man you were talking to?’ Eliza was asking the receptionist.
‘Well, I don’t know his name, but he was talking to me about all the old things around here. I also saw him talking to Blanche in the eco-shop before he came out here.’
‘What sort of old things was he asking about?’ asked Eliza.
‘Well, we were talking about the bank and its old decor with the marble walls and all and then he asked about your old Rolls Royce.’
Brian heard part of the conversation as he walked past and his ears pricked up at the words ‘Rolls Royce’. He moved over to the two girls.
‘Was someone asking about the Rolls Royce?’
‘Yes,’ replied Eliza, ‘and he was in here the other day as well. Snooping?’
‘What did he want to know?’ asked Brian.
‘Well, he didn’t really ask questions. He already seemed to know about the car. He said he hadn’t seen it around for a while and I said that I hadn’t seen it either. I told him how the others around here were wondering where it was as well. I think he might have asked Blanche as well.’
Eliza and Brian called into the eco-store where Blanche informed them that she had had a similar conversation with the man.
‘He’s up to no good,’ said Eliza. ‘I wonder who he is.’
‘Come with me,’ said Brian, leading her into his office.
Brian consulted his private phone book and rang Dr Rani Smith. ‘Dr Smith, it’s Brian Reynolds. Could you describe the reporter that came to visit you?’
Brian listened to her reply and nodded. ‘Our visitor was Mr Mick Sloane, a reporter, and I’ve just had a nasty little conversation with Sam Tait and Bree Lake on exactly the same topic.’
‘A coincidence?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Not likely. But why would they be working together? He’s a reporter and they’re Inland Security. One wants to scream the news all over the place and the others want to keep everything under wraps.’
‘That’s a question I like to answer. It may be very important to us. If they’re not working together we may be able to play them off against one another, but if they are co-operating we might have to take different measures.’
Eliza nodded. ‘Leave it with me. Justine and I will check them out.’
* * *
Not one month before, Justine had passed all her tests and was now the proud holder of a brand new driver’s licence.
She demonstrated her newfound skills to Eliza while swerving dangerously between cars on their way to Bree Tait’s flat. Eliza hung on with grim determination and hoped against hope that they would escape the short journey alive.
Attempting a reverse park outside Bree’s block of flats Justine eventually gave up the effort and abandoned the car, leaving it at a sharp angle to the gutter and extremely close to the car in front.
Making their way upstairs, they knocked several times at Bree’s door without success. A kindly old lady in the flat next door told her that Bree had not been home for several days. She thought her young neighbour was on one of her usual overseas jaunts.
‘We know that’s not right because I saw her this morning,’ Eliza said to Justine as they made their way back to the car.
‘Well, it looks as though Sam is getting lucky. Let’s try his place.’
Justine managed to make her way back into the traffic without removing the rear bumper of the car in front and Eliza almost relaxed until Justine tried to take a short cut under a semitrailer.
If it were any more possible Eliza’s face was even whiter than normal when they eventually parked up the street from Sam’s building.
‘What now?’ asked Eliza. ‘We could just walk in and talk to Sam if he was on his own, but that won’t be possible if both of them are present.’
‘We’ll have to wait and see. Perhaps Bree’ll go home tonight. Do we know which one of those is Sam’s?’ Justine said as she pointed to Sam’s building.
‘I know the flat number but not where it’s located in the building. I’ll go in and see if I can find out,’ offered Eliza who wanted any excuse to escape Justine’s car.
It took her only minutes to find that it was located on the second floor at the front of the building and Eliza was about to return when she heard voices inside.
Checking to make sure there was no one watching, Eliza placed her ear to the door. Unfortunately, she was unable to make out more than a few words. I don’t know how they do it in the movies, she thought. However, one thing was clear and that was that there weren’t just two voices inside. At least two distinctly male and one female voice were coming from Sam’s flat. So there had to be Bree, Sam and at least one other person. She was sure it wasn’t a radio or TV announcer as the voice fitted neatly into the spaces of the conversation between the two agents.
Making her way back to the car, she let Justine know what she had found out. They could now pick out Sam’s flat from the street below and were occasionally able to see the shadow of the occupants moving around whenever they came close to the window.
‘I think we should wait a while,’ said Eliza. ‘We need to know who the third person is, although I think I can guess.’
‘Well, give them an hour. I don’t fancy being out here all night.’
The girls were getting stiff and sore from sitting in the one place for so long when Sam emerged from his front door accompanied by Bree and a third person who Eliza immediately identified as Mick Sloane, the reporter. The trio made their way across the road and entered a café.
Eliza made her way past the large picture window and peered in before returning to the car. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
‘Where to?’ asked Justine.
‘Upstairs. They’re at a table with menus in their hands. They’ll be gone for ages.’
Eliza walked off and Justine locked the car up before following as fast as she could. She caught up to Eliza at the door to Sam’s flat where Eliza’s skills had already half opened Sam’s lock. In less than thirty seconds they were standing inside.
The kitchen portion of the open plan living area drew their attention as well as the coffee table in the sitting room. Both spaces were covered in files.
Eliza and Justine spread them out, examining as many files as they could in the short time available.
‘I wish they had a photocopier here,’ said Justine.
Justine shook her head as she went over the information in the files. ‘We’ll have to come back. There’s just too much here.’
‘At least we’ve got the gist of the whole thing. We’ll be able to let the others know. Come on. Let’s get out of here.’
‘I’d love to take some of these files with us.’
‘Next time, Eliza. Let’s go!’
She reluctantly replaced the file and made sure they hadn’t left any trace of their presence before relocking the door on their way out.
Justine put the car into gear and screeched it into the road without indicating. ‘I’ll get you home and we’ll call a meeting of the board for the first thing in the morning.’
Eliza hung on and prayed that she would stay alive long enough to make that meeting.
Chapter 8
The following day Eliza and Justine reported their findings to the board.
‘I say we go back and photograph all their