on the line.’
He threw the cigarette away and crumpled the packet in his hand. ‘I’m fucked if I’m going to do this. He’s cost me a brother. If I go on like this it’s going to cost me a wife as well. Fuck him! Fuck him! Yeah, the rest of his businesses are on the nose. He’s overcommitted in every bloody direction. If he doesn’t get this through he’s down the tubes. Christ. Hardy, you can’t imagine how much I want that to happen.’
I could. I was with him all the way. My life was a mess and I was very eager to make someone else’s the same, worse if possible. But it was one thing to want it and another to bring it about. I watched him as he glanced nervously around the park, twisted his wedding ring and fiddled with his lighter as if he was already regretting the destruction of the cigarettes. As an ally, he wasn’t very inspiring.
‘I tried to get in touch with you just before Ken’s boys got rough with me,’ I said. ‘I was told you were sick.’
‘Yeah. When Scott died I tried to pretend it had nothing to do with Ken. Then Julian came to me again and told me Ken’s latest threat. I couldn’t pretend any more. I went to Ken and he nearly went berserk. He told me about you and said he’d kill Gina if anyone interfered with his plans. Including me. He didn’t threaten my wife and kids, but he wasn’t far off doing it. I had some kind of breakdown. I’m all right now.’
I doubted it. I got up and suggested we walk around a bit. I wanted to see how he moved, how tense he really was. You can tell a lot from the way someone walks and reacts to other moving objects. He welcomed the idea and jumped up jerkily. Worrying. We strolled around the park and he seemed to relax a little as we went. A dog dashed past with its young owner running after it, calling its name. Joe grinned briefly at the sight. A dog-lover or a kid-lover. He wasn’t doing too badly.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘I understand what you’re saying, but nothing’s changed. From what I’ve seen of it, that house of your parents’ makes a pretty good prison and Ken has several nasty types to do the heavy work for him. Gina’s his ace-in-the-hole.
‘If I… if we could get her out things’d be different. But I can’t see how.’
‘There’s a way,’ he said slowly. ‘There’s a way.’
We were at the north end of the park, almost to Glebe Point Road with the Ancient Briton just across the way. It was nearly noon. ‘Come and have a drink, Joe,’ I said, ‘and tell me all about it’
22
Finding a quiet spot to talk in in the Ancient Briton is no easy matter, what with drinkers, pinball players and the race broadcasts. The best time is in the lull immediately after a race when the winners and losers drift over to the TAB section to collect or attempt to redeem their losses. As a form of gambling it seems to me to have it all over cards and dice and little balls rattling round in a spinning wheel, but to each his own. Joe’s drink was white wine and mine was old beer. We retreated to a dark corner and drank while waiting for the race hubbub to subside. When it was quiet enough, Joe said. ‘They go to church on Sunday. That’s the key to it.’
‘Who does?’
‘My mother and father, Ken and his wife and their kids. Gina doesn’t go. She isn’t a Catholic and she refused to bring the twins up as Catholics. That’s another thing the old people and Ken have got against her. Scott was like me-didn’t care one way or the other. Ken’s a pillar of the church- big contributor, wants one of his boys to be a priest and one of the girls a nun. All that shit. It’s very important to him. He puts on his thousand dollar three-piece and goes to church, no matter what.’
‘That leaves how many watching Gina?’
‘Two.’
‘A little guy, bit bandy, looks like he might’ve been a jockey that grew? And a big bald character?’
Joe drank some wine. ‘That’s right. Their names are Lewis and Barbour. They’ve both got criminal records. Ken convinced my dad that they’re needed for protection. There’s a couple of others that spell them from time to time, but they’re the ones on duty on Sundays.’
‘I can’t quite see how Ken keeps Gina penned up in there. She’s a resourceful woman. She must be able to think of some way out.’
Joe shook his head. ‘She’s not well and the twins are sickly. Ken’s threatened to take the kids away and send them to Italy. Gina’s more or less dropped her bundle. She needs help in the worst way.’
I thought about it as I finished my drink. Lewis and Barbour were formidable but not insuperable obstacles, especially if I had a bit of backup. Still tricky, though, and disastrous if it went wrong.
Joe returned with two more drinks. ‘The thing is, you have to understand how Ken thinks. He doesn’t believe anything serious can happen on a Sunday morning. It’s a mind-set with him; he almost changes personality for those couple of hours. Also, there’s a short time, just ten minutes or so, when only Lewis is there. Barbour gets there later, at least he did the last two Sundays.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘I’ve been going to church with them, just to get right up Ken’s nose. He can’t say anything about it. The oldies are so glad to have me along. My father’s failing a bit. Scott’s death hit him hard. Me going to church is a plus. Ken can’t deny him that’
‘I’m encouraged,’ I said. ‘Just what’ve you got in mind?’
‘I think I should check it out again tomorrow. See if there’s still that time gap. Then we should do it the next Sunday. Go in there and take Gina and the kids out. Then heap all the shit on Ken we can.’
‘Sounds good,’ I said and I meant it. Another week of inactivity wouldn’t be so bad with the knowledge that something was going to happen at the end of it. The thought of guns worried me a bit, but it appeared that Barbour was the gunman in the group and we were hoping to avoid him. In an operation like that there’s no certainty. The best you can hope for is a prospect of success and Joe’s plan had that. Besides, I needed Gina out of Ken’s clutches if I was going to get paid.
On Monday there was a message on my answering machine. The voice said, ‘Gleebooks here. The book you ordered has come in, Mr Hardy.’ It was Joe Galvani’s signal that the gap in the security at the Balgowlah house had occurred again. On Tuesday I broke and phoned Glen’s flat. No answer. I tried the Goulburn Academy and was told that Sergeant Withers was on medical leave. I asked what was wrong with her but that was information that could not be divulged. Compassionate leave, perhaps. I rang the house at Whitebridge but if she was there she wasn’t answering the phone. I missed her and I was suffering a bad case of jealousy. I wondered what other members of the force, male, senior rank, were on leave at the moment and who among them had recently done a tour of duty on the south coast. No hope of finding out.
Despite being used to irregular hours, the night duty at the casino threw my sleep patterns out. I found it hard to sleep during the day and was tired just about the time I had to start work. It was lucky there were no crises because I wasn’t in a fit condition to cope with them. I delegated as much as I could and trusted that the system would run smoothly. It did and I got the credit from Oscar Cartwright. I also got an insight into the way executives function and it didn’t increase my respect for them.
The most impressive member of the security staff was Ralston. Edgy, nervous and aggressive, he was on top of everything. He never looked tired and his powers of concentration were amazing. He could sit for hours at a video monitor, making notes and looking for anomalies. He spotted a dodgy blackjack dealer and ran the tape for me.
‘See how he does it?’
‘No,’ I said.
Ralston explained how he manipulated the cards in the shoe and the slight pause that occurred in a part of his routine. It took me three viewings to pick it up.
‘How much is he costing us?’
Ralston checked his notes. ‘Not much. My guess is he’s setting up for one big score.’
I’d been thoroughly briefed on the procedure to cope with this situation. The dealers were on contract; they were unionised and had high-priced lawyers available. It was necessary to go very carefully with them. The drill was for us to investigate the offender before suspending him and calling him to a private session at which he could
