The Honda pulled in near a pub along The Grand Parade and the three women settled down at a table in a glassed-in area where it was easy to watch them from the bar. I ordered a beer and was drinking again earlier in the day than I’d intended — the game’s hard on the liver as many have found. Danni and her mates lit up and ordered what looked like rum and Cokes. The first round disappeared like a shower of rain in the desert and the second went down almost as quickly. They were on their third drink and hoeing into crisps before I’d finished my middy. Danni was hectic. She was motor-mouthing and waving her hands about, but it was just the alcohol fuelling her. There was no slipping off to the toilet, no nose-rubbing.
I couldn’t see any point in sticking around. The only danger Danni appeared to be in that morning was getting picked up from DUI and that wasn’t my problem. I decided I’d have to have another talk to Price, because his image of his daughter didn’t stack up against what I’d seen. But maybe she was a different person at night or under a full moon. I drove to Darlinghurst to check on the office and consider my next move towards finding Ramsay Hewitt. I’d decided to ring Tess and bring her up-to-date. Maybe the information Prue Bonham had given me would be enough to satisfy her. I hoped so. Ramsay was old enough to take care of himself, and if he’d decided to finance a law degree by being a gigolo he probably wasn’t the first man to do it and good luck to him as far as I was concerned.
I played the messages. Tess, repeating what she’d said on the home phone and keen for news. The next message spluttered angrily on the tape.
‘Hardy! Where the fuck are you? I’ve been trying to get you on the mobile for an hour or more and it’s not fucking working. You said you might be watching Danni this morning, didn’t you? I hope to Christ you were. Ring me at home as soon as you get this!’
I could account for the dead mobile easily enough — flat batteries. I was always forgetting to recharge the thing, probably because I hated it so much. Price’s voice was urgent but still I tossed up whether to call Tess first. I didn’t like being ordered around like that, especially as I was beginning to have my doubts about Price’s grip on things. Still he was paying, so I made the call.
‘Mr Price? This is Hardy.’
‘Hardy. About time. Where the fuck’ve you been?’
‘Knock it off,’ I said. ‘That line won’t get you anywhere with me. What’s going on?’
‘What’s going on? My wife’s dead! That’s what’s going on.’
He said it as though it was my fault, but I let that pass. Grief and stress distort everything. I said I was sorry and asked where, how and when in as consolatory tone as I could muster.
The anger went out of his voice and he said in what was almost a whimper, ‘An overdose of some kind. It must’ve happened between when I left for work and when the emergency service got the call about two hours ago.’
‘Who called?’
‘They don’t know. Someone found her in the house and called but they didn’t give a name and they didn’t stick around. Jesus, I don’t know what to do.’
‘Is there anyone with you? Are the police there?’
‘They’ve just gone. No, I’m alone.’
‘Is there anyone you can get over?’
‘No, I don’t fucking need anyone. I rang Danni and told her what had happened and she said she’d be home soon. Where is she?’
‘What?’
‘You said you would find Danni today.’
‘I watched her for most of the morning.’
‘So where is she now?’
‘Why?’
‘Are you that dumb? Sammy died of a drug overdose, Jason’s dead, and the cops’re sniffing around Danni. What conclusions are they going to draw?’
‘Look, Mr Price, this is all a bit hard over the phone. I think we’d better talk face to face. There’s all sorts of things that don’t add up here.’
‘I don’t give a fuck about your adding up. Where’s Danni?’
‘I last saw her in a pub in Brighton-le-Sands drinking with some friends. This is after getting some news on her mobile.’
As soon as I said it I realised what had happened and what the impact on Price was likely to be. The silence on the other end of the line confirmed my assessment. I heard him draw in a deep breath and expel it and realised that he was smoking again. Little wonder.
‘You’re not telling me she was celebrating?’
‘She wasn’t grief-stricken.’
‘Who’d have a family? I should have stayed in the army and rooted whores and looked after number one.’
I could have told him a few things about men who did that but I suspect that he already knew them. Price was smoking and I wished I had a drink — it was that kind of situation. He took what I guessed was another deep drag and then I heard a different noise and he started coughing and I realised he was drinking as well as smoking. He coughed hard and then his voice cut in strongly.
‘All right, Hardy. This is a fucking mess and it might spell an end to my business, but I still want to protect Danni. She’s my flesh and blood and that makes a difference. I want you to find her.’
‘How? Why?’
‘Fuck me! Why? To get her out of the country. How? That’s what you blokes do all the time, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, but usually with something to go on. All you’ve told me is where she lives and where she skates. That’s it. I doubt she’s still at the pub and you said you didn’t know any of her friends. You’ve tried her mobile again?’
‘Of course. It’s switched off or out of range. God, friends. I don’t know…’
‘She was with two young blonde women today. Sisters or twins.’
‘Wait on, I know them. They are twins. Shit, I can’t think.’
‘That’s not surprising after what’s happened. Look, chances are she’ll come home soon. Why don’t you hang around, have another drink and get yourself together. You’re going to have to do a lot of unpleasant things. And make all sorts of arrangements. Sit tight. If she doesn’t show up try to remember anything you can about the twins. It looked to me as if they were planning to stick together for a bit.’
His voice was bitter. He sounded as if he could swing from sorrow to anger to almost any other state within seconds. ‘To celebrate. All right, Hardy, that’s good advice. I’ll do as you say. I’ll give her till five and if she doesn’t show up I’ll ring you. What number?’
‘I can’t say. You’ve got all three. I’ll get the mobile recharged.’
He hung up and I settled back in my chair. I wondered if he knew about Dr Feelgood. I wondered if he knew Danni and Sammy had been competitors for Jason Jorgensen’s affections. Did he know that his daughter behaved more like a daredevil on wheels than a druggie? I hadn’t told him about the secondment of the female detective to the Jorgensen case and what that might imply. I figured he didn’t need any more bad news just then.
It was early in the afternoon and I’d missed lunch. I didn’t want any but on the way back from getting the mobile from the car I bought a large black coffee, put two spills of sugar in it and made do with that. I drank the coffee slowly and felt it pick me up gradually the way it does. Not for the first time I thought there might be something to this emailing. I’d have far rather tapped out a note about Ramsay and his doings and waited for Tess’s written response than talk about it. I had no idea of her university schedule but I rang her anyway and got the machine. An easy out. I left a message that said I’d learned certain things and would tell her when I could but that I was also busy on another matter.
I updated my notes and my diagrams without getting any flashes of insight into either case. I tidied some files. I emptied the w.p.b. A couple of faxes arrived and I replied to them. Likewise with three phone calls. Hilde Parker invited me to dinner a week ahead and I said I’d let her know. We’re old, old friends who have never been lovers although we came close. She married Frank Parker, once my main man in the police force.
‘You sound tense, Cliff,’ she said.