‘Right, well, most of what we have is two dead bodies, a battered wife and a missing employee. I don’t know how he is doing it, but he has managed to keep a pretty tight lid on whatever it is that he is up to.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean in business terms, he seems to be just under the threshold to be investigated by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. He throws the other contractors a bone every now and again, but it’s not benevolence, it’s purely to keep any kind of audit at bay, by the looks of things. This is purely speculation, of course. My guess is it’s bid rigging – have you ever heard of that?’

‘No.’

‘Right, well, the way it works is that companies collude to enable the “winning” party to obtain contracts at uncompetitive prices – so, higher prices for sellers and lower prices for buyers. Typically speaking, the other contractors are compensated in various ways, either by cash payments, or in this case probably by not having their faces smashed in. They are also occasionally designated to be the “winning” bidder on other contracts, or hired as a subcontractor. This usually happens with government contracts and in past cases of bid rigging, the companies take it in turns to be the winners. From what I can see, Reece Corrigan’s company has won every significant contract in the last few years. He doesn’t take turns.’

‘Couldn’t that just be because they have a stellar reputation?’

‘It’s possible, of course, but for the other companies not to undercut him to stay afloat seems sketchy to me.’

‘So, is what he is doing illegal, or not?’

‘Not on paper. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other construction companies have to offer him some financial incentive in order to get work though. I doubt there is any kind of paper trail, probably cash in hand. It’s going to take more digging to find out what. If it’s proven, each instance carries a prison term of up to six years. So, if they’ve been doing it for ten years on several contracts a year, then you are looking at some serious prison time.’

‘What’s the point of that for the other companies? Wouldn’t they be out of pocket?’

‘Not necessarily.’

‘But if there is no evidence of this then what can we do about it?’