Private Sydney Read online

  Chapter 77

  WITH HER FATHER still missing, Eliza Moss couldn’t face people tonight. Relieved she could postpone a client dinner, she hoped to take advantage of the quiet to think and focus on where Eric could have gone. Using forearm crutches, she eased on to the lounge and sank into the large cushions, exhausted. Her shoulders and hips ached.

  The question played on a loop in her mind. Why hadn’t her father called?

  The only answer was the one she didn’t want to face.

  He wasn’t able to.

  The thought made her heart beat faster and her breathing accelerate. Her father meant everything to her. He’d been the one to save her from an institution, made sure she was educated, cared for and loved. More than that, he taught her that she wasn’t defined by her disabilities. They presented specific challenges, but everyone had some disadvantage to overcome. How she faced difficult times, like this, defined her.

  Part of her wanted to scream at him for leaving. Abandoning her. If Craig was right, somehow he had managed to live without any proof of who he was. How? The question haunted her.

  He drove cars but managed to do it without a licence? She couldn’t face the possibility that he had lied to her and everyone else for all these years. The alternative was that his identity had been erased. Someone wanted every trace of him gone. Which meant something terrible had happened.

  Hot tears dripped on to her shirt.

  She consciously slowed each breath in, aware her lungs were already functioning well under capacity. Stress affected her physical resilience more than infection. She had to remain in control. Her father needed her to be strong now more than ever.

  Felix was soon on her lap sleeping, as Eliza stroked his white fur. ‘Everything’s going to be OK. It has to be.’ For the first time in years, she prayed before falling asleep where she sat.

  A bumping sound in the bedroom roused her. She immediately thought of Felix, but the cat was still asleep on her lap.

  Craig had warned her to be careful. Someone was monitoring her movements and contacts. It had to be something falling in the laundry. The clothes hanger wasn’t that stable.

  She lifted Felix off her lap and on to his own cushion and hauled herself on to her bare feet. Holding on to the lounge, then the wall, she listened from the corridor. Another soft thud followed.

  Someone was inside. Heart hammering in her chest, she tried to stay calm. Maybe it was just a young kid looking for wallets, cash and jewellery. Her purse was in her bag on the kitchen table.

  Her phone was in its charger, next to a marble Buddha statue on the hall table. She silently braced herself against the wall and reached for the phone to dial 000. Before she was connected, a large man in a dark jacket and black jeans appeared.

  When Eliza saw the balaclava, she knew she was in trouble.

  Chapter 78

  ELIZA REACTED QUICKLY and grabbed the Buddha statue. Her best chance was on the floor. She was too unstable on her feet. Sliding down the wall, she flicked off the light switch and pulled the hall table over just as the man lunged. He tripped, hitting the wooden floor hard.

  Eliza clambered backwards. A hand gripped her right ankle. With all her strength, she flexed her knee and lashed out. Her glutes may have been useless, but her quads were her strongest muscles. Her shoe connected with something solid, possibly a face. The intruder growled and released his grip.

  She rolled over and commando-crawled to the kitchen in the dark.

  The man was quickly above and flipped her on to her back. ‘You’ll save us all trouble if you tell me where you hid it.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ She began to scream ‘Fire’ loudly, in the hope a neighbour might hear and at the least call for help.

  He bent down and covered her mouth with his hand. He whispered, ‘Tell me where you hid it and this will all go away.’

  She could smell his sweat and garlic breath. What frightened her most was how controlled he sounded. She had to fight.

  She bit hard on his hand and swung at his head. The Buddha made heavy contact as she let go. The intruder moaned and fell back. She rolled over and dragged herself on her stomach to the kitchen, heading straight for the cupboard under the sink. She opened the door and reached inside for something, anything.

  He grabbed her shoulders. ‘Tell me where it is or –’

  She fired a prolonged blast of flyspray from one hand and oven cleaner with the other.

  The man wailed. She kept spraying as he stumbled backwards. She felt his footsteps on the boards. He was headed to the front door. It opened and slammed. She tightened her grip on both triggers. What if he let someone else in to finish the job?

  After straining to listen for what seemed like hours, there were no noises or footsteps. Eliza sat back against the cupboards and realised she’d been panting the whole time. Her fingers had cramped clutching the chemical bottles at the ready. Finally, she carried the oven cleaner with her as she crawled to the front door, pulled herself up and locked it.

  With the lights now on, she held on to the wall and crept back to where she’d hit the man with the statue. There was blood spattered on the tiled floor.

  ‘I’d call that karma, Felix,’ she murmured and dropped the spray. Hands shaking, she called one of the numbers on the phone Craig had given her.

  Chapter 79

  AS MARY AND I trekked through dense bush, my burner phone vibrated. Not surprised that Moss had made sure there was reception out here, I answered but continued walking.

  Before I could ask about Collette, Darlene told me there had been a break-in at Eliza Moss’s home. I assumed she was out at the work dinner she’d mentioned.

  ‘Anything stolen?’

  ‘No,’ Darlene said. ‘The guy was after something specific. Tore her bedroom apart, then wanted to know where she’d hidden it. Whatever “it” is.’

  My adrenaline surged. ‘Wait. She was home at the time?’

  ‘She cancelled plans at the last minute. My guess is this guy wasn’t expecting to see anyone, though he was wearing a balaclava.’

  I stood still. ‘Is she hurt?’

  Mary stopped in her tracks and looked at me.

  ‘She’s shaken, but fine. Turns out she packs a mean punch with marble and is a demon with kitchen chemicals.’

  I wasn’t sure what that meant but was filled with relief. Eliza was safe.

  Darlene elaborated, ‘Eliza says she has no idea what he was talking about but he was prepared to hurt her to get what he came for. She was lucky this time.’

  The police were on their way but Darlene said she wanted to fingerprint the place before they arrived.

  Heart pounding, I asked to speak to Eliza. The phone crackled and I heard her voice.

  ‘I’m OK. Honestly. Darlene came straightaway.’

  Mary tapped her watch. We needed to keep moving.

  ‘To be on the safe side, can you pack an overnight bag, and take whatever is most valuable to you? There’s a top-level security system at my place Darlene knows how to access.’

  ‘I’d rather go to a hotel room. They have those locks –’

  ‘They’re too easy to override. It’s how housekeeping gets in when someone’s inside.’

  There was a moment’s pause. ‘Then I’ll stay here. After what I did to that guy, he isn’t coming back tonight.’

  ‘That’s a bad idea,’ I stressed. The intruder would most likely return. Maybe with back-up next time.

  ‘Eliza, please trust me. You’ll be safest at my place, even if you’re being followed. Darlene can let the deputy commissioner of police know you’re there. The police can watch your place, just in case.’

  The wider implications of the attack seemed to stun Eliza. Suddenly her world would never be an entirely safe place again.

  ‘This is insane. What was Dad really involved in?’

  ‘I’m trying to get to that now.’ The phone crackled. Reception deteriorated the further away from the compound we
got.

  Mary signalled we were almost there.

  ‘You’ll be safe tonight. Just stay there until I get home.’

  ‘Hurry back,’ she pleaded.

  While I had Darlene on the line, I needed to know about Collette. She filled me in on the car with two inhabitants, one of whom was on his way to grab Collette’s phone from the step when Johnny intercepted him. After that, the boyfriend took a call, excused himself and left.

  I was relieved we at least had a lead on who’d put the malware on her phone. ‘Can you trace the plates?’

  Darlene was ahead of me. ‘Sure did. It belongs to Craven Media, owners of The Sydney Post.’

  Chapter 80

  RANSACKING A HOUSE with the owner inside sounded amateur, or desperate. The CIA or ADIA should have known better. Unless they knew Eliza’s schedule and expected her to be out. I wouldn’t put it past some of the agents I’d met to be that incompetent. The physical risk to Eliza bothered me most.

  What if her intruder was from the media group? If Craven Media were bugging our offices, it was a new low, even for them. There’d been phone hacking incidents in the UK, but nothing as overt in this country. Obviously, things had changed. It explained how Marcel Peyroni managed to get to the Wallaces’ house in Dural before the Tactical Response unit.

  Craven Media fed their scandal appetite via stunts like the one they pulled on Private. We looked after clients who wanted to hide scandal. They wanted to capitalise on that. Now we had a source for the malware, Gideon Mahler could trace it right back to Peyroni and Craven and prove the illegal bugging. Once we were back I’d let the police and federal agencies sort him out, along with his media magnate boss. A mere suggestion they were suspected of breaking, entering and threatening a disabled woman would be enough to irrevocably damage their business. Like the rot they printed, there didn’t need to be truth in the accusation.

  This late, the bush around Contigo Valley was eerily quiet. The only sounds were our feet crunching on twigs and rocks. I was perspiring heavily and stopped for a long drink.

  Eliza’s break-in preyed on my mind. I doubted even Peyroni and his team would have risked being caught in there.

  For anyone chasing Eric Moss, Eliza was an easy target, given she was the only family Eric Moss had as far as anyone knew. Instinct told me it had to be someone from ADIA or the CIA in her home. Whoever broke in had to believe Eliza knew more about her father than she let on, or that he’d given her whatever it was they wanted.

  That meant something tangible existed. Not just what Eric Moss kept to himself. A file, an object, papers? A code?

  Further ahead, Mary checked her bearings.

  ‘The containers should be just up here.’ A hundred metres later, she unstrapped the boltcutters from her backpack. Mary was the fittest person I knew, but her endurance was exceptional. She seemed to function without sleep or rest until a crisis was averted. Even then she’d be back at work a few hours later.

  We pushed through to the clearing. Searching with night-vision goggles, there was no suggestion of surveillance out here. No wires, no cameras and no power source.

  We checked the helipad first. Small cracks had formed in the concrete. I wouldn’t have wanted to land anything on a helipad that hadn’t been maintained. It seemed odd, given Eric Moss’s obsession with detail, cleanliness and presentation. I suspected nothing had landed on this for quite a while. It could have partly explained why Geoff Andren flew prospective lenders right over it. The question remained, why would Moss neglect this site?

  The locks to both containers were rusted and didn’t appear to have been recently disturbed.

  Mary got to work with the boltcutters and the first padlock snapped with a loud crack. With a fair amount of effort we managed to creak open the door.

  I shone the light inside.

  Mary and I stood back in stunned silence.

  Both containers were empty.

  Chapter 81

  PICKING THE LOCK on the boat would have been child’s play, if not for his injuries. Just as the man thought he’d have to break in, the lock clicked and the hatch doors opened.

  Down in the galley he went straight for the cupboard under the sink. He removed a tin marked ‘herbal tea’ and a bottle of gin strategically hidden behind it. Buried under the peppermint tea-leaves was a set of keys wrapped in plastic. He peeled them free with his good hand.

  Next he unscrewed the cap from the gin and placed it on the small dining table before descending the aft stairs and lifting out a spare set of clothes from the storage area under one of the bunks.

  Above and to the left of the sink was a latched cupboard containing a first-aid kit. He placed it on the saloon table. He unzipped his jacket and examined the still painful wrist. The shoulder ached but would heal. The spider bite still gave him grief. Sweats and nausea slowed him down more than he would have imagined. On the positive side, the lymph nodes under his arm were reducing in size. His body was slowly clearing the toxin.

  He popped a pill from the kit to counteract nausea, washing it down with a sip of gin. He carefully washed his wrist with liquid soap, dried it and applied antiseptic cream before covering it with a bandage.

  Thirty-six hours without sleep. He needed to rest so slid into the bench seat, closed his eyes and lay his head on the table while he waited.

  Moments later a noise above deck disturbed the quiet.

  He stayed silent and still. He was no longer alone. A light shone through the window, then a pause. Footsteps slowly descended the companionway. Fifth step, fourth.

  He splashed the bottle’s contents down his front and on the table.

  Third.

  He slid on the dark glasses.

  A light moved through the crack above the hatch. The handle on the hatch moved.

  The man gripped the flick-knife in his pocket with his left hand.

  When the door opened, he was sprawled face sideways on the saloon table.

  Chapter 82

  FROM WHERE HE lay, he could make out the image reflected in the window. The intruder had a mouthpiece wired to a radio on his epaulette. Marina Security.

  He moaned.

  ‘Hey.’ The guard stepped closer and poked the stranger’s arm. ‘You all right?’

  The man snorted and sluggishly lifted his head off the table.

  The guard recoiled. ‘Jeez, you reek.’

  The man licked his lips and slurred, ‘Officer, I didn’t do it.’

  The guard lifted the half-empty bottle. ‘How can you even drink this stuff? I need to see some ID.’

  The man fumbled for his wallet, then pointed to a shelf. The guard turned his light to a framed photo of two men on a fishing trip. One currently stank of alcohol. The other was the boat’s real owner.

  ‘That was before my wife left with … our bastard of a lawyer.’

  The guard hesitated and swung his torch around inside.

  ‘I got a report someone broke in.’ He kept the light on the boat’s keys. ‘Next time let us know you’re coming. Save us all a lot of hassle. And, mate, I’ve been there. Alcohol is never the answer.’

  The man folded himself down on the table.

  The guard reported to base that the owner was sleeping off a binge, and was informed two kids had been spray-painting on the other side of the marina. The police were on their way. He sighed, took one look back and left.

  The man quickly set to work.

  Chapter 83

  ELIZA GAVE HER statement to the police. Meanwhile, Darlene fingerprinted all drawers and doorhandles in the apartment. Eliza watched her use a swab to sample the bloodstain from the floor and store it in a clear plastic tube.

  A female constable was asking Eliza if the assailant had made any physical threats. Eliza shook her head.

  ‘No. It all happened so fast.’

  ‘We can take you to hospital,’ the female constable spoke softly, ‘and have any injuries looked at privately?’

  Eliza shook her head once more.
Minor bruises on her elbows, wrists and knees would heal. Thankfully, nothing was broken so she still had her mobility.

  ‘Is there anywhere you can stay for the night? With friends, in case …?’ a senior officer enquired hesitantly.

  Eliza’s heart raced again. ‘You really think he’s coming back?’

  ‘Only if he fancies another dose of flyspray and caustic burns,’ Darlene said from the far side of the room. ‘It’s OK – she’s coming with me.’

  Eliza smiled weakly and wheeled herself to the bedroom to pack some things while the police took photographs of the mess in the hallway.

  Felix rubbed against his owner’s feet.

  ‘It’s just for one night,’ she said. Before more loudly adding, ‘I’ll leave you plenty of food, don’t worry.’

  While Darlene saw the police out, Eliza wheeled herself towards the back door, stopping short in the laundry. She reached down into a sack of kitty litter and extracted a small sandwich bag containing a mini USB device. She quickly shoved it into her jacket pocket then levelled the pellets with a wooden spoon she kept next to the litter box.

  ‘No one needs to know it was ever here,’ she said to herself, and wheeled back out to the corridor.

  Chapter 84

  THE MAN REMOVED a panel from beneath the sink and pulled out a computer and cord. He tore the lining of his jacket and removed a USB from inside the hem.

  So far he was still on schedule to meet his contact. He plugged in a series of passwords and broke through a firewall.

  He tapped his fingers on the laminate, urging the program to open. The spinning wheel on-screen set his pulse rocketing. The computer can’t freeze now. It should have been near-impossible to hack.

  He forced quit and held his breath as the program restarted. His wrist had begun to throb again. All these years of planning his escape had almost been derailed by a spider. The icon finally appeared.