Follow the Money

Habib could keep all the balls in the air for about as long as he pleased.

Offshore, he had similar grips on DFAT personnel who were in a position to facilitate visas for criminals who wouldn't have got through the first level of screening. The idea was that they'd bring their experience and capital to Sydney and operate an under-the-radar criminal network.

'Worth millions,' he said, almost savouring the word. 'Millions.'

'Dirty money,' I said. 'I thought you had a promising career.'

'Too slow, much too slow.'

'I can see Freddy and Lester and Houli and Talat as enforcers, but I don't see your role.'

The expression on his face was almost a smirk. 'That's the cutest part, I-'

'But Habib changed tack,' I said, 'pardon the pun. He took to his boat and ducked out of the arrangement. Let me guess-he thought he and you didn't need the Wongs and Houli. You kept him abreast of things when the little chink in the plan appeared. He was sighted.'

Ali nodded. 'That was careless. I told him to change his appearance and use the moorings he'd set up, but he had the hots for Sun Ling. Gretchen. Putting it all at risk for a woman. Promising her the earth, and she's a junkie.'

'It's been done before and it'll happen again. He's flakey now; wants to do a deal with Chang.'

'No, he knows I'll have to step in. The only deal he can do now is with me. When this is all up and running I'll be in charge of the unit and Chinese and Lebanese crime will run… smoothly.'

I shook my head. 'Megalomania. I don't think you're on very solid ground.'

'Compared to you, I'm on terra firma. You know as well as I do that a big-money, dirty-lawyer network operated here until a certain media magnate left us. The WASPS have had their go: it's the wogs' turn now.'

I watched him as he handled my phone very carefully. It wasn't a particularly interesting phone. He acquainted himself with its functions and I suddenly realised why and had to laugh. His hand shot out for his gun before he realised I hadn't moved.

'You're waiting for his call on my phone,' I said. 'You fed him information when he called you. You don't know where he is, do you?'

'Shut up.'

'To use your boss's expression about how Habib handled me, he'll play you like a fish.'

He took two steps and hit me with a hard chop to the side of my neck. I tried to duck but he was too quick and the blow had a paralysing effect. I could breathe and see but I couldn't move.

The phone buzzed. He had the voice message activated, listened, and let the message run out.

'A woman,' he said, 'sounded young. You old goat.'

Probably Megan, I thought. I was developing a contempt blending with my dislike for him and had to fight the feelings down. Such impulses cloud judgement, and I didn't think Ali held all the cards, not yet. The feeling of paralysis receded, but I kept myself in the rigid position I'd been in as it hit me.

The phone rang again; he listened and then he surprised me. He cleared his throat and answered in a very good imitation of my voice.

'Hardy.'

A pause, then he said, 'It's Karim Ali, William. You're not going to do any deals with Chang, you're going to do a deal with me.'

It wasn't hard to guess at Habib's surprise but I had no way to tell what he said except to infer it from Ali's responses. He told Habib to cool down and think and it was a sure bet Habib was doing plenty of thinking. Ali explained that he'd been forced to act because Chang had become suspicious of him.

'He has to be removed.'

Habib must not have liked that because Ali had to go into some detail about how it could all still work with him running things-would work better, in fact.

He told Habib he could arrange to make it appear that I had killed Chang. Habib apparently liked that even less.

'Very well,' Ali said, 'we'll have to discuss all this face to face. I agree there's a lot to consider.'

At a guess Habib said something about his intention to ditch the whole thing in return for immunity because Ali became conciliatory.

'Look, you were under a lot of pressure. It got bigger than we thought too quickly and you were all caught up with that woman. That's water under the bridge. The Wongs are out and that's a plus. We can get some other Chinese in who're more compliant and I can handle Houli. It'll be all right. You can… recover her.'

All of a sudden Ali noticed how closely I was following the conversation. He swore, switched to rapid Lebanese, and that was the end of my understanding. The only word I caught in what followed sounded like 'fairchild'.

He hung up and looked me over. Moving quickly he upended the chair I was on, leaving me with my feet in the air. He stripped off his tie and trussed my feet together. Then he righted the chair and went into the kitchen. He returned with a tea towel, cut a long, wide strip from it with his knife and gagged me.

'That'll keep you quiet for a while.' He took a small bottle from his pocket, shook out a pill and swallowed it down dry. He worked his shoulders to loosen them and stretched like a cat. He cleared his throat again and punched a number into the phone. He smiled as the call was answered.

'Inspector, this is Hardy. I'm at my place and I need to talk to you. Can you come over here?'

I'm a fair mimic on a good day, but he was better; and again, I was in the frustrating position of listening to only one end of a conversation. Tied up as I was, it was more stressful this time.

'I don't want to talk about it on the phone. I still think Habib could be picking up signals… I don't think it's paranoia… I'm worried about Houli… Talat? No, I don't know anything more about him… OK, as quick as you can, and… be careful.'

He cut the call and took a deep breath. The impersonation had been very good, not perfect, but good enough allowing for telephonic distortion. Ali looked pleased with himself as he put the phone down. He went back to the kitchen and got a bottle of wine and a glass.

'We're not supposed to drink alcohol, but then, there's lots of things we're not supposed to do.'

He poured himself a glass of my cut price merlot and sipped it. 'I don't drink enough to tell whether it's good or bad. I suspect it's cheap, like you, like everything people like you do.'

He was nervous, talking at me, but to himself. Nervous, he was even more dangerous than relaxed. I wondered what the pill he'd taken was, and what effect the wine might have with it. He left the room and I heard the toilet flush. The phone rang, he raced back, swearing, and answered using my voice, perhaps less convincingly.

'What?… When?… Where did she go?… I can't right now

… Yes, yes, soon as I can.'

Gagging is an art that not many people study. Ali hadn't. I worked my jaw against the strip of cloth and loosened it so that I could push against it with my mouth and tongue. It flopped down.

'It's unravelling, Karim,' I said. 'It's not going to work.'

'Fuck you!' He spilled wine from the glass he'd picked up and threw the rest into my face. His arm jerked back, hit the wall and the glass broke. Blood spurted from his hand.

I licked at the drops around my mouth. 'Thanks,' I said. 'Cut your losses, mate. Get together what you've managed to rip off so far and head for the hills. You'll have left DNA all over the place and you'll never convince the SOC people of the scenario you've got planned.'

'Shut up!'

Red wine stained his white shirt and without his tie he suddenly looked nothing like the in-control executioner he'd seen himself as. He paced up and down, getting more and more agitated. He sucked at the cut on his hand. I hoped someone else would ring to up the stress level but no one did and I had to try to do it myself.

'Turn on the news,' I said, 'maybe they've found Habib on his boat.'

'How did you learn about the boat?'

'Oh, that's right. I left certain things out in that off-the-record chat we had after you shot Lester. Let me think… Sun Ling, Gretchen, told me.'