Private Sydney Read online

  Chapter 52

  MARY STOPPED AT a small shopping mall at the unusually named Round Corner.

  ‘We can get a coffee. Looks like you need some sustenance.’

  News of the timing of the leak had rocked me. I still had to decide how to handle it. The day was proving to be worse than yesterday and we still had no idea if Zoe was alive or where she might be. Mary was the only person I could trust right now.

  We found a quaint café, called Chat Time, and took a seat in the outside section. The clientele comprised elderly people, mothers with babies and middle-aged women in exercise gear. They were all engaged in conversation at their respective tables. Not an electronic device in sight.

  The atmosphere was homely, very different from city cafés. A middle-aged man dressed in a black shirt and trousers greeted us as I checked my phone for messages.

  ‘We don’t have wi-fi here,’ he said with a natural smile. ‘It encourages people to chat.’

  The strategy definitely worked. Mary ordered scrambled eggs on toast. I chose a zucchini, eggplant and pesto melt. We both settled on lattes.

  Before we addressed the office leak, I wanted to get an update on Eric Moss and his organisation. He’d been missing for four days now.

  ‘Where are you up to with the Moss case?’

  Mary sat forward, elbows on the table. ‘This guy could be Roy Orbison. In the few photos he appears in, he’s wearing darkened lenses. They completely hide his eyes and eyebrows. I couldn’t locate one good facial image.’

  ‘What about when he was younger?’

  ‘That’s the thing. There are no photos of him before Contigo. I checked the enrolments for schools in the area his daughter said he grew up in. Nothing. This guy had no internet presence.’

  The coffees and cutlery arrived.

  ‘It’s like he’s hiding in plain sight. He gets national hero status, receives top business and citizenship awards, but doesn’t appear in any press. He’s the legs paddling under the water, out of sight.’

  ‘And Lang Gillies is the duck’s head you see on the surface.’

  Our food appeared and I realised how little I’d consumed in the last two days. I ate like someone who didn’t know when their next meal might be. In many ways that was true. This was going to be another long and draining day.

  Mary devoured her eggs, pausing once to wipe her mouth with a serviette.

  ‘I even checked for Throwback Thursday photos, brush-with-fame websites. No one’s posted anything of Moss as an adult or child. And he doesn’t appear on any politician’s websites. Seems he avoided pics with them too. The man was definitely hiding in full view.’

  I began to wonder. If he had been hiding for that long, he could have had an exit strategy – in case he was ever exposed.

  Chapter 53

  BACK AT PRIVATE, a nervous Collette greeted us. We had a visitor who had already shown himself into my office. Two bodyguards waited in the foyer.

  One scanned Mary first, with a handheld metal detector, then me.

  ‘Standard procedure, for people Mr Ambassador meets.’ He had a southern American twang.

  Scanner man stayed guarding our entrance, while the other guard walked us to my office and waited outside with Mary.

  ‘Ambassador Jim Roden.’ A silver-haired man of around sixty greeted me. His suit was expensive, I guessed Italian. The tie was silk, with embossed blue flowers on a lighter background. A perfectly folded pocket handkerchief matched. An American flag badge was pinned to his lapel. We shook hands.

  I asked if he would like something to drink before noticing the bottle of mineral water from my bar fridge.

  ‘Hope you don’t mind, I helped myself. Your receptionist said it was OK.’

  I suspected Collette was intimidated by the formality and accompanying muscle.

  ‘What can I do for you, Mr Ambassador?’

  He unbuttoned his jacket and crossed a heel over one knee. ‘I’m concerned about Eric Moss.’

  I sat and leant back. ‘Are you a friend?’

  ‘Acquaintance. We’ve met on a couple of occasions. At a fundraiser and again at the Embassy. He was an impressive man.’

  I noted the use of the word ‘was’. I wondered what he knew about the disappearance.

  ‘Eric Moss only resigned four days ago.’

  ‘So I hear. My concern is not just personal. Mr Moss has accessed a number of sensitive US facilities during his time with Contigo Valley.’

  ‘Are you worried he’s sharing state secrets?’

  ‘We’d like to know what his plans are from here. He has a vast body of knowledge and we’d like to make him a very tempting job offer.’

  I found that difficult to believe. He was fishing for information. Somehow he knew we were employed by Eliza. Then again, anyone could have seen us together last night and put two and two together. Word in the business world was leaching out about Moss’s sudden departure from the company he’d been loyal to for decades.

  I sat forward. ‘If I see him, I’ll get him to give you a call.’

  ‘Mr Gisto, I’m afraid you don’t understand. There may be considerable embarrassment if Mr Moss is not located quickly.’

  I decided to do some fishing myself. ‘Can you explain to me how someone without a passport or birth certificate gets access to your secure facilities? I’m guessing there are some red faces about that little oversight when a simple web search would have raised alarms.’ Unless, as I suspected, all information pertaining to Moss had been systematically removed from the internet.

  Roden sipped the mineral water from the bottle. ‘I hear you and Moss’s daughter have developed a rapport.’

  I leant in, uncomfortable about where this was heading. ‘I’m not at liberty to discuss clients or investigations.’

  ‘I’m just saying that relationship could be very useful.’ He stood. ‘International politics can be a minefield. My government would appreciate your sharing relevant information about Moss’s whereabouts.’

  ‘Are you suggesting I break commercial confidence?’

  ‘I’m suggesting you consider both our nations’ security. I trust you’ll keep our communication private.’

  I chose my words carefully. ‘For reasons of national interest.’

  He stared at me for a few seconds. ‘Precisely,’ he said, without a hint of irony.

  Chapter 54

  I SAT BACK. He’d caught me off guard. For him to mention my rapport with Eliza suggested someone had seen us last night, or she was under surveillance.

  Mary saw the visitors out and returned to my office. ‘Secret Service. It’s all I got.’

  Moss had to be in serious trouble if the US government wanted him found asap.

  ‘They’re desperate if they came to us for info,’ Mary said. ‘It’s not easy to drop right off the grid. Especially theirs.’

  I agreed. Whatever Moss knew made him hot property. If he had planned his disappearance, it was years in the making. I thought of him in photos. The images I’d seen had him in half-profile, with the dark lenses. He was in the habit of hiding part of his face before the advent of facial recognition software. No passport or driver’s licence meant there were no documented facial images, front on, eyes captured. He had a strategy all along to avoid being identified. But why? The behaviour dated back to his beginnings at Contigo, when they were a simple search and rescue group.

  Mary wondered aloud, ‘Maybe he wasn’t just working for Contigo.’

  From the amount of time he spent there, and the fact he lived on the premises, it was a stretch.

  ‘Or …’ I said, ‘Contigo is a front for something more.’ I thought again of the private contracts only Moss had access to. ‘Something the ambassador said bothers me. He specifically said they wanted Moss “located”.’

  Mary sank into the chair vacated by the ambassador. ‘No concern for his welfare.’

  Eliza was worried about foul play. Roden wasn’t interested in finding out. He wanted us to locate Mos
s, dead or alive.

  If he was alive, it couldn’t be easy staying on the run from US security agencies.

  And if Moss was CIA or an operative for another country, he’d broken a cardinal rule. No complications. Moss had blown that by adopting Eliza and having personal ties. A disabled child was more than a simple complication. Contigo Valley had to be supplying or developing something the US government wanted. Why else would US defence facilities give Moss access then panic when he disappeared?

  I wanted answers as to why the US government was suddenly on our back, and why they were using us to get to Moss.

  I doodled on my notepad. It helped me think, piece together puzzles. ‘Roden mentioned sensitive facilities Moss visited.’

  ‘I know just the person to talk to,’ Mary said. ‘His personal pilot would have filed logs of times, dates of departures and destinations.’

  ‘Good idea. We need to figure out what he was working on. Whatever contracts were in that locked desk.’

  Mary raised the other pressing issue. ‘How are you going to deal with the media leak?’

  I rubbed my neck again. There was only one thing to do.

  Chapter 55

  I DOUBTED THE smashed office door was an accident now. We were the only business targeted in the attack and it provided access to plant listening devices. I wouldn’t put it past Roden. The visit could have been an excuse to hide additional monitoring devices or modify ones already in place. Roden was unchaperoned in my office before we came back, and the cronie with the metal detector kept Collette distracted. I thought back to the repairmen. They were from a company we hadn’t used before. Colette had found the card under the door and they’d answered her call straightaway.

  I suspected we’d been set up. I pulled out my phone and checked for their website. The company didn’t exist in the Yellow Pages or online.

  Whoever smashed the glass assumed a staff member would call the first available glazier. One thing concerned me: the timing. The door had been smashed before Jack Morgan rang me about Eric Moss.

  Unless Jack’s LA office was being monitored, a US agency wouldn’t have known we would be involved. It was a stretch at best.

  And how did Marcel Peyroni hear about the Dural raid if he wasn’t tipped off by someone in our office? If we were being electronically monitored, there was no way a secret intelligence agency would be in cahoots with a tabloid gossipmonger, or risk exposure by leaking news of a raid. That left the question as to whether one of my team was on Peyroni’s payroll.

  I felt a deep knot in my gut.

  I rang an old friend who specialised in technical security countermeasures sweeps. Without mentioning what I wanted, I asked if he’d like to come for a visit and see the offices. He agreed to be here within the hour. I trusted my staff and couldn’t believe any one of them would risk lives by notifying a low-life like Marcel Peyroni. I had no answer as to why a third party listening to us would, if only to discredit me and my team.

  Mary and I headed to the lab. Darlene had just sent the DNA printout from the evidence beneath Louise’s fingernails to the police. The new machine was beneficial but an arrest depended on other factors. We had to show motive, opportunity and compare the finding to a suspect’s DNA.

  Darlene was frustrated. ‘We won’t know if Wallace is our killer unless he agrees to a DNA test.’

  His lawyer would no doubt advise him to avoid giving any samples that could be used against him until they had enough for a warrant.

  Mary reached into her pocket. ‘Beg to differ.’

  She pulled out a bag containing the severed cable ties she’d used to bind Wallace’s wrists.

  Darlene’s face beamed. ‘Give me an hour and a half and we’ll know if it was Wallace at the murder scene.’

  Chapter 56

  GIDEON MAHLER HAD always been slightly eccentric. We’d met in the US when I introduced him to an expat friend. The pair married and moved to Australia. The marriage didn’t last but Gideon’s services became more in demand. Politicians constantly used him to test their offices for listening devices. Rumour had it ADIA (the Australian Defence Intelligence Agency) had the country’s one hundred wealthiest business people under constant surveillance. With trade agreements including China, Japan, Indonesia and Russia, it made some degree of sense – to ADIA.

  Gideon was gaunt, sinewy and had deep-set eyes that constantly scanned his surroundings. His first stop was the reception area. He looked under the desk for remnants of dust from holes drilled, checked for any pictures that were even slightly askew, anything out of its normal position. Gideon’s assessment cost a premium but our business depended on confidentiality and that couldn’t be compromised. I was not about to get Eric Moss killed if we tracked him down.

  The smashed door and computer virus on Collette’s laptop, which meant the video cameras didn’t record that night, had to be related. All I could do was wait. I tried Brett Thorogood and left another message. Once the DNA from the cable ties was back, we’d know if Wallace had lied about being at Louise Simpson’s house. Instinct told me he hadn’t. If Darlene could confirm that, I needed immediate access to quiz him about the woman he claimed to have met.

  I rang Eric Moss’s assistant, Oliver Driscoll, to see if he’d accessed the filing cabinet yet. He sounded as if he was in an echo chamber.

  ‘Is Eric OK?’ Apart from Eliza, the young assistant and accountant were the only ones who had asked about their former boss’s welfare.

  ‘We haven’t found him yet, which is why I’m ringing.’

  There was an audible sigh.

  ‘I don’t know how I can help. I’ve been given until four pm to clean out my belongings and leave the building. We’re not supposed to talk to you, but I’m worried. I can’t get the diary copies out.’

  I asked him where he was at the moment and if anyone could hear him.

  ‘I’m alone in the bathroom for now. I’m not the only one who’s been told to leave. Renee Campbell, the lady you met with, was the first to go. Something is really wrong and I don’t understand. I couldn’t find the resignation email.’

  ‘Did you manage to get into Eric’s personal safe?’

  ‘Sir Lang got a locksmith in but it was empty when he opened it.’

  If no one else had access, Eric could have cleaned it out before leaving. Something else was worrying the assistant.

  ‘You think Gillies lied about the resignation?’

  ‘I don’t know. But it gets freakier. My flat was trashed. Police reckon it was druggies looking for cash because the flat screen and Xbox One weren’t touched. I thought it was my psycho ex, only he’s in New Zealand.’

  It wasn’t a usual break and enter, even for drug addicts. ‘Did you have work files there?’

  ‘No. Only stuff on my laptop, and that stays with me. I think something happened to Eric.’

  The fear in his voice was clear.

  ‘We’re going to find him. In the meantime, can you stay with a friend for a few days? Just until we get to the bottom of whatever’s going on?’

  ‘My parents live on the north coast. I can go there.’

  I had one more question. ‘Have you ever seen or heard of a Jim Roden?’

  ‘Sure, the ambassador’s one of Lang Gillies’s golf buddies. The old man likes to drop his name and how he used to advise President Bush on homeland security.’

  It may not have been Moss working for someone else. I began to suspect Lang Gillies of being more than he pretended.

  Chapter 57

  GIDEON ENTERED MY office and closed the door.

  ‘I swept the entire place, toilets and bathrooms included. The building’s clean.’

  That was a relief.

  ‘There’s a qualifier on that. I also looked at the computers and phones of all the employees, including yours, as you know.’

  Mine was the first I wanted checked. ‘And?’

  ‘Good news is the computers are free of viruses and malware, as are your backups. No one calle
d a reporter this morning from their phones or the office, no emails or texts either.’

  It was reassuring but didn’t explain how Peyroni got the Wallaces’ address as soon as we had it. Or why the computer was infected. Or the door was smashed. If that wasn’t done to plant listening devices, what was the point? ‘What’s the bad news?’

  ‘There’s spyware on one of your employees’ phones.’

  I sat back. This was the moment I dreaded. ‘Spyware? What sort?’

  ‘The sort that makes a phone a listening device, whether it’s on or off. And accesses computers when used as a hotspot.’

  Before I heard the name I needed to know. ‘Can anyone install it or does it require specialised knowledge? Can it be downloaded remotely?’

  He shook his head. ‘The person installing it has to physically have the phone.’ He pulled a document from his case and handed it across. It was a detailed explanation of this particular phone spyware.

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Yeah, two of your employees are dating. Don’t know if you have a policy on that, ’cause they’re trying to keep it quiet.’

  ‘Did you go through all their texts as you scanned?’

  ‘No,’ he smiled, ‘noticed them touching hands in the lab when they thought no one was looking. Otherwise, they’re clean.’

  Johnny had been helping out more with evidence. It was because of Darlene.

  ‘That’s one headache we can sort out if the time comes.’ It left Mary and Collette. Mary had been livid about me taking on the background check but she always carried her phone and wallet on her. She never put them down. That left one person.

  ‘Your receptionist’s the leak,’ Gideon said. ‘Everything coming in and out of the office has been recorded for a third party.’

  I couldn’t believe it. Collette? I had trusted her implicitly. ‘Any idea who’s receiving?’

  ‘Could take a while to find out. Everything’s being rerouted.’