I nodded. Mr Justice Marchant’s brief had been to investigate Customs Department corruption wherever he might find it. But the thing had got out of hand, and had spilled over into the administration of justice and the workings of the financial system. It was still going on-sputtering into life from time to time-despite high-level efforts to snuff it. A lot of big fish had been caught-and even more had been badly scared.
‘Our information was that Collinson got wind of the Enquiry’s interest in him, and he started to liquidate. He had a partner… hold on, talking’s making me dry…”
He took a sip of his coffee and I reflected on what a strain it must have been staying abreast of all this changing information. And he’d said he was doing other things as well.
‘Barratt’, he went on. ‘CB Holdings Limited-Collinson and Barratt. That’s where I came in. Don’t know why, but Collinson killed Barratt. Maybe they argued about the wind-up, or maybe Collinson didn’t want anyone around who knew as much as Barratt did. There was a suggestion that he sort of threw him out as a decoy, scapegoat; call it what you like. Anyway, he shot him. Barratt was worth peanuts by then. That’s a year or so ago: Collinson’s thought to be in Australia, in Sydney even. But no one knows where.’
‘What’s “thought to be” mean?’
‘Phone calls get made-they’ve been recorded. Things still get done.’
‘Why wouldn’t he skip?’
‘Don’t know. Thinks he’s safe? Got a woman? He’s sick? Scared of flying? Don’t know.’
I’d finished the coffee and scotch and was thinking about another. I decided against it. I hadn’t even had my say yet. I poured some coffee, straight.
‘You seem to know a hell of a lot about him.’
‘Might sound that way, but I don’t know. I’ve got facts and dates and figures, but I don’t feel that I understand him. Don’t know what makes him tick.’ He flexed his fingers. They put me in charge of a task force.’ He snorted. ‘Task force! We didn’t come up with anything solid so they disbanded us. Then they disbanded me.’
‘You’re taking it personally, Frank. I don’t blame you, but look at it from my angle. Hayes and Catchpole are using young Guthrie as some sort of bait. Let’s say they’re corrupting him, really screwing him up. All that to get at Collinson, who doesn’t mean a dog’s fart to me.’
Parker drained his cup and gave himself a short whisky. He didn’t respond, didn’t even blink as I went on.
‘I know what you want. You want to let Hayes and Catchpole get on with it. Flush Collinson out-just so long as you’re there when he surfaces. You won’t care who gets hurt.’
‘I suppose that’s about it.’
‘I can’t let that happen. My job is to unravel the Guthrie kid’s problems and straighten him out. Maybe I can do that just with a good heart-to-heart, knowing what I know now.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘I’ve got the Brisbane stuff to work with, remember. Hayes did a job on Ray Guthrie’s brother-got him hooked on junk, it looks like. That’ll count for something.’
‘If that kid’ll confirm it.’
‘I think he will.’
‘You have to consider the hold Dottie Williams might have on him. That could be bloody strong-he’s just a kid, Dottie could be his dream woman.’
‘Yeah.’
We faced each other silently across the table; Parker rubbed his bristle, moving his hand tiredly in a clockwise motion.
‘We could sleep on it’, he said.
‘No, we need some ground rules, right now. We’re about square-neither of us owes the other a thing. We can get up from here and go about it in our own different ways.’
‘That couldn’t be the smart thing to do.’
‘Did you push Spotswood off the roof?’
He gaped at me. ‘No!’
‘All right, I had to ask.’
‘Look, Cliff, I’m a bit desperate about this, I know. I am taking it personally. But it hasn’t got to me that much. We can’t afford to split up. Hayes is good, really good. The fee he’d be on must be enormous. He’ll go all the way for it. The whole thing is bound to be messy.’
‘That’s why I should take the Guthrie kid out now.’
‘Maybe. If you could find him, and if he’d go. Neither sounds real likely to me.’
‘The kid doesn’t know what he’s involved in. He doesn’t know Collinson’s his father. He’s in the dark.’
‘That’s tough. But this is bigger than that. Collinson owns policemen, he owns politicians. While that goes on no one’s safe, everything’s up for grabs.’
‘It was like that in Jericho, probably, and Athens and Rome. I’m not a crusader.’
‘It’d be nice to get him.’ He named one of the government ministers who’d go down with Collinson, and I had to admit that that prospect had a strong appeal. I could feel myself coming around, and Parker knew it.
‘I’ll try not to hurt the kid if it comes to something rugged. You’d be there, that’d be your job. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone except Hayes and Collinson.’ He grinned. ‘Especially not you or me.’
‘What would the next move be, then?’
‘To check on my bloke in Parramatta. Tiny said they were worried about that. I’ll worry ‘em some more.’
‘What happened to Tiny could worry them too.’
‘Right. I feel we could get the initiative, with a bit of luck.’
That decided me, plus the feeling that I had one long shot that could give me the initiative. I could make my moves about Ray Guthrie when the time came. I looked at Parker’s shadowed, weary eyes-if the thoughts behind them were private, so were mine. I put some whisky in my cup and clinked it with Frank’s.
‘Co-operation’, I said.
‘Talk some more tomorrow?’
I nodded, he went to the bathroom and then up the stairs. When I heard Hilde’s door close I pulled the telephone over.
Helen’s voice was sexy, I decided, even at 1.30 a.m.
‘It’s 1.30’, she said.
‘Do you want to see me or not?’
‘I do.’
‘Keep your finger near the buzzer.’
15
In the morning we did the coffee and toast routine in reverse. It was late when I came into the bedroom, juggling the plates and mugs; the sun slanting in through the window had warmed the room up, and Helen lay naked on her front on top of the bed. I looked at her wide shoulders, marked by the swimsuit straps and the hollows and curves lower down. Her long toes were hooked over the end of the bed and I could see the muscle, like a rounded W in outline, in her calves. She had dancer’s legs. She heard the crockery rattle.
‘I’d like you to rub oil into every inch of my body’, she said.
‘Can I drink my coffee first? Which hand do you want me to use?’
‘And then I want to go to a beach where we can swim naked. Can you take the time, Cliff?’
I put the mugs and plate down by the bed and began rubbing both hands over her back. Her skin was smooth and her spine felt supple and strong, like a whip.
‘One phone call and I’m free.’
She half-turned around and reached down for her coffee; it was about the first movement not connected with sex she’d made since my arrival at 2 a.m. She drank the coffee in a couple of gulps, the way I usually do myself. She ate a piece of toast. Then she put her face close to mine and looked at me as if she was counting the crow’s feet.
‘Something bad happened last night’, she said. ‘You fucked me to help you to forget about it.’
‘Not exactly.’
‘Yes, you did. It was terrific; I’m not complaining.’ She held out her cup. ‘Now I want some more coffee and some toast and the oil, and I want to hear about it.’
Parker sounded grouchy on the phone, as if he and Hilde had struck their first reef. We agreed to meet later in the day to review procedure, but I had a feeling that the Hardy-Parker accord would prove uneasy.
Helen had a red Camira, one of the kind they drove from Sydney to Melbourne on less than a tank of petrol. The way she drove she’d be lucky to make it to Gundagai. She was a fast, aggressive driver with a good traffic sense, and a fine disregard for the workings of the machine.