Authors: Lee Christine
Josie reached for her cup, gulped down a mouthful of hot coffee then swore under her breath as she dripped it all over the grey suit. She reached for the phone with a trembling hand, sent a silent thank you to Dario Byrne for the effective disguise.
Disordered thoughts crowded into her mind, bouncing around and ricocheting off each other as she tried making sense of it all.
The Southern Cross.
Lizard Mulvaney.
Providence Pty. Limited.
Where had she seen that name?
Henry Grace?
Uptown Drycleaning.
A strange sensation, like a cold waterfall, rolled down her spine and spread throughout her lower back. Was Henry Grace’s next stop Fit Forever Gymnasium?
She had to message Nate
.
No!
She wasn’t worried or threatened, was she?
She didn’t know, couldn’t bring order to the chaos in her mind. Grace and Poole was a large firm, with offices only a few blocks away. It wasn’t inconceivable Mr. Grace would drop off his laundry on the way to the gym.
But…
Doubts wormed their way into her head.
She took a deep breath, swallowed another mouthful of coffee and told herself to calm the hell down. The most important thing was to get a shot of him coming out the door. If he did end up at Fit Forever, she’d hear it through her ear piece.
And she’d message Nate then.
Nate started with a fast walk before breaking into a run, feet flying over the treadmill mat, buoyed by the prospect of making multiple arrests.
Barely noticing the ache in his shoulder, he kept his eyes on locker 17 and imagined the outcome.
Kennett, the Viper, behind bars for the murder of Lizard Mulvaney. The entire Altar Boys’ inner circle, including Bull, Grassy and Kennett, charged with money laundering offences, plus the manufacture and supply of illegal drugs. And there were others, like Ong Chung and the guy he was waiting for now, cleaning the dirty cash through a variety of means he was yet to discover.
Ultimately, there was the Overseer, an enigma, hiding at the end of an intricate labyrinth of companies and trusts.
Nate stretched out, revelling in the feeling of running again. When the arrests were made, he’d be credited for smashing the biggest drug ring in Australian history, and his career would be made. He’d have his choice of consulting work, and the opportunity to work with everyone from the Australian Federal Police, to U.S. Law Enforcement, even MI5 and MI6.
He studied the people around him. Most were women, and he barely gave them a second glance. Motorcycle gangs were run by men, with women unable to become fully patched. A chauvinist like Kennett would never trust a woman with a mountain of dirty cash.
Suddenly the door opened, and a man he recognised strode in.
Nate’s heart gave an enormous thud, which had nothing at all to do with the exercise. He knew the man, had looked at his portrait hanging next to Simon Poole’s in the waiting room outside Allegra’s office. But he’d never seen Henry Grace in person until now.
Thankfully, Grace didn’t know him.
Nate changed the speed and incline on the treadmill, the machine giving a series of beeps while he kept his eyes trained on the well-known lawyer. He watched him nod to the girl behind the front counter.
A regular customer
.
Sweat poured down Nate’s face, mind racing as he watched Henry Grace pass by his treadmill and move towards the lockers.
Allegra acted for the Southern Cross.
Mulvaney called Josie.
Josie knew the name Providence.
Henry Grace?
What the hell was going on?
Blood roared in Nate’s ears. If Grace was the collector, he could be moments away from arresting one of the most respected lawyers in New South Wales. Adrenaline pumped into his muscles and he lifted the phone with his right hand, slowed the machine to a walk with his left.
‘Henry Grace is in the gym,’ he murmured. ‘Copy.’
He could only imagine Josie’s shock.
‘Copy that. Standing by.’ Dickson’s reply came back within seconds. He’d stay in his current position until further instruction.
Grace was now at the lockers. The lawyer turned, eyes performing a quick scan of the room. Nate focused on a spot on the carpet and didn’t make eye contact. Was Grace searching for Grassy? Had Kennett even alerted him to the personnel change? He doubted it. With these kinds of arrangements, the left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. Information got you killed, so no-one asked questions. People did their bit and got out.
Grace seemed to come to a decision. He turned around and moved to locker 17, opening the door and shoving his gym bag in beside the bundle of money Nate had left there. Then he spun the combination closed.
‘Got him,’ Nate murmured.
The lawyer flung his towel over one shoulder and sauntered over to a rowing machine. He was settling himself in the seat when Nate’s phone buzzed in his hand, the alert from Josie highlighted in the centre of the screen.
Henry Grace was in the drycleaners
.
Nate’s mind screamed with possibilities. He had the lawyer accessing the locker, and Josie had him as well. If he arrested Grace now, they were sure to find the money he’d left with Ong Chung fifteen minutes ago inside the gym bag.
Henry Grace was the collector
.
A slow, cold creep inched over Nate’s scalp despite the heat of his body.
Was he “O” as well?
Christ!
He had no way of knowing for sure.
Blood continued to roar in his temples, drowning out the hip hop blaring through the stereo system.
‘Standing by,’ Dickson said again.
Nate looked around the gym. There had to be at least fifty people in the place. Arrest a prominent member of Sydney’s legal fraternity here, and it would be all over social media in minutes. There would be no way of containing it.
Worse, if Grace wasn’t the overseer, it would tip off the real deal — and the Altar Boys. His cover would be blown, and his quarry could flee the country before the story hit the nightly news.
Mulvaney’s funeral was the day after tomorrow.
All hell could break loose.
He couldn’t expose Josie — not yet.
He had to keep her safe.
While there was a mountain of evidence against Grace, he needed to know the full extent of his involvement.
It was time
.
Time to contact Luke Neilson, bring him in on the operation.
‘Abort,’ he murmured, hoping the mike picked up his words over the throbbing beat of the music. ‘Proceed as initially planned, copy.’
‘Copy that,’ Dickson shot straight back. ‘Leaving the gym now.’
2:00 p.m. Thursday
Centennial Park in Randwick was quiet, save for the odd jogger, and two horses from the nearby Equestrian Centre being put through their dressage paces. But the area around the duck pond was deserted, the young mothers and toddlers who frequented the area on a weekday, having left to collect older siblings from school.
Nate could see Luke’s white Holden parked up ahead, and he left a good distance between the car and the Harley. He would have preferred not to bring the bike, but with the investigation gathering momentum, time was of the essence. He’d come straight from the compound.
Checking they were alone, he approached Luke’s car from the back, slipping down the passenger side, opening the door and climbing in. Then he turned and looked at Luke for the first time in two years.
He hadn’t changed. The fair hair was a fraction longer, the silver slash on his cheek the only thing preventing the man from being too handsome. Broad shouldered, lean and folded into the car’s bucket seats, Neilson exuded the build and bearing of the ex military commander he was.
‘Man, am I glad to see you,’ Luke said.
Nate held up his hand and Luke grasped it in a solid handshake of mutual respect. It was a good feeling, and Nate had missed it, missed interacting with quality people like Neilson.
‘Slumming it in a Holden?’ Nate asked jokingly. They’d talked a lot about cars in the past, especially around the time Luke acquired a C63 Mercedes AMG.
‘Can’t beat a white company car for anonymity,’ he replied. ‘Do you have Josie?’
‘I do.’ Two short words, uttered in the confines of Luke’s car, and Nate realised Josie had become the most important thing in his life.
Luke gave a relieved sigh. ‘How is she?’
Nate held his mate’s gaze. ‘Better than you’d expect.’
Luke wasn’t the demonstrative type, but his grey eyes twinkled, enough to reassure Nate his former employer had read between the lines.
‘Allegra will be over the moon.’
‘Not when she learns what’s going on at Grace and Poole she won’t. But I’ll get to that shortly.’
Luke’s eyes turned serious again. ‘Are you undercover?’
He nodded. ‘Altar Boys.’
‘I thought as much. The police got you in the ute the night Josie went missing. They’ve visited your place in Surry Hills.’
Both men looked up as a seedpod fell from an overhanging tree and bounced off the Holden’s bonnet.
‘Are they looking for a Nate Jordan?’
‘Yes. Don’t go back there.’
‘I don’t intend to.’
Nate spent the next few minutes filling Luke in with the details of the case.
‘How are Grace and Poole involved,’ Luke asked, ‘apart from Mulvaney trying to reach Allegra on the night he was murdered?’
Nate took a deep breath, steeled himself for what he was about to reveal. ‘Henry Grace collected the money.’
Luke’s fingers closed around the top of the steering wheel. ‘
Jesus
.’
Nate swivelled in the seat, glancing over his shoulder to ensure no-one was showing any interest in them. ‘At first I thought he might be putting the money through the firm’s trust account, but the Law Society audits those accounts vigilantly. It’s more likely he’s writing up bogus receipts, putting it into the firm’s lending company.’
‘Loaning money to clients?’
‘Yeah.’
‘He’s laundering money for the Altar Boys, while Allegra acts for the Southern Cross.’ Luke shook his head. ‘It’s bizarre.’
‘Someone’s got something on him, Luke. The Altar Boys or “O”. For all we know, the other partner could be in on it as well.’
Luke turned to look at him then. ‘I doubt it. Simon Poole’s in the States. When Allegra spoke to him the other day, he didn’t even know Josie was missing.’
Nate drummed his fingers on the door sill, and decided Henry Grace was a cock. ‘He’s keeping everything on the down low.’
‘Allegra was furious, and there’s something else you should know,’ Luke went on. ‘She met with Sandra Mulvaney. Lizard let his security go the night he was killed. He’d had enough, wanted the hit called off apparently. Maybe he was going to defect to the Altar Boys.’
‘Maybe.’ Nate ran a hand down his face. ‘I can’t see it happening though. Kennett and Mulvaney hated each other’s guts, ever since Mulvaney defected from the Altar Boys ten years ago.’
Luke’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘That I didn’t know.’
‘Yep. Originally it was all one club. Kennett and Mulvaney were vying for chapter leader. They disagreed on a whole host of things. In the end, Mulvaney left, took a swag of members with him and formed the Southern Cross. They’ve been bitter enemies ever since.’
They fell silent for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Nate stared through the windscreen and watched four ducklings paddle behind their mother on the pond, the setting at odds with the topic of conversation.
‘Murder the chapter leader, and you ensure the two gangs remain bitter rivals,’ Luke mused. ‘It’s an insurance policy. It puts paid to the two clubs merging and becoming one very powerful group, which we know the bikies are beginning to do. We need to work out who benefits from the current situation.’
‘A crooked cop, paid by both gangs to look the other way?’ asked Nate.
‘Maybe.’
‘Definitely someone on the take from both gangs,’ Nate went on. ‘I think it’s the overseer. He could have given Kennett the order to kill Mulvaney. I’m just not sure that person is Henry Grace.’
Luke gave a slow nod. ‘Sure, how can I help?’
‘Do you still have that young gun hacker working for you?’
‘Tom Randall?’
‘That’s him.’ Nate had forgotten his name, but he could see the IT encryption expert in his mind. Tall, lean with long dark hair, the guy had a razor sharp mind.
‘I’ve got him for now. Costs me a bomb to keep him too.’
‘Could he hack into Grace and Poole, find out exactly what Henry Grace is up to?’
Luke didn’t answer right away and Nate held his breath. He knew it was a big ask, but he also knew it had been done before, when Allegra’s career was under threat. Even then, she hadn’t been happy about it, in fact she’d been downright furious. And Luke had borne the brunt of it.
‘I’ll understand if you refuse,’ he said when Luke still didn’t speak. ‘Either way, I’ll be arresting Henry Grace, Ong Chung, Mitch Kennett and most of the Altar Boys’ inner circle in the next day or so, ideally before Lizard Mulvaney’s funeral. Obviously, it’ll tip off the overseer, if we haven’t nailed him by then.’
Nate paused for a few moments. Luke Neilson wasn’t the type of guy you could pressure, and he’d make up his own mind when he was good and ready. Still, it was Josie’s life, and he had to do his best.
‘Josie and I are involved, Luke, and I know she’s close to Allegra. When all this is over, I want her to be safe in Sydney again.’
Luke stroked a thumb across the scar on his cheek. ‘You need to take as many of them off the streets in a co-ordinated raid.’
Nate didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he liked the way his collaborator was thinking. ‘Exactly.’
‘Josie is an innocent party, and if Henry Grace is a criminal, I know Allegra would want him caught.’ There was determination on Luke’s face now. ‘I’ll head back to the office, give Tom the instructions.’
Nate went on to explain about Providence, the name Josie thought she recognised from Grace and Poole. ‘If he could follow the paper trail, it could point us to the overseer.’