‘He told me Mark was a useless junkie.’
‘Mark? No way. I just seen him. He’s workin’ his arse off on somethin’.’
‘Does Marriott know about Stefan’s plans?’
‘Christ, I hope not.’
‘Why did you go along with that charade about shooting him?’
Rudi shrugged. ‘Seemed harmless. Bit of fun. He’s not a bloke to say no to. Plus he promised to buy me a Harley.’
I was trying to work it out. If what Rudi said was true, Marriott’s motive in hiring me was to do with his plan to stop the float. I could be evidence of his paranoia. If he knew about Stefan’s plans, that would give him a reason to stop the float. Was it reason enough to risk being committed as insane? Didn’t seem like it.
Rudi untied the bandanna around his neck and wiped his gritty, oil-stained mouth. ‘He’s dangerous,’ he said.
‘That’s what Rog told me in Melbourne. Where’s Mark now?’
‘In his office.’
‘Is it near Marriott’s?’
‘No, other end.’
‘I’m going up there. Look, I’ll make this up to you somehow.’
‘I really just do odd jobs for these blokes, but Stefan’s treated me okay… You’re not workin’ for Marriott anymore?’
‘No.’
‘I’ll come up with you. Maybe we can sort it out. I know Mark’s been slavin’ away at something to do with what’s buggin’ Stefan and Amie.’
Rudi wasn’t the brightest, but I was glad to have him along. He parked his bike, I moved the car into a slot, and we entered the building. ‘He calls himself Charlie now,’ I said.
‘Yeah-like Charlie Manson.’
When we got up to the Solomon Solutions floor, the place was humming along as per usual. No one took any notice of Rudi in his leathers as we strode towards Mark’s office. There was an unoccupied desk outside it.
‘Funny,’ Rudi said. ‘Sarah should be there. She’s Mark’s secretary.’
‘Coffee break.’
He shook his head. ‘Something’s wrong.’
We went to the door. I knocked.
‘Come in.’
‘Jesus,’ Rudi said. ‘That’s Marriott.’
I opened the door.
‘Come in and shut it,’ Marriott said. He was standing behind a man who was sitting at a desk. Marriott was holding something to his head-a sawn-off. 22 rifle, cut down small enough to fit in the big briefcase he’d carried that morning.
I motioned for Rudi to look at the woman who was lying on the floor. I took a few steps towards the desk. ‘Charlie…’
‘Stop there! I saw you talking to him in the car park. You’ve spoiled everything, Rudi, you dumb bastard.’
I edged a bit closer as his eyes swung towards Rudi. ‘How is she?’ I said.
Rudi looked up and I gained another inch or two. ‘All right. I think she just fainted.’
‘No harm done then. Give it up, Charlie. It’s a single shot job, you can’t shoot all three of us.’
Marriott smiled and his eyes were mad. ‘That’s what you think. I showed you the single shot, but this is a semi-automatic. I can kill you both and her and myself if I want to.’
I squinted at the weapon, but with his big hands wrapped around it I couldn’t tell whether or not it was the rifle I’d seen at his place. Truth or good bluff?
‘Why would you want to do that?’ I said.
The man with the gun to his head said, ‘I know why. I’m Mark Metropolis, who are you?’
‘He’s no one,’ Marriott said. ‘You’re all nobodies. Go on, Mark. Tell them about who’s really got the brains around here.’
Mark’s eyes were red-rimmed and two days’ growth showed blue-black against his pale skin. With his shoulder-length hair and earrings and the haggard face, if I’d passed him in the street I might have taken him for a bombed-out junkie but he wasn’t-the man was exhausted. He moved his head a little to ease away from the rifle. ‘I’ve been trying to find out what Charles has been working on. I hacked into his files and got the gist of it. He’s doing a deal with Backup. He’s developed better monitoring, forecasting and accounting systems than the ones we have. He’s selling it to Backup who’ll demonstrate it and we’ll be down the toilet. He’ll be rich. It’s his revenge for being rejected by Stefan and Amie.’
Marriott jabbed him hard with the raw metal and blood flowed from a slash above his ear. ‘Shut up, wog! You didn’t tell them the whole of it.’
Mark drooped towards the desk as the blood dropped on his shoulder and the front of his shirt. ‘Tell them yourself, you lunatic’
‘Ha! Mark thought he was so smart getting into my stuff but he was always mediocre, right from the start. I had a built-in tracking program that picked him up as soon as he got to where he didn’t ought to go.’
‘What’s the idea of the gun?’ I said.
‘I was going to throw a loony act to stop the float. Hey, Cliff, I was going to take a shot at you maybe. Completely nuts, right? Paranoid. I didn’t think Mark would get as close in as he did, but lo and behold, the dummy did, right this morning. Jesus! Then I saw you and Rudi talking and…’
I was close to the desk; I could almost make a grab for the rifle. ‘And now you know it’s over. Your plan’s buggered. We’d better all sit down and talk about it, work something out. Put the gun down, Charlie. You’re sick, you need help.’
‘Sick! I’m brilliant! I’m the most brilliant-’
Just then the woman on the floor came to and let out a scream. Mark jerked his head away from the rifle and I made a swipe at it, touched it, but couldn’t get a grip. Marriott responded with a roar that was half fear and half rage. His mad eyes popped as he saw Mark throw himself onto the floor behind the desk and Rudi and I moving towards him. He staggered back, thrust the rifle up under his chin and pulled the trigger. The shot and the woman’s second scream filled the room as Marriott crumpled to the floor.
I went around the desk and crouched beside him, feeling for a pulse but there was nothing. For a rank amateur, he’d done a fully professional job in putting a. 22 bullet through his brain.
The whole business took a lot of explaining to the police and to Stefan Sweig and others. I didn’t come out of it well. I’d been used and duped and out of my depth the whole time. Marriott had cried wolf a couple of times and he’d evidently thought he needed a big show, like shooting the private detective he’d hired, to get the effect he needed. His brilliant system died with him because he’d encrypted the essential elements so thoroughly that no one could use it. Eventually the smoke settled and the float went ahead.
Stefan and Mark offered to compensate me for my time and reward me for the outcome but I refused. I paid for my own dry-cleaning and bought Rudi a slab.
‘So you got nothing out of it?’ Viv Garner, my lawyer, said over a drink after I’d told him the story.
‘I wouldn’t say that. I got a free trip to Melbourne.’
COCKTAILS FOR TWO
Jordan Elliott started talking as soon as he sat down. ‘I want to hire you to investigate a murder.’
‘The police do that sort of thing,’ I said. ‘I find lost stuff, or look for it; do bodyguarding and money- guarding…’
