‘We prefer fax for these matters, Mr Carter. More secure. Security is our watchword. I’ll give you the number.’

He swallowed it. I haven’t got around to email yet but I’ve found that everyone who uses it is aware that someone, somewhere could be reading them. Doesn’t stop them being indiscreet with their boyfriends, girlfriends or both.

I gave him the number and said I’d fax him a contract when I received his fax. My contract was headed Hardy Investigations, but with any luck he wouldn’t worry about it. Subcontracting, outsourcing, subsidiaries-who knows who’s doing what these days?

I read the ten-minute news summary and did the quick crossword in the Sydney Morning Herald then twiddled my thumbs, an indication of how slow things were, until the fax came through.

Rosanne Carroll had a couple of degrees in science and horticulture and she ran a business called Natural Landscaping from an address in Epping. In support of her insurance claims she’d submitted documents showing that her income over the past two tax years had averaged out at around eight hundred dollars a week. Not bad, I thought, but not vast wealth by any means, particularly because I suspected that some hard physical work was probably involved.

Her premiums were paid up and she was invoking the policy to claim her usual level of income for the six months it was estimated it would take her to recover from the injury. She’d provided a battery of doctor’s certificates to the effect that her left fibula had been fractured and there was damage to the tendons in the foot. Her lower leg was in a cast as of the day after the accident, now three weeks ago, and was expected to stay there for another three weeks. To quote the medico: ‘… some atrophy of the muscles in the foot can be expected and extensive physiotherapy will be required to restore full mobility.’

Ms Carroll also had an accident policy with the company and, with medical expenses thrown in, Sentinel was looking at a payout of more than twenty grand.