Claudia's Big Break (27 page)

Angie was speechless.

‘Half the women in the office were sleeping with him. I didn't figure you —' Jack stopped and pretended to read through his notes.

‘I don't believe that,' I said, tears welling in my eyes. Of course Marcus flirted with other women, but there's no way he'd be sleeping with any of them. Would he? I suddenly felt naive and silly. I didn't want to hear that I was just another notch on Marcus's bedpost.

Finally, Angie spoke. ‘He's married, isn't he?'

‘Separated,' I said quietly.

Jack rocked back in his chair. ‘Exactly why do you think Marcus sent you to Greece?'

‘Other than to have me meet Con and have him sign a bunch of legal papers?'

Jack nodded.

‘I'm not sure,' I said, wiping away tears. ‘Marcus wanted me out of the office, maybe because we'd ended our affair.'

‘So he offered you this holiday?'

‘Yes. He said I needed a break. He asked if I'd ever been to Greece and suggested I might like to take a holiday for a couple of weeks, the only stipulation being that en route to Santorini I get some papers signed in Athens.'

‘Go on.'

I took a breath. ‘Marcus was offering me the holiday of a lifetime. He knew my financial situation. The whole world knew I was in debt up to my ears. There was no way I could get to Europe on my own anytime in the foreseeable future. He booked my airline ticket, organised a great apartment in Santorini and all just for meeting Con for ten minutes while he signed some papers.' Breathing deeply, I blinked away a few rogue tears. ‘Okay, in hindsight it does seem a bit too good to be true.'

Jack looked at me for a moment. ‘What about the money?'

‘I truly believed that was my kiss-off. He said as much. I certainly didn't ask for it. I was shocked that he'd even offered. Next thing I knew, he texted telling me he'd transferred it to my bank account.'

As it finally dawned that Marcus had used me, the combination of fear, anger, hurt and betrayal became overwhelming. I was shaking, my stomach was churning. I thought I might be sick. I felt lost, alone and very scared.

With a click of the ‘pause' button, Jackass suspended the interview. ‘Claudia, do you need to take a break, some water perhaps?' He poured Angie and I the remainder of the liquid from the pale grey pottery jug.

Angie took a sip from her glass. ‘I had no idea about any of this.'

‘You must hate me,' I started.

‘Everyone has their reasons,' she replied.

It was by no means a ringing endorsement.

‘You right to start again?' Jack asked and clicked off the ‘pause' button. ‘So Marcus Cassoli gives you an all-expenses-paid holiday to Greece . . .'

‘When we landed in Athens, I immediately went to the address Marcus had given me and searched for Con but —' I hesitated.

‘Go on.'

‘Well, I don't know if it was the right place. I think I saw some guy get beaten up and it freaked me out. The place was derelict. I was surrounded by used syringes and broken glass.'

‘You were definitely at the right address.'

‘But it was abandoned — Wait! You saw me there?' I couldn't believe what I was hearing . . . he'd seen me and hadn't tried to help.

‘No, not me.' Jack shook his head. ‘Go on.'

I hated him saying that. As if I had a choice other than to
go
on.
‘I called Marcus and said that Con wasn't there.'

‘And what was Marcus's reaction?'

‘He told me to fly to Santorini as planned and that Con would call me when it suited him.'

‘Go on.'

I wanted to shove Jack's
go on
's down his throat.

‘I got on with having a holiday.' Jackass shifted uncomfortably in his chair. ‘Celebrated my birthday and did some sightseeing, as you do on holiday.'

‘When did you finally make contact with Con Kafentsis?'

‘He phoned me a week ago and we arranged to meet at the café opposite the bus terminal at eleven o'clock the next day.'

‘How did you feel about that?'

‘Relieved.' I took a deep breath as I remembered. ‘Because I could finally hand over the envelope and get on with my holiday. But I was also worried because he sounded creepy. Again, Marcus told me I was being paranoid.'

‘Anything else?'

‘I thought Con was a little abrupt over the phone but I put that down to the language differences.'

‘Then what happened?'

‘I turned up the next day at the agreed time and Con showed up half an hour later.'

‘He was probably watching you. Making sure you weren't with anyone else,' said Angie.

‘Maybe. Anyway, I didn't recognise him from Athens, which was a good thing, but before I could discuss the contents of the envelope, Con's phone rang and he took off.'

Jack stopped drawing cubes on a blank sheet of paper and looked up. ‘Didn't you think his behaviour was a bit odd?'

‘Of course, but I don't know many Greek people. I didn't want to make assumptions about a person I didn't know.'

Jack nodded. ‘What happened next?'

‘I spoke to Marcus and told him I wasn't going to hang around for this bloke any more. But then he said he would pay off a significant chunk of my debt —'

‘Go on.'

‘Jack,' I resisted the urge to call him by his full name — Jackass. ‘Would you please stop telling me to
go on
? I'm going as fast as I can.'

‘Sorry. Force of habit.'

‘Let me see . . . I was nearly run over by a scooter —'

‘Coincidence.'

‘— and the apartment was trashed —'

‘Kids. Though you do seem to be a magnet for trouble, Claudia.'

I raised my eyebrows. ‘So you were watching me the whole time?' Jack looked away. ‘And then Levi disappeared.'

Angie shook her head. ‘When you put it all together, a lot has happened to you in the past few days. It does all look rather suspicious.'

‘Then you turn up in full CSI mode,' I said, turning to Jack.

Jack shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

‘You said you saw Con in the crowd the other day?'

‘I said I thought I saw him. I started to chase him. I even called out his name, but he didn't turn around. Besides, there was no point meeting up with him, I didn't have the envelope with me. You were there, Jack. You saw me trying to catch Con's attention a second time. If I'd been privy to a fiendish plan, do you really think I'd have tried to hook up with him while you were with me?'

‘Maybe. It's not as if you knew who I really was.'

‘No, you're right. I still don't.'

‘Let's continue, shall we? What happened with Marcus?'

‘By this stage, Marcus was snappy. He told me that Con was a busy man overseeing an enormous enterprise and that he'd come to the apartment when it suited him.'

‘And then you met up with him this morning?'

I tried looking out the window.

‘He came to your apartment this morning, Claudia,' Jack continued. ‘I have the photographs to prove it. Are you saying you didn't invite him?'

‘Hardly. I was still asleep when he turned up, hence the reason I'm looking so glamorous now.'

‘So you didn't prearrange the meeting this morning?' Jack asked, raising one eyebrow. He might have been a Jackass but his eyebrows were still fetching.

‘I think Claudia's answered the question,' Angie said. ‘She had no idea Con would show up at the apartment this morning.'

Jack nodded. ‘Before we finish, is there anything else you'd like to add?'

I shook my head.

‘Interview one completed at 1.54 pm.' Jack pushed the ‘stop' button.

‘Interview one? How many more interviews are there going to be? I've told you everything I know.'

‘What happens now?' I asked Angie after Nina and Jack, armed with his crappy tape recorder, left the room.

‘Not sure.'

Not the answer I was hoping for.

‘I'll look around and see if I can find out anything more. It might take me a while. You okay with that?' Angie squeezed my hand and walked out of the room.

And I was left alone to think about the mess I'd gotten myself into — or rather, the mess that Marcus had dropped me into, headfirst. Although all the evidence indicated that he was up to no good, I had trouble believing it. Marcus had always been so easygoing. He never seemed concerned about company finances; in fact he was a generous employer, sparing no expense at the end-of-year celebrations and always rewarding staff with overflowing festive hampers.

Okay, so he hadn't seemed so easygoing since I'd been over here, what with all the carry-on about the envelope. And now I knew why. Still, I couldn't believe he'd really treat me like this, allow me to get caught up in criminal activity. Because if I believed that, then I'd have no choice but to believe that Marcus had been using me the whole time. It was a humiliating thought.

Much later Nina delivered to me some souvlakia, tzatziki, olive bread and a Diet Coke. I'd lost my appetite but forced myself to eat something in case this was the last food I saw for a while.

Being alone in this godforsaken place was a mild form of torture. Perhaps they'd hidden a two-way mirror and Jackass was spying on me to see if I'd crack? I looked around, scrutinising each wall. There didn't seem to be a secret mirror anywhere. But then again, logic told me that if it were concealed I wouldn't see it. What about a hidden camera? I searched the walls and came to the conclusion that it was highly unlikely I was being watched. But I decided against scratching my nose, just in case.

Where was Angie? She and Jack had hit it off right from the word go. Maybe they were getting to know each other better over an intimate airport lunch. Were they both laughing about me right now? Giggling about what a pathetic loser I was?

Just then Angie appeared in the doorway with Jack.

‘I'll leave you to it,' Jack said to Angie and closed the door behind him.

‘Angie!' I snapped. ‘Is it over? Can we leave now?'

‘Not quite,' said Angie, dragging two chairs together and motioning for me to sit.

‘What do you mean,
not quite
? I haven't bloody well done anything wrong.'

‘The good news is I think Jack and the police believe you.' She hesitated. ‘Or at least,' Angie qualified, ‘they want to believe you . . . It's a start.'

‘Who is Jack anyway? An undercover cop?'

‘Private investigator.'

I shook my head. ‘What's the bad news?'

‘Although they've taken Marcus Cassoli into custody in Brisbane —'

I gulped.

‘— the police over there haven't finished interviewing him. Jack has to wait to hear what Marcus says. Also, because the Greek authorities are involved, Jack doesn't have the power to release you. That's up to Nina, and she needs the okay from their Australian counterparts.'

‘Nina?'

‘She's the police officer in charge. Jack was only doing the interview because of his English.'

‘Bloody hell. And he still came in all guns blazing.'

‘It'll be okay.' Angie stroked my shoulder. ‘It's obvious you were caught in the crossfire.'

I wasn't feeling confident. ‘What about Con? What's he said?'

‘Not a lot. Although it's a given he's guilty. The police over here have had their eye on him for ages. He's a known drug dealer, hacker, into money laundering —'

‘Slowly,' I said. ‘My head's still fuzzy.'

‘Apparently the flash drive has a series of numbers embedded in it — a secret code, if you like — that would have given Con the information he needed to transfer millions of dollars out of several Australian bank accounts and into Swiss ones. And using the Swiss bank-secrecy laws, Con could have simply turned himself into the invisible man. He already had mechanisms in place — shell corporations, numbered accounts, forged documents.'

‘The perfect plan.'

‘Theoretically. The irony is that Marcus trusted this swindler but, as it turns out, Con was trying to cheat Marcus. Marcus thought of Con as his money courier, with you as the go-between, but Con had much bigger plans. Marcus assumed that Con would remain honest and split the money. He had no idea who he was getting himself involved with.'

‘But why would he have trusted Con in the first place?' I wondered out loud. ‘It doesn't make sense.'

‘Desperation. Marcus's business isn't as rock solid as it appears.'

‘And me?' I asked Angie, dreading the answer.

‘I'm afraid you were the one Marcus was going to pin it on if things went wrong.'

I dropped my face into my hands and rubbed my eyes and cheeks. ‘How the hell did I get caught up in this nightmare?' But I knew the answer. I'd been taken in by Marcus. I'd believed him when he said he cared about me and wanted to help. He'd been so easy to trust. It never occurred to me that Marcus's business dealings were anything but above board.

‘Whenever the office accounts didn't add up, I assumed it was because of my atrocious maths skills.'

‘That's what Marcus wanted you to think.'

I shook my head. ‘He'd let me off the hook by telling me his accountants would deal with it. I'm a naive idiot, aren't I? And a lousy judge of character.'

‘Perhaps you're an optimist who sees the best in people.'

I guess that was one way of looking at it.

‘It's going to be okay,' said Angie in the tone a psychiatrist might use to coax a deranged person off a twenty-metre window ledge. ‘We'll all be laughing about this in a few hours' time. Jack knows it's a mistake.'

‘It's more than a mistake. I really thought Jack was becoming a friend. To find out he was using me all along . . .'

‘I don't think —'