“The what?”
“You heard me. It’s over on Roebuck Bay and within ten kilometers. Have a ranger there everyday.”
Shirley brought another round and it crossed Leonard’s mind that what seemed at first a fun and lighthearted contest was turning bloody serious. Especially since he couldn’t think of another suitable occupation. “Roadhouse staff.”
“No — that comes under restaurant staff, and I named that right off. Give up yet?” Cheeks almost scarlet with drink and victory, Barry leaned forward. “Still got more!”
Leonard sighed. “All right — my shout. What have you got?”
He held up work-knotted fingers and counted them off. “Camel feeder. Damned beasts have to be fed Wet or Dry. Watchmen at the sewage treatment plant and at the oil tank farm — twenty-four seven. Meteorologist takes readings every day. Laundromat clerk — three of those in town, open Sundays. Chemist, one on call every weekend.” Barry slapped the bar in triumph. “Thanks for the shout, Constable!”
Later, in the cramped motel room reserved by the District Police for Temporary Attachments (Junior Grade), Leonard went over Barry’s answers. The man would skite all over town about winning his bet. But Leonard hoped that anyone listening to Barry’s brag would hear it as a triumph over authority rather than an official interrogation, the subject of which might send someone running. And even though the drinks had cost Leonard his entire per diem for this trip, Barry had told him where to get started.
The answers he could not get by cell phone he sought in person. His first stop Tuesday morning was at the Fluffy-Lite Laundromat near the Short Street Carpark. A heavyset woman behind the counter folded clothes from a plastic basket onto a sheet of wrapping paper as she kept an eye on several humming machines. “No, Constable. Manager’s the same every weekend — Sarah Klein. Saturday and Sunday both.” The story was similar at the two other laundromats.
At the aerodrome, staff either had regular duty every weekend with weekdays off, or rotated once a month. Neither pattern fit the one Leonard looked for. The two camel safaris and the crocodile park reduced help during the Wet — “Don’t make enough to pay an extra hand, weekend or weekday. Do it all meself, mate.” The Bird Observatory was manned by Shire Rangers, who rotated Saturday and Sunday watches among half a dozen staff, though the schedule was flexible. Leonard put a question mark behind that entry. Fortunately, many shops and services were closed on weekends during the Wet because of few tourists. Still, after telephoning or talking with taxi dispatchers, the managers of half a dozen hotels, operators of the several car hire businesses, the oil tank farm, the sewage plant director, and the hospital’s personnel director, he ended up with two men and one woman who could fit the pattern: a maintenance worker at the Mangrove Hotel, a taxi driver, and a clerk at the hospital’s Emergency Department. He would have to interview each person, but already the day was half gone and Senior Sergeant Dougald waited.
When he entered the station, the S. S. speared him with an angry glare. “Don’t you believe in reporting to morning muster, Smith?”
“Thought I had some time off for working the weekend, Senior Sergeant.”
“You have time off if I give you time off! And in my shire, you request time off through proper channels, is that understood?”
“Yessir. Sorry, sir.”
“Sorry be damned. Get over to hospital and take Edgar Karenji’s statement. If he’s been discharged, you find him!”
“He won’t be discharged yet.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s on seventy-two hour hold — due out tomorrow.” Leonard, relieved to be escaping, smiled. “Ward clerk told me last night.”
The sergeant’s voice chased after him. “I want his statement this afternoon, not next week!”
It did not take long. Edgar winced as he shifted beneath the sheet on the hard mattress. His eyes avoided Leonard and focused on the plastic cup of green jelly that sat beside his empty lunch dishes on the bed tray. “I didn’t see it happen.”
“You didn’t see it happen? You were there!”
“Yeah, I was there. Wouldn’t’ve got cut, otherwise. You think I’d be there if I saw it coming? Didn’t see it.”
“Who else besides your brother was with you?”
A shrug, a wince, an evasion: “Don’t know. Too drunk to know.”
“Was Daisy Williams there?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“But she gave you blokes money to get drunk.”
“Yeah. She’s all right People. Not like some of these other ones — claim to be People and don’t even look at you.”
“Okay, read this and sign.” Leonard held the clipboard while the man scrawled his name under the few sentences. He would have been surprised if Edgar had named Albert as his assailant. The score between the brothers would be settled later, and without the involvement of mistrusted police. Maybe it would be via an apology or a gift from Albert. More likely, Leonard knew, both would shrug and file it under “drunk time,” and then, when alcohol once again twisted their minds, Edgar would recall and lunge into bloody revenge.
Leonard checked his watch. He had time for some interviews.
The Mangrove Hotel overlooked Roebuck Bay. The manager looked over Leonard and wondered why the police wanted to talk to one of his employees. “Just background on another investigation, sir. Nothing at all to be concerned about.”
Howard Benjamin, in his forties, squinted through the smoke of a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. “You want to see me, Constable?”
“Just need to know your whereabouts this past weekend, Mr. Benjamin.”
The man’s dark face became a mask. “Why?”
“Might help with a case I’m working on. Do you know Daisy Williams?”
“Miss Daisy?”
“Yes.”
“See her around and about. What kind of case?”
“Trespassing. Can you tell me where you were Saturday and Sunday?”
“Around town. And I bloody well wasn’t trespassing anywhere.”
“I don’t think this involves you, Mr. Benjamin. But maybe someone you saw.”
A cautious curiosity replaced defensiveness. “Where at?”
“Near Cape Latrille.”
“Up the Manari Road in the Wet? Man, I got no reason to go there in the Dry, let alone in the bleeding Wet! I been here the whole weekend. Saturday, I had a few drinks at the Rowie and watched footy. Sunday, I messed about the house, then took the wife and kids out for a bite — you can ask them if you think you need to.”
Leonard’s next interview was off Djaigween Road on a small dirt spur leading to a parking lot and taxi office. Kumar Banerjee was waiting for him.
“Yes, Constable, it was my weekend off.” The slender man’s white smile held something of apology and he shrugged. “Almost every weekend is off, in the Wet.”
“Every weekend?”
He nodded, straight glossy hair catching the fluorescent light overhead. “Supposed to work every other weekend, but now no work. We make up for it in the Dry. But in the Wet, not so much airplanes coming in, not so much people going to hotels.”
“So you were home this past weekend?”
“Oh yes. With my family.” He smiled widely. “It was my oldest boy’s twelfth birthday. We had a party and watched Bollywood films.”
The hospital personnel officer had earlier told Leonard on the telephone that the only staff regularly alternating weekend duties were ward clerks in the Emergency Department. Like the hotel manager, he was worried. “Is there something we should be aware of, Constable?”
“No, no — routine interview. She may or may not be a witness to an event, that’s all.”
A plain woman, perhaps thirty, dark hair bobbed for efficiency, looked up from her computer screen. The small nameplate on her desk said “R. W. Elder.” “Yes, I’m Roberta Elder. Why?” With a wide smile, Leonard said he just needed to ask a few questions. Yes, she alternated working weekends with the other clerk, Linda Pataki. Yes, she had been off this last Saturday and Sunday. She spent the time painting her living room and bedroom. She lived alone. No, she did not know a Daisy Williams.