I stopped talking as the receptionist appeared in the doorway, a worried look across her face.
‘Is everything okay in here?’ she asked.
‘Everything’s fine,’ Novak said. ‘The officer was just leaving.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ I said firmly.
The girl stood awkwardly in the doorway before finally getting the hint and scurrying back to her desk in the foyer.
‘You still haven’t answered my question about Justin Quinn,’ I said when she was gone. ‘When we drove past the murder scene, you said you didn’t know him. By itself that little fib means nothing, except that Justin happened to be the second client of yours who was murdered in a week, something you obviously didn’t think was worth sharing with me.’
‘Justin was only recently referred to us,’ Novak said in a cool voice, rocking back in his chair. ‘So at the time of his death I didn’t realise he was a client of ours. It wasn’t a lie.’
I realised then Novak wasn’t going to crack that easily. I would have to take him all the way to the edge. I removed the 7-Eleven DVD from my briefcase and handed it across the desk.
‘Put this in your computer,’ I said. ‘Mute the volume and let it play.’
‘What the fuck is this? Kiddie porn? I don’t wanna see that shit.’
‘Just play it. It’s not porn, but it is something you need to explain.’
Guardedly, Novak slid the disk into the PC and soon the inside of the 7-Eleven appeared on the screen. We both watched in silence as a series of customers walked in and out of the store. I watched Novak’s eyes as they dropped to the clock in the corner of the screen.
‘You told me you purchased cigarettes at around midnight the night Dallas Boyd was killed,’ I said.
‘Like I told you, I was manning the soup kitchen. I always give smokes to the clients. Stops the need for begging. You know how many homeless people get bashed for trying to bum a smoke?’
‘I don’t care about the smokes, Will. I care about all the lies I keep uncovering. When I first spoke to you, you told me you hadn’t seen or spoken to Dallas for a couple of days, right?’
‘That’s right. We had lunch and spent the time planning a way to get his sister out of the flat. What’s the problem with that?’
I nodded to the screen. ‘Just watch.’
We turned back to the PC as a grainy image of Novak appeared on the screen. The clock counter read 12.17 a.m.
‘There!’ Novak said, watching himself approach the counter. ‘Just after midnight. Exactly like I told you.’
He went to eject the disk but I told him to let it play.
‘Will, I want you to explain something to me.’
‘What’s there to explain? I bought the bloody smokes and left.’
‘No, you didn’t. So rewind it, and let it play again. This time with the sound up.’
Tiny beads of sweat dotted Novak’s forehead. Finally he clicked the sound icon and turned the volume up. The small speakers on his desk vibrated with distortion as the disk played again.
‘Happy now?’
As Novak approached the counter on screen, Dallas Boyd’s mobile phone started ringing through the speakers. Novak could be seen removing the phone from his pocket to cancel the call. But it wasn’t fast enough. I watched his face pale now as the tune to ‘Hi Ho Silver’ sounded through the office. It was loud and high-pitched. The kids outside seemed to look towards the window and for a second I wondered if they could hear it ringing.
‘This is a call charge record for Dallas Boyd’s phone from the night he died,’ I said, placing the CCR on the desk. ‘It tells me that Sparks tried to call Dallas at exactly 12.17 a.m. The call was cancelled, but it still showed up on this report because Sparks left a message through the phone company’s missed call service.’
Running my finger down the list, I pointed out the recurring number I knew belonged to Novak and which confirmed he’d lied to me about the last time he’d spoken to Dallas Boyd.
‘Sparks and Dallas were supposed to meet at midnight to exchange the laptop, but Dallas never showed up because he was dead by then,’ I continued. ‘The killer took his phone, most likely because he was worried about us checking it and linking him to these three calls.’
When Novak didn’t respond, I leant forward and said, ‘That’s Dallas Boyd’s phone right there on the screen. I can tell because of the ringtone.