‘Thank you. Why did you decide to be frank?’
‘Your interesting description of the girlfriend. She must be a remarkable person. Robert was a different man after he met her. He acquired sexual confidence and this threat you’ve mentioned didn’t seem to trouble him as much as it had. The change in him was extraordinary and I’m honest enough to admit it was more due to her than to me.’
I nodded.
‘I can tell you a little more. Robert said he’d tried to make amends to the man who threatened him but didn’t succeed. The man said he would kill him.’
19
Waiting for Timpani Stafford to return from wherever she was tried my patience. I hadn’t got around to watching the DVDs of Bobby’s films. Now I did, with a lot of fast forwarding. Bobby had style. The bonus was that Jason Clement had small parts, playing the sidekick to someone else in two of them. He didn’t have a lot to do or much to say but he appeared to be perfectly competent. He also looked big and strong and moved like an athlete. They can’t teach that at NIDA; it’s a kind of gracefulness that some men have naturally, like Ali, like Carl Lewis, like Roger Federer. There was no interaction between Clement and Bobby in the films but I thought back to the driver Bobby had challenged at the lights. Like that guy, Clement was bigger than Bobby but I could see Bobby taking him on if his blood was up.
I arranged to have lunch with Jane Devereaux. She was getting on with her life as I was pretty sure she would. I’d checked with her a couple of times before and she’d said there’d been no approach of any kind from Michael Tennyson. But she had no interest in simply ‘moving on’ as the expression goes. She was anxious about the progress of my investigation, disappointed when there wasn’t any, and keen to hear what I had to say now. We met in the Surry Hills wine bar again. The weather was warmer than before; she wore trousers, a sleeveless top and flat heels. Salads and garlic bread; white wine for me, mineral water for her.
‘How’s the book on the police chief going?’ I asked.
‘Just about ready. He was an interesting man. He had a network of informers, some of them quite as bad as the people they were informing on.’
‘That’d be right.’
‘D’you want to come to the launch?’
I said I would and then asked her if the name Jason Clement meant anything to her.
‘Yes, Robert talked about him.’
‘What did he say?’
She worked on her salad before answering. I knew what was going on. She’d compartmentalised her memories of Bobby and put them aside to allow her to function. Now she was opening the door. I ate and drank and gave her time.
‘He told me he was his enemy. No, I haven’t made that clear. He meant that Jason Clement regarded Robert as his enemy, but that Robert didn’t regard
‘Just a minute. Did he say why Clement felt like that?’
‘No.’
‘Didn’t you ask him?’
‘No. When it came up he seemed very disturbed about it. He changed the subject quickly and I could see it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. Do you know?’
I told her they’d had a fight but didn’t go into the details. I said there was a possibility Clement was responsible for Bobby’s death and that I was trying to find him. I wanted to know how seriously Bobby took the threat.
‘I think he took it seriously. Did you know he was seeing a therapist?’
I nodded. ‘Kinsolving.’
‘No, just a therapist. He was helping him with anger management. Robert said he had a fierce temper but was learning to control it.’
‘Do you know who this anger management therapist was?’
‘No, he didn’t say. I think he was a little ashamed of needing that kind of help. It just slipped out somehow when he was talking about golf. All I remember is that he said he mostly had the problem on the golf course. Can you find Clement, Cliff?’
I’d given up my ‘no paper’ policy and was scribbling some notes. ‘I’ll find him.’
‘There’s one thing I can tell you. It came up again briefly, and Robert said he’d seen Clement recently, but things were still the same.’
‘How recently?’
She hadn’t finished but she pushed the plate away, all appetite gone. ‘Just before he died,’ she said.
Clement had been locatable not so very long ago. I was encouraged, but the feeling didn’t last long. I called Timpani Stafford and told her I was anxious to contact Jason Clement.
‘So are we,’ she said. ‘We’re holding some fees for residuals for him.’
‘Money he’s owed?’
‘That’s right. He’s not at his last address and his mobile’s been disconnected. His email bounces back. What’s your interest?’
‘Something the same. When was your last contact with him?’
‘A couple of years ago.’
‘How hard did you try?’
‘I beg your pardon.’
‘I’m sorry, it just seems strange that you wouldn’t persist.’
‘It was a small amount of money.’
‘And Jason had got a big payout, right?’
‘That’s not something I’m prepared to discuss. If you find Jason, tell him we’re anxious to hear from him.’
She hung up. Dead end. I was in my office with the copies of the documents I’d made in Sophie’s office in front of me. I went over them again looking for leads but nothing emerged. The names of several lawyers who’d been involved in the negotiations and settlement were on record but the confidentiality provision would gag them forever.
I looked over the notes I’d written and saw Jane Devereaux’s mention of Bobby’s anger on the golf course. I’d heard enough about golf to know that anger is a problem for players at all levels. Maybe Bobby had mentioned his fight with Clement to his anger management guru. It was worth a try. I drove to the Anzac Park golf club and followed the sign to the pro shop. It was a quiet time and the guy in the shop looked bored as he rearranged packets of tees and boxes of balls on the counter. A golf tournament was playing on a TV set mounted on a wall where the pro could see it but he didn’t seem very interested. I’d read that interest in golf had fallen away dramatically since the downfall of Tiger Woods.
‘Afternoon,’ I said.
‘Gidday.’
I showed him my licence and told him I was working for Bobby Forrest’s father, investigating Bobby’s murder. That got his attention.
‘Terrible thing,’ he said.
‘You knew Bobby?’
‘Sure, he was a member here. Nice bloke, good player.’
‘I believe he had some problems with anger while playing.’
‘Yeah. You play?’
‘No.’
