The Courier (Petras and Harvey: Episode 1)

Chapter Seven

A security guard with brown hair and a barely concealed gun at his hip led them down the corridor, leaving his grey overcoat slung over the back of a chair by the entrance. At the third door, he stopped and knocked politely before opening it. A short man, Chinese American, was sat at a desk, typing away at a slimline laptop. He looked up as they entered.

"Can I help you?" He asked. There was a slight hint of a lisp, Harvey noticed. He hid it well. Speech therapy?

"These detectives are here to speak to Miss Oswald." The security guard answered.

"Ah." The man got to his feet, his expensive suit barely crinkling as he did so. "Thank you Charles. I'll take it from here." The security guard nodded and left them to it. "Please, take a seat." He gestured towards a row of seats. "I am Terence Shen, Miss Oswald's personal assistant. She's in a meeting with a client right now but, if you don't mind waiting, she should be finished in the next five minutes or so. I'd be happy to try and answer any of your questions until then."

"That would be most appreciated." Detective Blake nodded. He pulled a photo of the victim out of his pocket. He showed it to Mr Shen. "Do you recognise this man?"

"No, sorry." Shen shook his head.

"What about the name, Frederick Cahill?"

"No. It doesn't sound familiar I'm afraid. What did he do?"

"He's dead." Harvey said bluntly.

"Oh god! How awful!" At that point, the door to the meeting room swung open and a middle aged couple made their way out, muttering thank you's and farewells to the woman guiding them out of the door. Rachael Oswald was every inch the socialite. From the heels and expensive dress to the over the top and just as expensive hair on top of her head. She waved them off with a hand covered in rings.

"Take care." She cast an eye over Harvey, Petras and Blake. "Let me guess." She smiled. "Open relationship gone wrong?"

"Uh..." Harvey tried to say something.

"Oh, don't worry dear, I see this kind of thing all the time..."

"Sorry Miss Oswald." Blake said. "We aren't customers."

"You aren't?"

"NYPD." Blake held up his badge. "Homicide."

"That's terrible!" Rachael Oswald gasped a few minutes later as they sat down in her office. "But I don't see how this connects to me. I don't know this man."

"We have reason to believe that he was transporting something that you didn't want to see the light of day." Blake said.

"What? I don't understand."

"Have you heard of Molly James?" Petras asked her.

"The journalist? Yes, why?"

"She told us that she was hired to write a story on you."

"Let me guess..." Rachael sighed. "She was hired by a group of relationship councillors?"

"Yes..."

"Those bastards!" The PA, Terence blurted out. "Why can't they just leave her alone?"

"Terence..." Rachael put a friendly hand on his arm.

"They've been trying to get rid of you since the start! They just can't accept that you're every bit as good at this as they are, and..."

"Terence. Stop." She said again, calmly. "They cant face the idea of competition. They're set in their ways and it's going to take a lot to change their minds."