You have, that’s for sure. I wasn’t expecting to see you today. You’re a bonus. Otherwise, I might have had to put Elena in the boot.’

  ‘What’s happening out at Campbelltown?’ Harrigan asked.

  ‘Wait and you’ll find out. Meantime, have you seen the net this morning, either of you? Bet you have, Harrigan. There should be an email waiting for you, Elena. I wanted to make you watch it but we don’t have the time.’

  ‘I haven’t seen it,’ Elena said.

  ‘Yes, you have. Don’t pretend you haven’t. I bet Daddy rang you about it. Guess what? That video we tried so hard to suppress is out on the net. Live with it. People know who you really are now. You and your father.’

  ‘That video has nothing to do with us and you can’t prove that it does.’

  ‘We will before we’re finished,’ Sam said. ‘You don’t know how much I know about you. I know who your brother is, for example. Your half-brother, that is. But Jerome’s dead now. Did that upset Daddy at all? You wouldn’t think it would given that he walked out on him. I’m curious.’

  ‘You’re a sick woman,’ Elena said softly.

  ‘Not as sick as you. I’d be careful, Elena. I don’t care if you get roughed up.’

  ‘Sam, did you kill Marvin?’ Harrigan asked quickly.

  ‘You bet I did,’ Sam replied. ‘It was just luck he was there. I took advantage of it.’

  ‘Why?’ he asked.

  ‘I knew DP was running him for Elena. I wanted him out of the way in case he made trouble later. You see, Elena, I’ve been following DP ever since he got here. You know how I knew he was here, Harrigan? She told me to go and meet him. I had to give him all the stuff I had on Jerome and your squalid little friends. I used to have a tracking device on his car. Very handy. I was there watching the very first time he ever met Marvin Tooth. Trouble was, DP saw me as well. Not close enough to really see me, but enough to work out he was probably being followed. We lost him after that. He dumped his car and we couldn’t track him any more.’

  ‘Did you kill those people up at Pittwater?’

  ‘Yes, they did,’ Elena said, again softly.

  ‘Did we? Why should anyone believe what you say?’ Sam said. ‘It was DP cleaning up for you. Jerome was getting too unreliable. You had to protect yourself. You didn’t want anyone connecting his dirty little business to your organisation. You took control and did what you’ve always wanted to do. Get that whole side of Abaris out of your life and your business. Then you sent that piccie out just to show other people what would happen to them if they crossed you.’

  ‘Then why leave the contract behind?’ Harrigan asked.

  ‘Because DP is careless. He goes at things like a bull at a gate. Elena will tell you that. I bet she’s bitched about him to her father a million times. She probably wanted you to take over from him. Do you know how I found your old friend the Ice Cream Man’s body, Harrigan? Because Elena here asked me to go and pick up DP’s black beast out at Yaralla after he’d killed him. Even DP can’t drive two cars. He had to torch one of them and he didn’t want to do it down there. I had a good look around and I found the grave. But I’d already been out to Yaralla. I used to tail Jerome out there. I got into one of his vans once. I got hold of some seed, I made it look like the sack had burst. We knew what he was growing. Elena wants to hide all that. But we’re going to tell the world.’

  ‘I had nothing to do with Jerome’s business. I had no reason to kill those people,’ Elena said angrily.

  ‘She’s baiting you,’ Harrigan said to Elena in his detached voice.

  Sam laughed. ‘No, Elena didn’t kill them. Why would she want the publicity? But my take on it was plausible, wasn’t it? It might convince someone who knew some of the facts but not all of them.’

  For first time, Harrigan felt real terror.

  ‘Who?’ he asked.

  ‘Does that worry you, Harrigan?’

  ‘Who’s this “we”?’ he said. ‘You and Brinsmead.’

  ‘Daniel?’ Elena said in surprise. ‘What do you have to do with Daniel?’

  ‘He’s my very old friend, Elena. I’ve known him for twenty years close e
nough. We’re probably the only true friends each of us has ever really had. I know him better than you ever will. He fucks women like you. Me, he talks to.’

  In the rear-vision mirror, Harrigan saw Elena look out of the window. Her expression was a mix of anger and loathing. There were insults which were unforgivable. Sam had just made one.

  ‘Is he your reason for doing this?’ she asked with contempt.

  ‘Yes and no. We both used to work for an organisation called Falcon. I persuaded him to offer his services; I thought he’d be good at it. But then he met you, didn’t he? You corrupted his mind.’

  ‘You’re jealous.’

  ‘No. We don’t have that kind of relationship; we never have had. I didn’t want anything like that messing us up. He’s my soul mate and I’m his. You betrayed him to your father.’

  ‘I did not. My father didn’t know anything about him being an agent. He just found his connection to me and Jerome too convenient. He was right. Daniel was a user. But I still rescued him. If I hadn’t taken care of him after he came back, he would have died.’

  She had spoken with deep bitterness, saying Jerome’s name with distaste. Sam answered with growing and dangerous anger.

  ‘Your father told DP and Jerome to kill Daniel and you knew that. You knew and you didn’t warn him.’

  ‘I didn’t know.’

  ‘Do you want to understand grief? I can’t describe to you what I felt when I saw Danny after he got back. If I could have, Elena, I would have got you on your knees and killed you then. Instead, Daddy called in his credit with the government. Falcon shut the whole thing down and hung us out to dry. Well, it’s not over yet. Like I said, it’s payday.’