I drove home cautiously on tyres that would make Jack Brabham weep. I skidded twice and had a heady moment when the wipers hesitated, but I said ‘mush’ to them and they kept going. I parked outside the house and toted my bag up the path through the rain. I was tired from the long day, the travelling and the depressing effect of seeing what heroin can do to a young, healthy man. I wanted a shower and a drink; I wanted to listen to Ella Fitzgerald; I wanted to see Helen Broadway. Instead, I got Frank Parker.
He was sitting halfway up the stairs, which put him about ten metres from the front door and head to head with anyone coming through it. It was a shooting gallery arrangement, with Parker in the shooter’s spot, — he was in shadow and whoever was in the doorway was beautifully framed against the light. Parker had a gun in his hand and he was ready to shoot.
‘Jesus, Frank!’ I dropped the bag and was almost alarmed enough to try putting up my hands. Parker stretched his long legs in front of him and stood up just a couple of steps above the floor. He came down the steps, favouring his left side. He lowered the gun to his side; I closed the door behind me and we met halfway up the passage.
‘The dentist let me in’, he said. ‘Must be handy for a bloke in your game and with your personality to have someone around who can fix your teeth.’
‘Put the bloody gun away.’ I went past him towards the kitchen and the fridge. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Since last night.’
‘Sorry I didn’t change the sheets.’ He didn’t say anything to that and I didn’t find out why until later. ‘I need a drink.’
He followed me through to the kitchen, where I decided that wine wasn’t the answer. I got the whisky out of the cupboard where it usually lives a lonely life, grabbed a glass and poured a short one. ‘Cheers.’ I put it down, took a deep breath and looked at him.
He had a rumpled look which was unusual for him and he’d missed a shave; for a man with a beard as heavy as his that’s like missing two shaves. He set the safety on the revolver with his thumb and put it on the table. I held up the bottle and he nodded. I poured one for him and another for me.
‘What’s up, Frank?’
He sipped the scotch and made a face. ‘Not very good.’
‘None of it’s any good when you come right down to it. Did I ask what was up?’
I pushed aside the books and magazines on the table to make eating and drinking room the way I always had to. We sat down, Parker carefully, protecting the left side. He had a preoccupied, almost embarrassed look. He was a very private, self-contained man and the situation wasn’t an easy one for him. I gave him time. The window was still wet from the rain and the afternoon sun coming through broke up into pin-points of light. I drank some more of the cut-price scotch.
‘I got a bit busy after we finished the other day’, Parker said. ‘Came into town and poked around. Here and there. I was really trying to sort out my own thing-who might have set me up.’ He sipped his drink and rubbed his chin as if he could feel the whiskers growing. ‘But I made a few discreet enquiries about your matter too, especially about him.’ He got the photograph out of his shirt pocket and laid it on the table. ‘Strange thing is, it looks like your problem and mine are related.’
‘You know who he is.’ I was excited, feeling for the breakthrough.
‘Yeah. I thought he was familiar but it wouldn’t click. A former colleague clinched it for me. He’s a bloke named Henry Hayes; they call him “Bully”.’
‘I’ll trump you’, I said. ‘He’s a Queensland cop.’
He nodded. ‘He was. He acts as if he still is. He’s bad news; a hit man, basically. He killed six men officially in the line of duty and a few more unofficially. He left the force early this year.’
‘Why? Kicked out?’
‘No. They couldn’t kick him out. Knows too much dirt. He’s said to have the goods on top men in the force and sideways-on the politicians and the crims. He’s invulnerable.’
‘Or highly dispensable.’
He shook his head. ‘Not so far. Like I said, he acts as if he’s still a cop-he exerts the authority without the responsibility.’
We both drank, but I didn’t taste mine. We were probably thinking the same thing-that a rogue policeman with high-level backing and protection was about as dangerous an animal as there was.
‘So why did he quit? Why not go on killing people and drawing his pay?’
‘No one knows. But it’s something very big. I do know it involves Liam Catchpole and Dottie Williams.’
‘They’re not big time.’
‘They are now. Look, I’ve narrowed down the things I was working on that could’ve been a big threat to anyone to three.’
‘That all? I can only do one thing at a time.’
‘Luxury. Yeah, three, that’s disregarding old stuff. I felt I was getting close to whoever killed the heroin courier at Mascot. You read about that?’
I nodded.
‘I had a customs bloke ready to talk. I thought I was getting warm on the judge who got bombed. His daughter died and her boyfriend was sweating his guts out over it. Really pushing. He had a lawyer over a barrel and was getting some names. Bad stuff goes on in those courts. And there’s a bloke in Parramatta, coming out soon, who I was keeping under wraps. He won’t be pleased that I got the push.’
‘Why? What’s his game?’
‘D’you remember Collinson, the one who killed his partner and took off with the money?’
‘Yeah, think so.’
‘Wasn’t all that much fuss about it. My man had some information about an accomplice who didn’t want to go on being an accomplice. It was going to take careful handling.’
‘I’m glad I’m not in law enforcement. How much money was involved in that Collinson thing again?’ I finished my drink and poured just a whisper more.
‘About six million. Easy on that, Cliff. We’ve got things to do.’ He touched his side and winced.
‘What happened to you?’
‘Someone made a pass at me-with a knife, in Crown Street.’
I whistled. ‘Is it bad?’
‘Big scratch. The dentist fixed it.’ He smiled and I began to get the idea.
‘Where’s Hilde now?’
‘She went off to do the disgusting things she does. She’ll be back. Very competent young woman.’
‘Yeah. She is. Look, Frank; I’m glad you felt you could come here and all, but you’ve left a lot of things hanging. What’s the connection between your thing and mine? And why are you here?’ I felt like finishing my whisky but something about his face made me give up the idea.
He leaned forward across the table. ‘Here’s the connection. I think those earlier goes at me were just warnings, but this one’, he touched his ribs again, ‘was the real thing. And it happened shortly after I made the enquiry and got the answers about Hayes. There was time for the word to pass and my feeling is that’s what happened. Why’m I here? I went home and there was a three man crew watching the house. Someone’s getting serious.’
‘Wasn’t Hayes himself, was it? At your place?’
‘I doubt it. He’s said to be very good at what he does. These three weren’t very good.’
‘So what do you want to do now?’
‘Who would you say was the softest out of Catchpole, Spotswood and Williams?’
I thought about it. ‘I don’t know all that much about them.’
‘I do’, Frank said. ‘I’ve been asking.’
‘None of them’s soft, but I’d say Spotswood if I had to pick one.’
‘You’re right. He’s the one. Well, we have to figure out a way to get hold of him and scare the living shit out of him.’ He banged his fist on the table. ‘I’m buggered if I’m going to be hunted by an animal like Hayes. I’m going hunting myself. What do you say?’
‘Yes. Tonight?’
‘Tonight.’