The Tattooed Man by Alex Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

can walk away from us.’
    ‘No, it’s not like that.’ Harrigan took Sam Jonas’s card out of his wallet and handed it to Grace. ‘Something else happened today. She was waiting for me when I left the house at Pittwater. She works for a company with a connection to the minister. She asked if I’d be prepared to take a bribe.’
    ‘Did she? Personal security manager. Doesn’t that mean bodyguard?’
    ‘She talked like she was more into intelligence gathering.’
    ‘For who?’ Grace asked.
    ‘The CEO of that company. This is who they are.’
    He took the LPS brochure out of his diary and handed it to her. Grace flicked through the pages.
    ‘This is very high powered. I can see why this Elena Calvo would have guard dogs. She’s got a lot to protect. Why is she worried about these murders? How do they affect her?’
    ‘That’s a question worth asking. Meanwhile, her guard dog can go home and tell her she’s wasting her time.’
    ‘What were you doing with this brochure?’ Grace asked.
    ‘I was thinking of investing. Maybe it could help Toby. Maybe not.’
    ‘It’s always worth trying,’ she replied with a touch of gentleness. She handed it back. ‘Here we are again. A week into our holiday and you’re already back at work. Why am I here with you when you’ve always got something better to do?’
    ‘Don’t say that.’
    ‘Why not? Where are we going with this? Between your past and your work, there’s never any space for us.’
    ‘There’s no other person in the world I could have told that story to. Not even Toby. I can’t be myself with anyone else the way I can be with you. I know you, Grace. You don’t drop your guard with anyone else the way you do with me.’
    ‘But you still can’t make more time for us even when you say you will.’ She stubbed out her cigarette angrily. ‘God, this is all so messy, so dangerous. You could lose everything over this.’
    ‘That doesn’t have to include us. Let me put this tape back in my safe. Then we can call it a night. We don’t get much time together. Let’s take the times we can. They’re the best part of my life.’
    ‘Then why do you ration them?’ she asked, raising that eyebrow again. ‘You can promise me something before we do anything, Paul.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Don’t lock me out of this. You said it yourself, this information is dangerous to know. Well, I do know it now and you’re right, it is dangerous. Youcan tell me what’s going on from now on. Especially if you’re in there watching it.’
    ‘Grace, I can’t give you the details of a confidential investigation. You know that. You can’t tell me about your work either.’
    ‘I’m not asking for anything you have to keep confidential. Just enough information so I know where you are and what’s going on. That way I can protect myself.’
    ‘You can rely on me to protect you. Don’t forget that.’
    ‘I still want you to make me this promise. If I’m going to deal with this, I need to know what’s happening.’
    ‘Then you’ve got my word. I promise.’
    It had always been like this. She wrung things out of him no one else could; their relationship kept surviving by a whisker. Harrigan thought that survival in these terms must have been his particular gift. It was the story of his life.
    Later, in the quietness, she lay in bed beside him with her head against his shoulder.
    ‘How did you get away from them?’ she suddenly asked. ‘Your twin nightmares. Your father and the Ice Cream Man. You escaped. How?’
    ‘Why do you want to know?’
    ‘I’m putting you together in my head. Am I allowed to do that?’
    ‘It was my aunt,’ he replied after a short silence. ‘She was my father’s sister. She hated him. She used to tell my mother there was no way I was going to end up like Jim. I always did well at school without trying too hard so she decided I was going to St Ignatius Riverview whether I wanted to or not.’
    ‘Why there?’
    ‘Because she