Private Oz (Private 7)

“Far-fetched?”

“I was going to say ridiculous, actually.”

“I agree. He’s up to something,” Pam said. “What’ve you found out?”

I told her straight, all about the brothels. Pam was my client and a big girl.

“Well, that makes sense. Is one of them in Chester Street, Mosman?”

I gave her a surprised look.

“The first thing Geoff did when he got home was to call one of his pals … I ‘overheard’!” Pam added, seeing my puzzled expression. “He was talking to some guy called Brian about cameras installed in Chester Street. Apparently Loretto had them removed. Geoff was telling his friend to reinstall them … right away.”

“That’s bad. Very bad,” Justine said. “From what Craig has told me, Loretto’s not the sort to mess with. If your husband has put cameras in the guy’s brothels …”

Pam looked pale. “You spoken to Loretto, Craig?”

“He’s out of town. But as soon … Look, it sounds like he held Geoff somewhere – maybe a final warning to back off?”

“So, what now?” There was a tremor to her voice.

“Well, Pam,” I said, “I reckon that’s up to Geoff. If Al Loretto was giving him one more chance and he takes notice, that’s one thing. If he chooses to ignore it …”

Chapter 97

“YOU’RE NOT GOING to believe this!” Darlene gushed as she came round the open doorway into my office. She had a paper file in her hand.

I got up from the desk.

“Just off the phone. Sergeant Tindle called. They’ve ID’d the remains of the man at the Bondi house.” She sat at the other end of the sofa from me, opened the file. “Name’s Bruce Frimmel.”

She handed me a photograph of the man from police records.

“He’d served time. Assault charge five years ago. His DNA was on file. He vanished two months ago.”

“And you reckoned the guy in the garden had been dead for two to three months.”

“Police Forensics have also identified two distinct sets of blood splatter in the bathroom at the house. One is Frimmel’s, the other Granger’s blood. They were both killed in the same room.”

“Interesting.”

“It gets much more interesting. Br

uce’s girlfriend, Lucy …” Darlene glanced at the file again. “… Lucy Inglewood … was questioned when Frimmel vanished. She told the police he had crossed a few people. There was a biker gang in Blacktown he’d upset and a few months earlier he’d broken up acrimoniously with his last girlfriend who he’d lived with for a few years.”

“The police looked into these I take it?”

“They interviewed everyone who’d known Bruce Frimmel. Sergeant Tindle worked with Inspector Talbot on it. They talked to twenty-odd of Frimmel’s associates and those close to him, including his ex, Julie O’Connor. The sergeant called me, Craig, because he had just seen the security camera stills of the woman in the copy shop I sent over this morning.”

She plucked two sheets of photographic paper from the file and handed one to me. “This,” she said, “is the best image from the security camera.”

I stared at the woman approaching the copier.

“And this is the woman Sergeant Tindle interviewed two months ago, Julie O’Connor.”

I glanced at the second photo, held the two images side by side. “We have our killer,” I said.

“And you know the best bit? According to police records, as of two months ago, she was working at SupaMart in Bellevue Hill.”