Alex Barclay - Harm's Reach

‘Visible only to those similarly afflicted,’ said Ren.

‘Allow me to take care of it.’

‘God bless you, Everett.’

Everett dropped the coffee to Ren’s desk within ten minutes. ‘Is it safe?’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’ said Ren. Irritated. Why am I irritated?

‘To talk you through what I have before you’ve finished your coffee?’

‘No — it’s perilous,’ said Ren. ‘Give me fifteen minutes to find the way to my human side... or work out how to mimic yours.’

‘OK,’ said Everett.

‘Thanks for asking, though.’ And not drowning me in information when I’m delicate.

Everett came back when she was finished.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘You were talking about the Denver Tech Center a few days ago. Well, Robert Prince has interests there.’

‘No way,’ said Ren.

‘Two things,’ said Everett. ‘One is a charity called ACORA.’

‘I know that name,’ said Ren.

‘Yes,’ said Everett.

‘Pause and reflect,’ said Ren. ‘It’s Robert Prince’s mother’s name! Acora Prince.’

‘Correct,’ said Everett.

‘Anyone else involved in this charity?’ said Ren.

‘Yes... all six of the board members attended the same private school as Robert Prince — Harmon’s. This is some interesting network.’

‘He likes networks,’ said Ren. ‘Why does he need a charity when that Catholic organization he’s in is all about giving?’

‘The OCBLA is not all about giving,’ said Everett. ‘They’re all about earning billions and influencing the government.’

‘You know what I mean,’ said Ren.

‘The second organization is an energy company called NOVA,’ said Everett. ‘It’s very strange. Just to give you the background: when Robert Prince’s mother, Acora, died in 2001, she left Robert, among other things, a tract of land in North Dakota: five hundred acres in the Williston Basin. Her father, Walter Prince, had bought this land back in ’53.’ He paused. ‘What do you know about fracking?’

‘That it wasn’t invented in 1953...’ said Ren.

Everett smiled. ‘Exactly. Walter Prince either knew the people involved in the Bakken Shale discovery or he got a lucky break, but either way, he bought himself five hundred prime acres. Like you said, fracking wasn’t invented; a few years passed, no one was any closer to extracting the oil, so Walter Prince leased the land to a rancher and got a steady income from it. Cut to 2004 and the technology’s been developed to access the oil reserves. When the oil companies come in and start throwing money at North Dakota landowners, Robert Prince, owner of said five hundred acres, is very excited. He’s already a wealthy man, but, as we know, the bulk of it was inherited. He is keen on making his own money by setting up his own energy company, but to his great embarrassment, he discovers that he doesn’t own the mineral rights. He had just assumed he did; his father was in mining — why would he buy land without the mineral rights? Those mineral rights, instead, are owned by the federal government. So, basically, Robert Prince loses out on millions and millions of dollars...’

‘Yeah... fuck his life...’ said Ren.

‘I know, right?’ said Everett.

‘So, why did he set up his own energy company without owning the mineral rights to the land?’ said Ren. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘He could be planning to buy other people’s mineral rights,’ said Everett. ‘Apparently the oil and natural reserves there were massively under-rated. There’s a lot of money to be made.’

‘This DTC thing is weird,’ said Ren. ‘There’s Wellness Partners — The Darned Heart’s rehab facility, along with Robert Prince’s energy company and charity. Could you check if there’s some connection between Robert Prince and the ranch that we don’t know about, something financial... nothing to do with Conor Gorman staying there. Isn’t it all a little cozy? The Princes, the rehab, the ranch... could Laura Flynn have stumbled across something that everyone is happy to collude in covering up?’ She paused. ‘Does Robert Prince by any chance own that rehab facility?’

‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Everett. ‘I checked that. But sit tight. Don’t approach him with this yet. There is more digging to be done.’

‘Thank you for all this,’ said Ren. I like your style.

Ren’s phone rang. It was Janine. She listened as Ren went through what Everett had found on Robert Prince’s finances.

‘My bombshell is bigger than yours,’ said Janine.

‘No competitions,’ said Ren. ‘Ever. I told you...’

‘I just got off the phone from Barry Tolman,’ said Janine. ‘He has the DNA results on million-dollar baby Flynn/Prince.’

‘And?’

‘In words borrowed from Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, and co.: “Robert Prince, you are not the father.”’

‘ What the what?’ said Ren.

‘He’s not a match,’ said Janine. ‘It’s Ingrid Prince plus A.N. Other.’

Ren slapped the desk. ‘You are shitting me. What the fuck? How does that work? How could he just let me take a swab like that?’

‘Mix-up at the fertility clinic?’ said Janine. ‘Maybe this will be news to him too.’

‘In that case we may just have found our motive...’ said Ren. ‘The baby was the target.’

‘If the Princes found out that the lab had screwed up and the baby was not Robert’s, they could have wanted to end the pregnancy.’

‘They could have told Laura Flynn about the mistake, they could have asked her to have a termination...’ said Ren. ‘Maybe that was why she was researching on the neighbor’s computer.’

‘And she could have run away if that’s not what she wanted,’ said Janine.

‘There’s another possibility here,’ said Ren. ‘What if there was a fertility problem with Robert Prince, but he didn’t want to admit that to his wife? He pays off the lab, they take care of the rest.’

‘Hmm,’ said Janine. ‘What if he wanted to leave his wife? If there’s no pre-nup, the baby would be the only thing tying them together...’

‘If he really is a staunch Catholic, he won’t believe in divorce, so it’s very likely he didn’t have a pre-nup,’ said Ren. ‘Wow, if you really wanted to excel at gold-digging, make sure your target is anti-divorce.’

‘He could have met someone new,’ said Janine.

‘If it’s a straightforward case of the lab screwing up,’ said Ren, ‘could Laura Flynn have found out in some way without the Princes knowing?’

‘Maybe,’ said Janine. ‘Could that happen?’

‘What if the lab realized their mistake and approached Laura to cover it up, tried to pay her off, instead of having to face Robert Prince? Maybe she didn’t agree. Maybe they were never going to tell anyone. Maybe someone was hired to drive her off the road, make it look like an accident. It didn’t work, so they were forced to do something else.’

‘If Laura Flynn had died in an accident, or even if she had survived, but lost the baby,’ said Janine, ‘the lab’s mistake would never have come to light — it would have been unlikely that any testing would have been done on the fetus.’

‘The fertility industry is big business,’ said Ren. ‘The clinic that did this would have had a lot to lose by this going public. Can you imagine? If they can’t get it right for a high-profile couple like the Princes, how is a regular couple — who’ve used all their life savings or remortgaged their home — going to stand a chance?’

‘What if Robert Prince was told, then he told Laura, but she wanted to keep the baby?’ She paused. ‘Then what about the internet search into abortion clinics? Unless that was him... but I’m not really feeling that.’