The Tower (33 page)

He stood staring at her, trying to grasp the significance of what she was saying.

‘Your failure to reinterview the illegal immigrants on Tuesday as Stone requested, your failure take someone with you to interview Jennifer Finch, the unnecessary search for the handbag you arranged for this morning—which Sergeant Stone called off, fortunately.' Most of the details were right, but the way she was putting them together it sounded as though she were describing someone else, some idiot. She went on, ‘I believe this is threatening the effectiveness of the investigation into Margot Teresi's death. This morning, as a senior member of the team, you should have attended the briefing here. Instead, you visited McIver after Stone specifically directed you not to do that during work hours.' She waved a bit of paper at him. Troy could see Stone's signature on it. ‘You don't deny you did this?'

‘No, but—'

‘I might say that direction was given on my instructions, although there was no need for you to know that at the time. Sergeant Stone was your superior officer.'

‘Ma'am,' he began, ‘the union—', but she went on, speaking over the top of him.

‘As a result of all this, I'm removing you from the investigation. You have the rest of the day to brief your replacement, Danny Chu. You'll report to Parramatta tomorrow.'

For a moment he couldn't speak. He wondered why she was overreacting like this. There was a roaring in his head, and then it struck him. Bloody McIver. He'd said he'd do something, and he hadn't been joking. He'd talked to Kelly on the phone, while Troy had been driving in from Gladesville. Otherwise, she wouldn't even know they'd met that morning. This was bad. The loss of whatever he'd had with Mac was even more painful than being taken off the investigation.

Kelly said, ‘Nick, this is not a reprimand. It's partly my fault, I shouldn't have brought you back to work so soon.' She rubbed her cheek. ‘Tell your wife that, will you? Tell her I'm sorry I didn't call, but I've been so busy.'

‘I'll tell her.'

‘She must be quite a woman, the second message was feisty.'

Troy nodded, incapable of speech.

‘Do you have anything to say at this point?'

He had a lot to say, but he wasn't sure how rational he'd be right now. He was proud of Anna. It occurred to him that Kelly might be right, that he hadn't been acting normally, but the thought was obliterated by a flash of anger at McIver. Shaking his head, he left the room.

As he made his way to his desk, Little called out, waving some papers in his direction.

Troy said, ‘I've just been taken off the investigation.'

All around him, people stopped working for a moment. There was silence, everyone aware of Kelly still in the office. Gradually the sounds of their efforts resumed. Life went on.

‘Why's that?' said Little.

Troy shrugged. The anger was building, he could feel it pressing on his chest. Maybe he would pay McIver a visit later on, have it out with him. ‘I don't want to talk about it. Not now.'

He opened the top drawer of his desk and took out the few personal items there, putting them into his backpack. Little was talking to Chu nearby, but he found it hard to concentrate on what they were saying. The thought that he would have nothing more to do with finding Margot Teresi's killer was distressing. This was the most important investigation he'd ever been involved in. It seemed to him, absurdly, that there ought to be some regulation to prevent Kelly taking him off it. But there wasn't, of course.

Chu said, ‘Can we go through this from the beginning? Maybe go out and have a coffee?'

Troy hardly heard him. He turned to Little. ‘You were going to speak to Jenny Finch's doctor. Did that happen?'

‘She'd been in and out of the Sydney Clinic for years.' Little looked at Chu and then back at Troy. ‘Tried to kill herself three times before. Her doctor thought moving in with Margot was good at first, but lately he wasn't so sure.'

‘Why was that?' Troy said, lifting the backpack onto his shoulder.

‘Didn't like Margot's obsession with The Tower. Made him wonder if she was such a good influence on her cousin.'

‘Well, I'm off,' Troy said, putting out his hand.

Little shook it. ‘I'm sorry about this.'

Chu was upset.

‘Little can tell you all about it,' Troy said. ‘I'm not in the mood.'

But he didn't feel as bad as he might have.

He realised this was because of the woman he'd been with last night. It was something no one could take away from him.

Twenty-seven

T
roy parked his car at the south end of Coogee Beach, and walked out to the headland. The spray was breaking on Wedding Cake Island. He made his way along the boardwalk, knowing he was on the brink of self-pity and determined to stay away from it, but not sure what to do. Boxing might be good, he'd been thinking about it lately, and maybe it was time to go back; he could help out at one of the police youth clubs, maybe. That was assuming kids still boxed. Even when he'd started, it had been kind of old-fashioned.

His phone rang and he saw that it was Randall. The engineer said he'd talked to Siegert about Stone and the union. The super was going to have a word. Troy listened without interest, and said, ‘I've been taken off the investigation.'

Randall exploded with sympathy. He felt Troy's pain. For five minutes he went on, squeezing the emotional juice from what had happened. This was pleasant, but at last Troy had had enough. He said goodbye, anxious to be on the move, thinking he might drive down to the nearest youth club and see what was going on.

‘No,' Randall said. ‘We can fix this.' There was a note of seriousness in his voice, something Troy hadn't heard before. Still, there was no point in going on about it.

‘I'll call you in a few days. We should have a drink.'

‘Wait,' said Randall. ‘Did you do anything about the union complaints about Stone?'

Troy described how this had contributed to his downfall.

Randall said, ‘I haven't told you everything I know about this.'

‘What?'

‘This is completely off the record. Stone worked undercover for a long time on a construction site in Melbourne.' He paused and Troy said nothing. ‘You don't seem too surprised.'

‘I'm thinking about it,' Troy said.

‘There's more. Stone is still involved in investigating the union. Up here now.'

Troy, who had been walking while he spoke, stopped and leaned one arm on a wooden railing, looking down at the waves breaking at the foot of the cliff. His heart seemed to be pounding in time with the surf.

‘I don't understand,' he said.

Randall explained that the construction industry in New South Wales, riddled with corruption and violence from time immemorial, had wanted a police investigation like the one in Victoria. Something thorough, an undercover job. But the government refused to allow it, claiming the union wasn't as bad up here. The industry knew the real reason was that the union was a major financial backer of the government. Enter the federal government, keen to see the union exposed because of the damage it was doing the national economy. The result was a lot of tension in federal and state law enforcement circles. When Margot Teresi came off The Tower and McIver was shot, someone had had the idea of bringing Stone up to Sydney and inserting him in the investigation.

‘There's a federal election next year,' Troy said when Randall had finished.

‘You've got it.'

Troy didn't want to believe it. Kelly and her superiors had their faults, but the idea they'd use a homicide investigation for political purposes was too much. Apart from the moral angle, they'd be worried about the risk of exposure. He turned around, leaning back into the railing, seeing two women with prams walk past. Ordinary life goes on, and behind it, this craziness. But no, it wasn't possible.

‘It's a murder investigation,' he said. ‘They wouldn't compromise that. One of the killers shot a cop.'

‘Stop and think,' Randall said. ‘There are people out there with different agendas to yours.'

I don't have an agenda, Troy thought. ‘Kelly would not do this,' he said slowly, but already there was doubt in his mind.

‘It's a favour for someone important,' Randall said. ‘I could tell you who that is and just what she hopes to get out of it. I won't. But I've been told.'

No. ‘She wouldn't compromise a homicide inquiry.'

‘It wasn't meant to do that. It was supposed to be a little side deal. The idea was that Stone would have access to the whole site in his role as a murder investigator, go anywhere, talk to anyone. It was a very specific industrial issue they were interested in, involving one incident, one industrial officer they were out to get. It was only supposed to take him a day or two.'

Troy said, his voice almost breaking, ‘But how could he possibly run a murder investigation too?'

Randall sounded impatient. ‘He wasn't supposed to do it for more than a few days. He actually got what he wanted on the first day, that should have been the end of it. But then he told his bosses he was on the trail of something bigger, he just needed another day or two. Like idiots they said yes, and then he just went feral. There's something wrong with the guy, the way I hear it, and Kelly and the feds are very anxious about him. Imagine what will happen—'

‘You knew, didn't you?'

‘It was a good idea. It just got stuffed up in the execution.'

‘You bastard,' Troy said, his voice low. ‘You knew.'

‘Labour problems here are a nightmare,' Randall said quickly. ‘The cost of a tall building is eight per cent more than it should be. The state government doesn't want to know about it because the industry is one of its biggest—'

Troy turned off his phone. For a moment he considered hurling it into the sea far below, but instead he stuffed it in the pocket of his jacket. One of the reasons for being the sort of person he was, dedicated to his work but not particularly ambitious, was that you didn't have to be part of this sort of obscenity. But it found you in the end.

He began to walk back to his car, wondering what to do. Who to tell. McIver was out of his life now. Danny Chu was no good, not confrontational enough. It would take him a few days to become impatient with Stone, and even then he wouldn't make waves. Essentially this was about Kelly, and she was a powerful woman. He didn't know what he could do about her.

He stopped on a patch of rock overlooking the sea and breathed in the ocean air. The problem, the one he found he did still care about, was that the investigation had hit two dead ends as far as finding out the identity of the shooter. Assuming Sidorov stayed quiet and Conti couldn't break anyone at the council, they wouldn't find Margot's killer, not if Stone remained in charge. He would insist Chu stayed in the office, and Chu would do as he was told. The investigation would continue to limp on as it had, but they had no new lines of investigation. Unless they had a break, in a few weeks there would be a meeting at which Kelly, under pressure from the commanders who had lent detectives to Tailwind, would review the lack of progress and decide to reduce the number of staff. Troy knew from experience that this would be the beginning of the end. And it was not acceptable, it was not how the death of Margot Teresi should finish up, as an unsolved murder. One that had led to two other deaths. A homicide investigation deserved integrity and determination. The living owed a debt to the dead.

As he began to walk again, he sought relief in thoughts about the previous night. The woman had had smooth black hair and skin the colour of weak coffee, and when she'd removed her dress there'd been a certain playful knowingness in her expression that had come as a pleasant surprise. As if it was more than a commercial transaction. This had been a lie, of course, but she'd lied well. From then on his memory was hazy, almost erased by the physical intensity of the experience. Bits of it came back now. There'd been a large mirror on one of the doors of the built-in wardrobe opposite the bed. She'd used it skilfully, allowing him glimpses of what they were doing. After a while he hadn't looked.

‘Contemplating your fate?'

Troy turned around. He'd reached the park and McIver was standing just a few metres away, his hair tousled by the wind that had sprung up.

‘How'd you find me?'

There were other things he wanted to say to McIver, but for the moment he couldn't remember what they were. There was so much to be angry about.

‘I called Anna. She hadn't heard you'd been taken off the investigation, so I told her. She said you sometimes come here when you want to think.'

Troy was irritated. ‘She doesn't know that.'

McIver came and stood next to him on the grass, awkwardly zipping up his leather jacket, with the left arm in its sling inside. He was swaying slightly and Troy didn't think it was the wind.

‘You spoke to Kelly,' he said.

‘I did.'

McIver was closer now, and Troy could smell the alcohol mixed with other smells, such as aftershave. He wondered if his father had had a distinctive smell, if he did himself. It needed a child's nose to really tell. When Matt was older he'd have to ask him.

‘She's taken me off the investigation.'

‘She told me.'

‘This is bad.'

‘I agree.'

He looked at McIver. ‘I thought we had some sort of friendship.'

‘You should listen to your feelings.'

‘I won't forget this.'

McIver stuck his hands in his pockets and turned his back to the wind. ‘I'm picking up a vibe here. You think I did this, don't you?'

‘You told me you'd make me pay. Outside your house this morning.'

‘Like this?'

‘Kelly knew I'd seen you. A few hours later, I was taken off the investigation.'