Follow the Money

Follow the Money by Peter Corris Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Follow the Money by Peter Corris Read Free Book Online
Authors: Peter Corris
forebears had been in Australia longer than some of mine. His accent was pure Sydney.
    ‘This is Cliff Hardy. I don’t know what to call you these days. I’m betting you’re not just a senior constable anymore.’
    ‘Detective Inspector. It’s been a long time. What can I do for you, Mr Hardy?’
    It used to be Cliff, but he’d gone up and I’d gone down and he was being careful.
    ‘I’m dealing with something involving our old friends the Wong brothers. I thought you might be able to help me.’
    ‘How do you mean dealing ? I understood you were retired.’
    ‘It’s a long story. Could we meet? What’s your role these days?’
    ‘I’m heading up a unit looking into Asian crime and certain links.’
    There’d been a spate of home invasions recently. One had resulted in the death of an elderly couple and in another, a policeman called to the scene had been left in a coma by the attackers. He wasn’t expected to recover and the affair had caused a lot of law and order activity among the politicians. It didn’t surprise me that a task force had been appointed.
    ‘Home invasion, you mean? Drugs? Freddy Wong was into home invasion ten years back,’ I said.
    ‘So he was—a sideline of his. It’s a bit broader than that. I suppose we could have a talk. Are you still in Glebe?’
    I said I was and we arranged to meet in the coffee bar next to the old Valhalla theatre, now defunct and awaiting its fate. It was a few minutes walk away for me. I knew that the number I’d rung was the Surry Hills police centre. Chang gave himself an hour to get there. Friday traffic.
    Anti-discrimination laws put an end to the police imposing a minimum height requirement for recruits. This allowed quite a few Asians to join who were previously excluded. Didn’t apply to Stephen Chang; he stood 190 centimetres and had played basketball at university. He’d made pretty good time and I was only hanging around briefly before he showed up. Smart suit, overcoat, no tie. A lot of grey in his hair, although he couldn’t have been more than thirty-five. We shook hands and took seats at an outside table. I turned the collar of my jacket up against the cold.
    ‘So,’ Chang said, ‘you don’t look so bad for someone who’s lost his licence and had a heart attack.’
    ‘I’m OK. You look . . . authoritative. Coffee?’
    We ordered and I gave him an outline of how the man who’d hired me to investigate an alleged death had named as a witness someone who’d been murdered the very next day, gone into hiding and emerged to meet with Freddy and Lester Wong and hadn’t looked happy. His level of interest lifted sharply when I mentioned the man who had joined the group and provoked discord.
    ‘Lebanese?’
    I shrugged. ‘Could be.’
    ‘This is interesting. You haven’t told me the name of your client and I’m not surprised because you’re not supposed to have any bloody clients. Who was murdered?’
    I don’t know what it was: my lack of status, my health, my financial situation, my approaching grandfatherhood, but I was acutely aware that I needed help. ‘Stefan Nordlung,’ I said.
    Chang almost choked on the dregs of his flat white. ‘Christ almighty, Hardy. Do you have any idea what you’ve got yourself into?’

Chang told me that part of his brief was to investigate links between Asian and Lebanese criminals and that marine insurance scams were one of the areas of concern, along with drugs, people smuggling and extortion.
    ‘What’s the name of your task force?’
    Chang smiled. ‘It’s a serious investigative unit, so it doesn’t have a silly name. The people we’re interested in launder drug and extortion money by buying boats, insuring them, scuppering them and collecting the insurance. Then they collect on the salvage. Sometimes they rehabilitate the boat altogether and go through the process again. They have people inside the insurance companies playing along, also some inside finance companies. It’s

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