Sarah shrugged. ‘Okay, you go. I’ll spend the time finding out if there’s any connection between Peter’s notes and what information Hayley’s given me.’ She put all the documentation into her bag. ‘I’m fascinated by this guy – he’s manipulated laws and everything to get his own way over the years. There must be something here to give us an idea of what he’s really up to.’
Hayley nodded, then looked at her watch. ‘What I’ve managed to uncover is more information than what you’ll pick up on the internet articles, so at least you’ll get a head start,’ she said. ‘I’m really sorry but I’ll have to kick you out so I can get ready for our six o’clock bulletin and get a team prepared for the press conference – is there somewhere at the hotel you can get your head down?’
Dan nodded. ‘They have a business centre there we can use.’ He stood up as Hayley got up to leave the room. ‘Thanks for your help.’
Hayley smiled at him and Sarah as she held the door open for them. ‘Hey, it’s the least I could do for you – and Peter. Good luck.’
‘Did it help?’
They were walking along Southbank, a ferry sauntering past them on the mud-coloured river. Dan walked a little ahead of Sarah, then stopped to look at her.
She caught up and shrugged. ‘A little bit. I’ve managed to get Pete’s notes into some sort of coherent order but I feel like I’ve still got a lot of catching up to do. The sequence jumps around a bit.’
She stood to one side to let a cyclist pass. She shrugged her bag further up on to her shoulder. ‘I thought I might go back to the hotel and see if I can reorganise it all. Follow a timeline or something to try to make more sense of what we’ve got here.’
Dan nodded. ‘Okay, well I’m going to go over to this press conference of Delaney’s – I want to know what he looks like in person, rather than us relying on photographs all the time.’
Sarah glanced back towards the river, then turned to Dan. ‘Just behave yourself,’ she said, as she swung her bag over her shoulder and headed back to the hotel. ‘And remember to bring me back some canapés!’
Chapter 15
Dan turned right and began to walk up the street, his jacket slung over his arm. He figured there was no sense in rushing in the summer evening heat.
He noticed how quickly darkness fell over the city. As he walked through the botanical gardens, he heard the chatter of possums and flying foxes interspersed with the steady flow of traffic beside him. Cicadas chanted noisily – a natural white noise that was constant in the humid air.
As he approached the university and government building complex, he reached into his jacket and plucked out the press invitation Hayley had procured for him. According to her, very few invites had been given to those outside Delaney’s inner circle.
He slowed as he turned left into the pedestrian-friendly university complex and stood outside the state government building. There was no queue to enter – invitees were being processed thoroughly and efficiently. Invites checked, invitees shepherded through a metal detector, then two sniffer dogs and their handlers present on the other side, just in case.
Dan held the invite between his teeth and shrugged his jacket over his shoulders. He’d have to be careful. The last thing he wanted was to alert Delaney to his presence. He planned to stay in the background, away from the limelight. Merely a casual observer. He cricked his head from side to side, took the invite out of his mouth and strolled across the concourse to the entranceway.
He nodded to the doorman and handed him his invitation. The doorman smiled politely and turned away from him before facing Dan, holding out a small plastic basket in front of him.
‘If sir has any jewellery, coins or other metal objects on his person, perhaps he could place them in the basket before passing through the metal detector?’
Dan grimaced, slipped his watch off his wrist and emptied the change from his pockets. The doorman glanced down, saw nothing of interest in the basket and passed it to his colleague on the other side of the security barrier. He turned back to Dan and then frowned.
Dan stared at him. ‘What?’
The doorman smiled, embarrassed. He reached into his trouser pocket and withdrew a paper handkerchief. He held it out to Dan. ‘Perhaps sir would like to lose the chewing gum as well?’
Dan raised his eyebrow at the doorman, shrugged, spat the chewing gum into the handkerchief and handed it back to the doorman.
‘Don’t use it all at once,’ he said and strolled through the metal detector.
The security guard on the other side handed the small basket back to Dan and gestured he should move to one side to refill his pockets, to get him out of the way of other arriving guests.
Dan looked around the entrance hallway as he re-fastened his watch. He turned as a member of staff approached him, his arm out wide, sweeping him towards the reception room.
‘We’ll be starting the press conference in half an hour if you’d like to get a drink, sir,’ he said. ‘The waiting staff will take care of you.’
Dan walked through a wide doorway and into a large ornate room, lit by chandeliers from a cathedral-height ceiling and, towards the front of the room, large bright television lights. A single hardwood lectern stood in front of a series of camera and microphone stands. A deep blue backdrop, onto which Delaney’s corporate logo had been embossed in silver stitching, glinted in the glare of the lights.
A passing waiter carrying a tray of drinks paused next to Dan and gestured to the array of glasses he was balancing. Dan nodded and helped himself to a tall glass of ice-cold beer. He took a mouthful, relishing the cool liquid, then loosened his tie a little. He glanced around the room and noticed people were beginning to take their seats.
He smiled and winked as he spotted Hayley with a work colleague as they walked past him. Hayley smiled but was caught up in another conversation and was swept past him to a front row seat.