Private Sydney (Private 12)

She hesitated. ‘That’s another thing I didn’t want to bother you with yet.’

‘Tell me now.’

‘The computers are down. I mean, that might be why there isn’t actually any vision of what happened overnight.’ She touched my arm. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve called the technicians. They’ll be here in a couple of hours.’

Technicians would take far too long. Without computers we couldn’t work.

‘Get Darlene to come in early. If she can’t fix the problem, she’ll know who can.’

I took stock of Monday morning so far: a favour for Jack Morgan, a smashed door, no computers and an anxious couple in my office, all by seven am. Cal’s birthday was shaping up to be one hell of a day.

Chapter 4

I COULD SEE the pair through the glass wall to my office. The man paced while his wife sat twisting the rings on her left hand.

I entered, introduced myself. The husband was late forties. The cut of his suit, along with the white shirt and pale blue tie, suggested middle management, or a small business operator.

‘Gus. Finch.’ He shook my hand vigorously. ‘And this is my wife, Jennifer.’

I greeted the woman, who wore a crimson silk shirt with a black skirt. She had to be at least ten years younger than Gus.

I took a seat at my desk. Finch sat next to his wife and held her hand.

‘How can we help you?’ I asked.

‘We want a background check on someone. A potential employee.’

With the computers down, I opened a journal and started taking notes as Finch began rattling off his requirements.

‘You should check she is healthy, no mental illness, has no criminal past, and that includes charges for DUI. I don’t just mean convictions in case she got off on some technicality, I’m talking charges, any history of affairs …’ He ticked off the list on his fingers. ‘Doesn’t abuse drugs or alcoho

l, is clear of any sexually transmitted infections, has a mortgage to show she’s committed to staying locally and isn’t in more than$200,000 debt.’

This was clearly no ordinary pre-employment check, unless the job was for a childcare worker. The mortgage question threw me. Not many nannies in Sydney had paid off mortgages to the last $200K. Nannying jobs were something students or new graduates sought.

His wife added, ‘And we have to know she’s a good mother.’ She squeezed her husband’s hand, pale grey eyes boring into mine.

‘Yes,’ Finch confirmed. ‘If we’re going to trust her with our children.’ The inflection in his voice went up a notch at the end of this comment. He was lying, and he wasn’t very good at it.

Today, I didn’t really care to know why. ‘Agencies routinely do employment checks and they charge a lot less than us. To be honest, you’d be better going through one of them.’

Finch slapped an envelope on the table. Hundred-dollar notes spilled out.

‘We want you, not anyone else, to do the check. You guarantee confidentiality.’

I didn’t like people assuming I could be bought. Not everyone has a price. Whatever they wanted kept secret didn’t sit right.

Maybe it was just my mood, but it didn’t seem worth the hassle.

‘That isn’t how we do business, Mr Finch. I’m afraid we can’t help you.’

I stood to usher them out the door.

They remained seated.

‘Walk away and you’ll regret it,’ the man said calmly. ‘You do the right thing by us and we can boost your business. Turn us away and I can guarantee Private will suffer.’

Chapter 5