'What does that mean?'
'There's full documentation on Houli for tax evasion, fraud and extortion. Habib probably kept that on hold as insurance. He had similar records on Freddy Wong. No wonder they were after him. Talat is subject to deportation as an illegal immigrant with a criminal record. At least two countries would like to extradite him.'
'And a murderer.'
Chang shrugged. I looked at him. 'But?'
'Immunity in return for silence, but walking on eggshells and… let's say, potentially useful.'
I was worried about Sabatini. After the events at Mortlake, all carefully airbrushed by the police with media compliance, I had to tell him something, but he wanted a lot more to allow him to write his story. I stalled. Luckily, he was still so involved with Rosemary that he didn't press too hard, but eventually I had to confront the problem. I consulted Chang.
'I promised,' I said.
'You had no right to.'
'He was helpful.'
'I'll see what I can do.'
In the end it was all of a piece with the rest of it. The investigators agreed to release a certain amount of information. This was traded to Sabatini for an undertaking that his story could be vetted and sanitised. That's how it worked out. I heard later that Sabatini and Rosemary were married. I wasn't invited to the wedding.
None of the money Habib had spirited away came back to me and I was very low on funds. I hadn't spent much of Standish's original advance on the investigation, but I whittled it down quickly afterwards. Then Standish got me off the hook about the shares. It took time- months. I didn't understand how and didn't try to understand. The GFC seemed to be passing us by and Standish insisted on paying me a bonus. It cleared my debts and at least put me on an even footing with all the constant demands of modern city living-the rates, the phone, the power, the RTA and all the rest. I was solvent, but without prospects.
Except for one. Megan was due to give birth and that kind of blotted out all the other problems.
