‘No, I’ve never heard it before. Do we need to move Ellie? She won’t like it if we do.’
‘Trev organised an officer to check it out today. She’s on call if that car comes back. It’s safe up there. I’ve looked it over. Don’t forget Kidz Corner has its own security.’
She looked away, her face drawn with worry. ‘I don’t want Ellie to be bothered by this kind of thing. I just ran wild when I was young. I wish she could.’
‘Me too,’ he said. ‘But the world’s not the same. I traced the car but it took me to an address in Lakemba where they’d never heard of Craig Wells. The twist is that I once dealt with a cold case where the victim had that name, but whether there’s a connection I don’t know. But I did find one connection today we can’t ignore. The real estate agent managing the unit is Eddie Grippo. He used to work for Tony Ponticelli senior and now he’s managing their properties. We put him away for grievous bodily harm. He’s just got out. It might be all these incidents have nothing to do with Newell; it’s the Ponticellis looking to get their own back.’
‘Why now? Wasn’t your involvement with them years ago?’
‘You’d have to look inside Tony Ponticelli’s head to know what’s really going on in there. He’s got Alzheimer’s; apparently he’s losing it. It might be he wants to settle a few personal scores with me before he goes.’
‘Like what?’
‘Tony’s first wife died when he was about fifty. She had cancer. He married again, this twenty-something. They had two children, a boy and a girl. She couldn’t deal with the life. She left Tony and took the boy. Went into hiding to get away from him. He kept the girl, Bianca. It was before I met you and after we finished our operations against him. I don’t know why but she came after me.’
‘Are you saying you had an affair? Sleeping with the enemy? That’s dangerous.’ She smiled at him. ‘Didn’t it bother this woman that you were trying to put her father in gaol?’
‘I think that’s why she did it. She was getting at him. It was only a brief thing between us. Tony’s a vain man. She was like him. She thought she was more important than she was.’
‘To you?’ Grace asked.
‘To everything. Yeah, me as well. She was like a spoilt kid. She kept trying to attract attention to herself. The company she was keeping, she was way out of her depth. I told her that. She just laughed. No one was going to hurt her because she was Tony Ponticelli’s daughter. She ended up raped and murdered. They dumped her by the Cooks River. We never found who did it. There was no information.’
‘Bianca Ponticelli. I remember the case. It was when I was studying criminology, we talked about it. Does Tony Ponticelli blame you?’
‘For a while he was going around saying I had a personal vendetta against him. I’d let whoever killed her get away and I was covering up for them. Then he backed off.’
‘Why?’
‘The tax office went after him for tax evasion. He didn’t have time to think about me. It depends on what this has turned into in his head. He was always unpredictable and he’s still dangerous. He can get things done if he wants to.’
‘It’s a potent mixture,’ Grace said. ‘His daughter and you undermining his business.’
It was on the tip of Harrigan’s tongue to say there was one other thing as well, but he kept it to himself. He would have preferred to tell her but judged it better if he didn’t. She had too much on her mind.
‘Why did you do it?’ she was asking him.
‘She was there. She was making the offer. She was attractive. Sometimes you can spend too long alone.’
She looked at him with a half-smile. ‘I’ve had affairs like that too.’
They were silent. Grace rubbed her forehead.
‘Can we really leave Ellie at Kidz Corner? How do we know this car won’t come back?’
‘Where else is she going to go? If anything happens, the officer’s on call and Trevor’s people will be there like a shot. Kate’s always got her eyes open. I’m finding out who’s behind this. You can trust me. I’ll protect us.’
‘I do trust you. I always have.’ She looked around. ‘We could be happy. Why don’t they just leave us alone?’
‘People aren’t like that.’
At that moment her face was almost disfigured with strain. ‘I’m going to have to tell Orion that the Ponticellis may be behind whoever’s stalking us.’
‘That’s okay, babe. You can do that. I don’t mind.’
She was silent again. Then: ‘Something’s come up at work.’
‘Like what?’
‘I’ve been asked to do a covert operation. I’ve said I will.’
‘You didn’t talk to me first?’
‘It’s an important operation. I couldn’t walk away. Clive wants to talk to you about it first thing tomorrow morning. With me there. I’m sorry about that. I hate having him involved in our lives like this but I have to.’
‘What’s the operation about?’
‘That’s what we have to talk about tomorrow.’
‘How much danger is there?’
‘I’ve been promised full backup and I have an opt-out clause if I decide I can’t handle it.’
‘What exactly do they want you to do?’
‘Nothing I couldn’t tell you about if it wasn’t for the secrecy involved.’
‘That’s nice to know,’ he said, beginning to feel angry. ‘That’s three questions I’ve asked you and not one straight answer.’
‘I can’t give you one, not until tomorrow’s meeting. That’s the condition Clive has laid down. If I break it, he’ll take me off the job. You can trust me too, you know.’
‘I do. But I don’t trust Clive.’
‘He’s got his own agenda. But this is a job I want to do as well.’
‘Don’t forget us.’
‘I never stop thinking about you or Ellie,’ she said. ‘You mean too much to me.’
That night, when he asked her if she wanted to make love, she said she was too tired, even though he judged she was less tired tonight than she had been last night. He felt her tense in his arms and let it go. In a matter of a few days the world had changed. They could be happy if people would leave them alone. That wasn’t going to happen. But he was ready for anyone out there, and if they meant business, so did he. Tomorrow, after he’d spoken to Clive, he was going searching for a few answers. He went to sleep with some sense of security, if only because he knew his gun was in reach if he needed it.
The next day was a very early start for them both. It wasn’t much after seven when Harrigan dropped Ellie off at the childcare centre. She was cranky and unhappy at having her routine upset.
‘I’ll come and get you this afternoon, princess. Don’t you worry,’ he said. ‘If we can, we’ll go and see your brother.’
Grace was ahead of him. She must have been at work for half an hour when he pulled up at Orion’s entrance. The guard was expecting him and let him through. Harrigan had been here twice before: once for a security clearance when he and Grace had set up house together; and a second time when Clive, new to his job, had insisted on going through the process all over again. While Harrigan had dealt easily enough with the questions, he’d left wishing that Grace worked for someone else. The man was a cold-blooded manipulator, someone who played games for the kick he got out of it.
He was waiting for Harrigan in one of the rooms Orion used when they interviewed members of the public, all of which were on the perimeter of the building. Given what the meeting was about, Harrigan wondered why Clive hadn’t asked him into his office. He did have a top-secret security clearance, given to him by Clive himself.
‘Where’s Grace?’ he asked, after he’d sat down.
‘She’ll be here,’ Clive said. ‘What has she told you about this?’
‘She’s been asked to undertake a covert operation. That’s it.’
Clive was pleased with this. ‘You’re aware that this organisation can’t give you any more information than that.’
‘Is that what this meeting’s about? For you to tell me I can’t be told anything?’
