'Word got around about Felicity's involvement with Malouf. Confidence is everything in this business. Trust is nothing. A few clients have… withdrawn; a few are cooling off and it's not just the GFC. I'm facing a personal fucking financial crisis.'

So it was about reputation but still about money. He was serious, no question. He'd drawn up a list of names-the person who claimed to have seen Malouf, Malouf's wife, his own wife, gamblers the police had interviewed, a journalist who'd covered the case, a lawyer representing a client who was suing Perry Hassan's firm and another who was processing Perry's application to the insurance company covering him against precisely this kind of disaster. For someone who didn't particularly care for lawyers, it looked as though I was going to be spending some time with them. If I agreed to work for Standish.

'Well?' he said after handing over the list and some supporting information-newspaper clippings, web page printouts, emails. 'Will you help me, and yourself?'

I finished the drink and ran my eye over the list. The alleged sighting had been in Middle Harbour, at a marina by the Spit Bridge. That helped me to decide. It'd be hard enough tracking people down and questioning them with no credentials whatsoever in Sydney, but impossible in Liechtenstein or the Bahamas. Standish saw me focusing on that entry.

'He's still in Sydney. That means there's a reason, probably an associate. He had to have someone help him mount this operation.'

'From what you've said it could be a woman looking after him, giving him sanctuary. That's if the sighting's genuine.'

'The names are there. Felicity and I are separated. You can approach her.'

'The helpful associate and the woman could be one and the same,' I said.

'Does that mean you're in?'

'I'm thinking about it.'

'Let's talk money.'

Standish began by mentioning a contract, a daily rate and expenses but I stopped him.