‘Feel that? It’s a. 38, does nasty things. I’m going to use it on some of your friends if I have to.’
‘Who the hell are you?’
‘My name’s Hardy. You wouldn’t remember me, but I live near your Mum in Glebe. She’s hired me to find you and help you if I can.’
‘What are you doing peddling shit, then?’ Her breath was heavy with tobacco and alcohol; there was a rank smell from her clothes as if they’d been slept in. She was also trembling violently.
‘That was a blind to get me here. You’re in a bad way, Annie, you must know that.’
‘Sure. What do you reckon you can do about it?’
‘I can take you out of here. I know some people who’ve worked the cure. Your mother wants to talk to you, your parole officer’s not too happy. The way you’re going your life’s rotting away in front of you.’
She sagged against me into what I thought at first was a fit, then I realised she was laughing. The spasms shook and twisted her; she was leaf thin and impossibly light; I put my arm around her and could feel the sharp bones poking through the tight skin. I got hold of a morsel of flesh on her upper arm and pinched hard.
‘What’s funny?’
‘Everything.’ She cut the laugh off with a deep breath which she expelled slowly. She looked over my shoulder into the room. ‘We’ve only got a minute. Look, Hardy, I’m working for the narcs. I don’t want to, but they’ve got me by the tits. Understand?’
I nodded.
‘There’s a guy coming here tonight with some smack, a lot of it. It’s a set-up. When Doc pays him, he’s going to bust them all. It’s arranged.’
‘What do you get out of it?’
Her tired features worked their way up into a sort of smile. ‘Freedom’, she said. ‘That’s what they’ve promised me. They say they’ll wipe my slate.’
‘Any money?’
‘Some, enough to get out of this bloody place. It’s my one chance, Hardy. If you butt in now you’ll screw it for me, and they’ll come down hard on me. You know what they’re like.’
I did. I knew what they could do to people who got caught in their dirty world, a world in which the narcotics agents themselves were not the least dirty part. I squinted at her in the soft light, trying to gauge her levels of truth and reality, but you can’t assess junkies on the normal scale-their habit over-rides everything else, straightens out their curves and throws in new ones. Anything was possible, but there was a note in her voice that could be taken for sincerity and she was Ma Parker’s daughter.
‘I’ll buy it.’ I said. ‘When’s he due?’
‘Soon, any minute. I’m trying to come off it, I’m badly strung out. It has to be soon, has to be. Shit, I really didn’t need you in the scene.’
‘We’ll see. Look on me as your insurance. Why did they agree to let me come along if they’ve got this big score lined up?’
‘Greed. Look, we can’t stay out here, and I need a drink bad. I’m going back.’
She moved away and I let her go. Inside new drinks were being poured and cigarettes lit. The television was still on; tennis players in coloured uniforms moved around on a red court under a blue Texas sky. Dean had slit open the sachet with a razor blade and his face was showing a little awe as he looked at me.
‘You say you’ve got a lot of this stuff?’
‘I may have exaggerated a little.’ I looked him up and down and let my eyes drift off over Doc and Paul. ‘I’ve got as much as you can handle anyway.’
Doc spoke quickly. ‘We’d need to see more of it, Dean. Anyone can get hold of this amount of good shit. There’s something about this that worries me… this packet.’
Paul and Sam were working on a big joint, rolling it with a number of papers and giggling. Paul was singing a song about Rio. Dean sneered at them and went over to where Annie was standing; she had a cigarette burning and her face was drawn tight and stiff.
‘What do you know about this guy, Annie?’ Dean said.
‘I had a girlfriend in Silverwater’, I improvised. ‘She…’
‘I was asking her!’ The scars on Dean’s skin showed out white and malignant-looking as anger pumped colour into his face. Doc was staring at the square of plastic in his hand and it was an altogether nasty situation when a soft knock sounded on the back door.
‘That’ll be him’, Annie whispered. ‘This is it.’
‘Two big scores in one night,’ Sam said putting a match to the cigar-sized joint. ‘Let’s celebrate.’
‘Shut up’, Dean hissed. ‘Paul, open the door; Doc, stand back so you can get a good look at him.’ Dean reached inside his jacket and took out a. 45 Colt automatic; he slid the hammer back to full cock and stood where he could get a clear shot at the door. He obviously knew what he was doing, and I felt even more under-equipped and unready with the. 38 tucked down behind.
Paul opened the door, and the man who came through it conjured up pictures of the veldt and sjamboks: he was about six feet tall with wide, beefy shoulders; his face was reddish and broad, topped with thin, sandy hair. He had that blue-eyed, mass-produced in Holland look, which repels most people not of the same stamp.
Doc wasn’t repelled; a smile spread over his pasty face; stretched tight, his lips were like a pair of peeled almonds.
‘Hendrick, dear friend,’ he cooed. ‘Hendrick, is it really you?’
The newcomer didn’t smile back; his pale eyes flicked around the room, rested on me for an uncomfortable time, and then settled into a neutral, business-like glare.
‘I thought it’d be you, Doc’, he said. ‘It had the smell, you know.’ His accent was three shades thicker than Sam’s but it was formed under the same African skies. He moved forward like a man about to take control. His grey suit would have been conservative except for the over-bold red check in it. There was a gun bulge under the left lapel and a bulge of another kind in a side pocket.
‘Don’t be like that, Henk’, Doc said soothingly. ‘We’re all friends here. Let’s get down to business.’
I took a side long look at Annie; her cigarette was burning away unheeded and extra strain seemed to have stripped the flesh from the bones of her face. I didn’t know what sort of act she’d expected from her contact, but it clearly didn’t include pleasant greetings from Doc. A double-cross was in the air and she could sense it. Dean acted as if comprehension was no concern of his; he held the. 45 at the ready and waited.
Hendrick ignored Doc’s patter and looked again at me. ‘Who’s he?’
‘Dealer’, Doc said, ‘small time, nothing to interest you Henk.’
I took a chance. ‘Not so small’, I said. ‘Fair sized consignment, first grade stuff.’ The heroin was lying on a chair arm and I pointed to it. ‘Sample.’
The pale eyes seared me like acid. ‘Is that so?’ he said. ‘Interesting.’ He walked over to Annie, took the cigarette from between her fingers and dropped it into her glass.
‘Dirty habit, Annie’, he said. His big white hand came up and he took a grip on her left breast Annie looked down.
‘I’m glad it’s you we’re dealing with Henk’, Doc said rubbing his hands briskly. ‘Annie had some story about a Vietnamese. You don’t look like a Viet.’
Hendrick laughed. ‘Well, Annie wasn’t completely in the picture.’ He squeezed her breast harder. ‘It’s my job to get in touch with all these desperados. But Doc here is a gentleman compared to some. I do the community a service by keeping him in business.’
Sam was looking at him with her mouth slightly open-another one not repelled. Paul was well away with the grass; he’d smoked most of the joint and he was lying out on a sofa as if he was ready to levitate. Dean was still at his post.
Doc spread and waved his hands like the Pope bestowing a benediction. ‘There’s no better smack that copper smack, let’s see it, Hendrick.’
He moved away from Annie and unbuttoned his jacket; the black butt of the gun curved out near his shirt pocket. He nodded at Dean. ‘You, put the popgun over there near the telly and then go back near the door.’ Dean did as he was told after a nod from Doc. Hendrick pulled out a package from his pocket and tossed it to Doc. It was wrapped in plastic, and when Doc had unwound it a couple of dozen small, linked plastic pockets rippled out like a snake.