'Helps me to think,' he said.
'About what?'
'About how you and the woman are still targets. Maybe more than ever. What about the son, this William? He in it?'
'I don't see how. He's a side issue.'
'I figure I've still got the job of watching your back.'
'Not immediately, mate. I'm going to lay low. See if the cops come after me. If they do I'll tell them what I've told you and they can make of it what they will. They won't like me walking away, but they can't tag me for it. I haven't fired a gun in months. Anyway, it wasn't a. 38 that made that splatter.'
Hank chewed rhythmically and was silent for a few long minutes. 'I guess he was no great loss, Wain.'
'Not much. He was in a bad slide. In a way, Sawtell, if that's who it was, did him a favour.'
That's how we left it. I told Hank I'd contact him when I needed him. I phoned in the news of the dead body from somewhere in Chippendale and went home.
Wain's death barely made the newspapers. Nothing on TV. I phoned Frank to put him in the picture. I gave him an outline.
'Better thrash it out in person,' he said.
He invited me to the get-together to welcome Peter and his wife, as she now was, home. I'm Peter's anti- godfather, but about all I've ever done for him, apart from birthday presents when he was younger, was teach him to surf. I reckon that was a gift for life.
I kept a close lookout on the drive to Paddington and I was sure I wasn't followed. I went into the house where Hilde was waiting nervously, fiddling with a flower arrangement.
'Frank's collecting them from the airport. What if she doesn't like us?' she said.
'You've already met her. You said she did.'
'I thought she did.'
'Don't worry. You're quite likeable.'
'Here they are.'
Then it was all handshakes, kisses and champagne. I'd got Peter and Ramona a five hundred dollar David Jones voucher as a wedding present. Not inspired, but useful.
Peter was a carbon copy of his father, a bit taller and with a full head of dark hair that would probably turn grey like Frank's. He was bearded and very tanned from his time in South America. He had an easy, poised manner, a bit self-deprecating. Ramona was a relaxed, confident young woman, not exactly beautiful but all the more attractive for that. Peter clearly adored her and it wasn't hard to see why.
Hilde had laid on a spread and we all hopped into it.
'Where's this Lily I've heard about?' Peter asked me.
'Working. You'll meet her sooner or later.'
'Good. This is all a bit weird, Cliff. Coming back to the totally familiar surroundings with a wife and twins on the way and hearing of this brother. Dad told me about it. It's a lot for Mum to cope with.'
'She'll manage. Life is immense, as Manning Clark said. I think it was Manning Clark.'
'Sounds like him. Dad says you're not too keen on him, this William.'
'I think he's a prick and he could be headed for big trouble. I just don't want it to rub off on Frank.'
'You look pretty beat up. That's nothing new but you seem stressed as well. What else is going on?'
'Not your problem, mate. You've got enough on your plate.'
Hilde had downed a few glasses and was getting expansive. She shoved Peter aside and put her arm around me. 'You were right,' she said. 'I shouldn't have worried. She's great, isn't she?'
'Yep. Lucky boy. Reckon they'll settle here?'
Hilde laughed. 'Peter, settle? No chance. He'll probably be off to help the tsunami generation and she'll go too, with the babies on her back. They're two of a kind.'
Frank grabbed a half-full bottle and gestured at me to come into his study. We sat down. He poured.
'Tell me the rest of it,' he said.
I did, leaving nothing out. It was a second run-through on the theories and connections and it made it all more solid. For me.
'It's thin,' Frank said. 'Pity you didn't get to Wain first.'
'I imagine he'd agree with you.'
'He was a bit of a shit but you know how it is. You don't like to hear about a cop's past catching up with him. We've all got skeletons-look at me.'
'You haven't connived at helping a murdering corrupt police officer get away with everything he did. Think of the harm Cassidy and Wain must've done over the years. The Sawtell cover-up wouldn't be the only thing.'
'You're right there. If you're right about the rest of it I just can't understand why Sawtell would stick around. He'd be safer in Thailand or some place.'
'Maybe he went away and came back.'
As soon as I spoke the same thought struck us simultaneously. 'Jesus,' Frank said, 'didn't William tell you he was into an immigration racket-passports, documents, all that?'
I nodded. 'That's a big jump, Frank.'
Frank drained his glass. 'You started it. Sawtell's in Indonesia, say, sitting pretty. William Heysen comes in sniffing around looking to make money with an immigration scam. Sawtell's already screwed his father for some reason or other and now it amuses him to get the son into deep shit. I told you he was devious and vicious.'
'With a sense of humour.'
'Right. Twisted, though, and directed at other people rather than himself. He's capable of just about anything you can think of. If that kid's in with him he's in trouble.'
'He's not your responsibility. There've been so many lies and so much deception.'
'I feel that he is, but it's more than that. Sawtell's a danger to Catherine, you, me, William, everybody.'
'I think I can find William,' I said.
'You didn't tell me that.'
I was a bit drunk; I waved my glass. 'With all this fun we're having it must've slipped my mind.'
21
I went for a long walk around Paddington and Darlinghurst. I passed the block of flats where Roma Brown lived and couldn't help looking up at the window opposite where she saw things that stimulated her. Nothing to see from street level. The ground floor of the building that had housed the Heysen-Bellamy medical practice had become some kind of IT consultancy. Sign of the times.
The food had blotted up some of the alcohol, and after I drank coffee back at Frank and Hilde's place I was fit to drive home. Lily was there, picking up things she hadn't yet collected. I hadn't seen her for a few days but that was nothing unusual. I'd phoned but got her answering machine three times, which meant that she was hard at work. We fell back into comfortable dealings very easily.
'You've been on the piss,' she said. She touched my lip where the split was knitting into a pale scar. 'Don't tell me you did that falling over.'
'That's an honourable professional wound.'
'One of many.'
I told her about Peter and Ramona and that they were keen to meet her. I also told her about the confirmation that Frank was William Heysen's father.
'Interesting. I feel a bit out of it with all these stray kids turning up.'
'No you don't.'
She laughed. 'You're right. I'd be the mother from hell. Came close a few times but always had the scrape. I have to run, Cliff. Deadline. Give me a ring. Always glad to see Frank and Hilde.'
'Grandpa and Grandma to be.'
She kissed me and left.
