Seven Days Grace (A Grace Rose Novel Book 1) (31 page)

30

‘
Thanks fo
r
the ride.
’

‘
Grace
,
I
’
m glad you called me
,
I
’
m worried about you
,’
Kate said.
‘
First you
’
re in a car accident and the next day you
’
re tumbling in a carnival ride to the bottom of the harbour. Now you have a sprained ankle. You
’
re lucky to be alive. Do you think you could be in too deep with this story?
’

‘
I
’
ll give it one more day. All this drama is not worth it
,
no matter whether it
’
s the biggest story Sydney has ever heard or not.
’
She half opened the door as she prepared to step onto the footpath right outside the front door to her home. At least Kate wasn
’
t trying to push her out of the car this time.

‘
Do you want me to come in and hang out with you for a while? Christian will understand especially considering he
’
s still at the hospital.
’

‘
No. Thanks anyway. Visiting hours are almost over and he
’
ll want to catch up with you. I
’
ll be fine. I have a small to do list and I
’
m in desperate need of some down time. I
’
m okay
,’
she squeezed her friend
’
s hand.

‘
As long as you
’
re sure?
’

‘
I am. I
’
ll see you in the morning.
’
Grace shut the door to Kate
’
s car and opened the door to her house. She reluctantly left Christian in charge of an unconscious Jake at the hospital and ventured home to get some dry
,
warm clothes on and to have a breather. She should have followed earlier orders and stayed home to rest then none of this would have happened.

In reality
,
Christian was right. She was going mad in the sterile hospital room
,
sitting around waiting. And Christian had collected the work van from Milson
’
s Point and returned Grace
’
s phone to her before she left the hospital. She
’
d left it in the glove box before she and Jake had met The Voice. It was something she did on rare occasions when she wasn
’
t carrying a bag. This time it turned out to be a wise decision as it meant her phone wasn
’
t lying on the bottom of the harbour. How would she live without it?

She had a message from The Voice. He had seen the accident and had waited nearby to witness the events. He hoped her phone was still working.

As if he cares.

Once she was warm
,
dry and changed
,
she found the final package The Voice had given her. It was still unopened. Her enthusiasm to uncover the story had subsided to the point where she wondered whether she wanted to continue with it. It was like the rollercoaster ride at Luna Park. One minute she was on a high and couldn
’
t wait to figure it all out. The next minute she was at the lowest low
,
happy with the reprieve she had and hoping it would all be over soon. Right now
,
with Jake still lying in the hospital unconscious
,
a leg she had to get around on with crutches and nowhere to publish the story
,
she wondered why she should bother. Her desire to pursue the story was almost nil.
It
’
s all too hard.

Despite her declining interest
,
she opened the laptop and placed the final memory stick into the side of it. The files were copies of bank statements. She took a closer look and analysed the information on the account. The phone ringing interrupted her.

‘
Grace
,
it
’
s me. I was watching the news and saw the accident. You were identified as one of the victims. Are you alright?
’

‘
Yes
,
Nick
,
I
’
m good
,’
she said. Then there was a pause from both ends.
‘
Why are you concerned now? This morning in hospital you couldn
’
t have cared less.
’

‘
I care
,
Grace
,
however
,
I have a newspaper to run.
’

‘
What you
’
re saying is work is more important than people?
’

‘
Grace
,
I
’
m not going to let you twist this conversation to where you want it to go. I was checking on you
,
trying to be nice.
’

‘
Nick
,
you fired me this morning
,
in case you
’
d forgotten.
’

‘
W
hat choice did you give me?
’

‘
Ah
,
it
’
s my fault?
’

‘
Yes
,
of course.
’

Grace rolled her eyes. She couldn
’
t fight with Nick today. She didn
’
t have it in her.

‘
Anyway
,
they found the Hummer abandoned round the back of Centennial Park. It had scratch marks all over it. Apparently
,
it
’
s stolen. They traced it from the number plates you gave them and it matched the footage from the tunnel
’
s surveillance cameras.
’

‘
That
’
s interesting. Who did it belong to?
’

‘
A member of the public. FYI
,
it wasn
’
t registered to Sleen
’
s office.
’

Grace remained quiet as she knew Sleen was involved though she wasn
’
t up to arguing with Nick over it. Anyway
,
she could investigate him as much as she wanted to now she was a free agent.

‘
By the way
,
do you remember you were going to cover a story tomorrow up on the north shore?
’
Nick reminded her.

‘
What? You
’
re giving me my job back?
’

‘
No. I want you to do this one last story
,
okay?
’

Grace snickered at his gall and hung up on her former employer.
‘
He
’
s intolerable.
’
She had already decided to go anyway which is why Kate was picking her up in the morning. However
,
her attendance had nothing to do with Nick
’
s request. If she ended up writing a story from the proceedings
,
she wouldn
’
t be giving it to her ex-boss to publish.

She re-read the bank statements. There were deposits on a regular basis
,
both weekly and monthly
,
of large amounts of money and the name at the top of the account summary form was none other than Minister Sleen. And the bank itself was definitely not an Australian one.

‘
He
’
s on the take. What do you think
,
Bub?
’
Shadow pawed at her side wanting to sit on her lap.
‘
Later
,
mate
,
please?
’

And then Grace
’
s phone rang again. She didn
’
t recognise the number.

‘
Hi Grace. It
’
s Christian. Jake
’
s woken up.
’

‘
I
’
ll be right there.
’

She hailed a taxi outside her house and hobbled into the back of it with her laptop. He might want to look through this new evidence or he might not. Either way
,
she
’
d have it with her. Grace
’
s mental battle over her decision regarding Jake continued. The accident had made her more aware of her feelings for him and she wanted him to fully recover but now it was all over
,
she still had trouble getting past the lies. She
’
d figure it all out when she saw him.

When she entered his hospital room
,
Jake was sitting up chatting with Christian.

‘
You look one hundred per cent better than the last time I saw you
,’
Grace said and made her way to his bed side.

‘
It
’
s good to see you. What have you got for us?
’
he said nodding towards the computer.

Grace knew he wouldn
’
t get into a war of words with her while Christian was in their company. And he didn
’
t ask her how she had survived the fall. Christian must have mentioned it.

‘
You up for it?
’
she asked.

‘
You bet
,’
Jake and Christian said at the same time.

‘
I guess we
’
re all in it together now
,’
Grace said to the two cops.

‘
Yep. What was in the final package?
’
Jake asked.

Grace pulled out a memory stick and another note.

‘
Read it so Christian can hear it
,’
Jake said.

‘
Grace. Her
e
’
s the final piece in the puzzle.
I
’
m sure you can figure it out
.
’

She placed the laptop on Jake
’
s table. She was on one side of the bed and Christian on the other. All three looked to the computer screen. Jake opened the contents of the memory stick.

‘
Bank statements
,’
Christian said.

‘
Perfect. It
’
s what we
’
ve been looking for
,’
Jake said.

The men congratulated themselves on this good news with a high-five as they both let out a laugh
,
happy to have finally found the missing link to tie the case together.

Jake looked at Grace.
‘
This guy is jumping to a lot of conclusions expecting you to figure it all out.
’

‘
Perhaps he thinks I can
,’
Grace said more defensively than she meant.

‘
I
’
ve no doubt about it. However
,
why would The Voice freely give you all this information? If he
’
s such a goody two shoes
,
why not show his face and tell you everything in one hit. Why the performance? Why make you chase him all over town? Why you? There has to be a reason.
’

Grace shrugged her shoulders.

Jake and Christian checked the statements again.

‘
There
’
s weekly and monthly deposits here on a regular basis in large amounts. He has to be on the take. Why else would he have off shore accounts? We need to trace where this money came from
,’
Jake said.