thought it’d be a good idea to push me out the window, and we were ten storeys up.
‘I want you to explain things to Anne. About Megan. Try to make her understand. I haven’t the strength.’
I didn’t know that I had the ability, but I nodded.
Cyn drew in a deep breath. The neck of the nightgown gaped and I could see that she was wasted to skin and bone. Her eyes seemed unnaturally large in her shrunken face. ‘How far have you got, Cliff? Tell me the truth.’
I shook my head. ‘Not far, Cyn. There’s a few things to follow up on but it takes time.’
‘Time’s just exactly what I haven’t got. No, scrub that. I’m determined to hang on until you find her.’
I heard Anne Samuels’ angry snort but Cyn, if she heard it, ignored the response. ‘Geoff tells me you took him to see a prostitute.’
‘A very nice prostitute,’ Geoff said.
Cyn’s smile was full and bright and convinced me that she wasn’t at her last gasp yet.
‘That’s right,’ I said.
With an effort, Cyn stirred on the pillows and although it evidently caused her pain, she moved her shrivelled upper body minimally to left and right. ‘He’s a good boy, and Anne’s a good girl. I just need to know about the other one as well.’
Geoff had spent enough time with her to know the signs. He touched her hand. ‘You’re tired, Mum. Better get some rest.’
Cyn nodded. She was hooked up to several bottles with various tubes running into her. At a guess, morphine was on tap. Her eyelids fluttered. Geoff kissed her on the cheek. After a brief hesitation, Anne did the same and we left the room.
Outside, Anne fronted me like a footballer getting in an opponent’s face. She was surprisingly tall, not much shorter than her brother. ‘I want to talk to you but I need a cigarette first.’
‘There’s a smoking area down here, Annie,’ Geoff said quietly. ‘But should you be smoking now that you’re…’
‘Shut up. I’d quit before this happened. You can have a joint and maybe get up the courage to deal with this arsehole.’
We went down the corridor and out onto a small balcony. Anne took out a packet of filters and lit up. She exhaled and some of the smoke drifted my way. I was somewhere between annoyed and amused. She was genuinely aggressive but working at it as well and her acting wasn’t quite up to the job. I made allowances for the fact that her mother was dying and didn’t let it get to me. Not too much.
‘You’re exploiting her.’
I shook my head. ‘No.’
‘I know all about you. What an arsehole you were when you and Mum were married.’
‘It was a bad marriage,’ I said. ‘But pretty much a fair fight.’
She puffed hard. ‘You shit! You glib shit.’
‘Easy, Annie,’ Geoff said.
She spun around. ‘Easy yourself. Geoffrey. You ought to be shot, going along with this crap. Can’t you see that this man’s conning her? Taking advantage of…’
After the events of the last few hours that was a bit too much. I moved forward and snatched the cigarette from her hand and threw it into one of the big ashtrays. I grabbed her arm, pulled her off balance and pushed her down into a chair. I stood over her.
‘You just listen to me, young lady. You couldn’t be more wrong. Your mother thinks this Megan French is her daughter. My daughter, too. I don’t know and for my part I don’t care much. I’m not a family type. But it matters to Cyn in the last days of her life and that’s what matters to me. And to Geoff, too. And if you had any decency in you you’d see that and not give a shit about anything else but helping her to die in peace. That’s what Cyn wants and you should too, and fuck any other fucking selfish ideas you might have in your fucking selfish yuppie head.’
She looked up at me and the veneer of toughness and sophistication fell away. Her shoulders started to move, her eyes brimmed and overflowed and then she was weeping and her body was shaken by deep, racking sobs. Geoff knelt beside her and put one arm awkwardly around her shoulders. She leaned towards him and they held each other in a strained, uncomfortable pose that made me feel like crying as well.
We went to the hospital coffee shop and sat and talked for half an hour while Anne calmed down. She admitted that she had a big load of guilt resulting from some years of conflict with her mother.
‘And now it’s too late to make it up to her.’
‘I doubt that she sees it that way,’ I said.
‘She doesn’t.’ Geoff had one of his joints going but there are all sorts of strange smells in hospitals. ‘She just says you take after Dad, and remember how they used to fight sometimes. But they still…’
‘Loved each other. Yes, I know. I’m sorry to expose you to all this, Mr Hardy. A couple of years back we were really quite a normal family.’
‘It’s okay. You’ve had a bad run.’
‘And it’s not over yet. Geoff, I’m going to stay here. They have rooms for support persons as they call them. That’s one thing I can do. That’ll take some pressure off you.’
Geoff nodded. ‘What about your job?’
‘Fuck them.’
‘I never thought I’d hear you say that.’
‘This stuff helps you get things in perspective.’ She lit a cigarette and looked at me. ‘I don’t fully understand what you’re doing, Mr Hardy. I…’
‘Cliff,’ I said. ‘To tell you the truth I’m at a bit of a loss myself at this point. You know that Megan French is with this Talbot kid. He’s bloody dangerous.’
Anne puffed and looked ready to go on the attack again. ‘What about her, is she dangerous?’
‘I don’t know.’ I told them about my meeting with Megan’s parents and the impression I’d formed of them. They expressed sympathy, but neither was really in a state to relate much to other people’s problems.
Geoff butted his joint and pocketed the roach. ‘Tell you one thing, I found out a bit about that land at Tadpole Creek – past owners and that. Shit, I’ve forgotten, but a name came up that we’ve run into before.’ He rubbed his face. ‘I’m too whacked to remember. It’s on the printouts at your house.’
I pushed my chair back and stood. ‘Geoffs staying at my place while we work on this, Anne. Have you got everything you need here?’
She forced a smile. ‘Really looking after us aren’t you? Our mother’s first husband.’
‘I’m trying,’ I said.
Geoff had his own car at the hospital and we drove in convoy back to Glebe with me easily keeping him in sight. That was unusual. Being young, he normally drove faster than me as I’d seen, even in the rain which was falling heavily now. It looked as if his mother’s plight had slowed him down in every way. Understandable, but it could limit his usefulness. I hoped he wouldn’t increase the dope to tobacco ratio in his smokes.
I showed him the note Talbot had left. It jolted him out of the passive state he appeared to be slipping into.
‘Jesus, he’s crazy. I talked to a few people at the site and that’s the impression I got. He’s a scary guy.’
I wanted to question him more closely on that but he bounded up the stairs. ‘I want to show you these printouts.’
I followed him, expecting to hear the sound of the computer being turned on and the rustle of paper. Instead I found him in the doorway to the room. He was pale and leaning against the architrave for support.
‘What’s wrong?’ I said.
‘It’s all gone. The computer, the printer, the disks, the lot. All gone.’
I brushed past him into the room. The desk that had been covered with computer equipment and accessories was bare. The wastepaper basket was empty. The place had been swept clean, professionally. Geoff pushed off from the door jamb and looked as if he’d like to take a swing at me.
‘Some private eye you are. Some bloody security you’ve got here. Fuck it. That was my computer.’
I said nothing and went downstairs. I examined the locks on the back and front doors. Not a sign of forced entry. This had been done by someone who knew how to do it and had the equipment. Not Talbot, he hadn’t been
