scotch.
‘You said you had some ideas,’ I said to Master. ‘When you heard Lorrie had been taken you decided to get out. So you must have thought you could do something about it.’
‘That’s right. First off, I checked on the kids. Britt seems to have that under control.’
‘For now,’ I said. ‘Also Lorries office. I reckon that Fiona knows how to keep the lid on things. But the cops won’t stop asking questions about her and something’ll break pretty soon. That’ll put pressure on North. Black Andy’s my only hope. What about you?’
He turned the bottle around in his hands before tilting it up and taking another drink. The sinews were stretched tight in his throat and the easy movement of his arm underlined his fitness and flexibility. Master had demonstrated through his criminal life and just now that violence wasn’t his thing, but he’d be very dangerous indeed if it ever became his thing, and perhaps that time was getting close.
He was a long time making up his mind. He had a lot to think about, primarily who to trust. It all depended on how well he was functioning. I turned to O’Connor. ‘Brew up some coffee. Make it strong. And have you got any pep pills? You know, stuff to take to keep you awake when you’re working into the early hours on your clients’ behalf?’
He looked at me as though I was mad.
‘Nodoze,’ I said. ‘Dynamos. Caffeine tablets, for Christ’s sake.’
‘Guarana.’
I’d tried them. No effect whatever, but better than nothing. ‘Get some and give them to him with the coffee.’
Master gave me a grateful look and seemed to decide to speak. ‘Hardy, I don’t know..’
Then my mobile rang and we both jerked like stringed puppets. I pulled it from my pocket and flipped it open.
‘Hardy.’
‘Carmichael. We know your car is in for work in Surry Hills and that you’re driving a white Mitsubishi licence number WPC 832 with a red stripe on the bonnet and a roof rack. We’ve got a chopper up looking for Master and you’re on the list. We’ll find you. Be sensible.’
I cut the call.
‘What?’ Master said.
‘The cops, tracking me. O’Connor!’
He poked his head around the corner. ‘What? The coffee’s nearly ready.’
‘Put it in a thermos. Where did the police interview you?’
‘At my office. Why?’
‘They’ll search every location for every person involved. We have to get out of here.’
26
'Not me,’ O’Connor yelped. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you two lunatics.’
‘Yes you are, Bryce,’ Master said. His tiredness seemed to be in remission. ‘You’re going to climb back into your suit and get your briefcase and all the stuff that says how important you are and come with us.’
O’Connor mustered up a last shred of courage. ‘Or?’
‘Don’t try me, mate. Like Hardy says, I’m looking at life to nothing. It’d make no difference if I killed you.’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘I might. That’s your worry. I just might.’
‘This is insane. Let the police come. Tell them everything. They’ll find this North character and your wife and-’
‘He’ll just give in, will he and cop a few murder charges? No way, I know him and others like him. He’ll clean the decks.’
‘You can’t be sure.’
‘Can’t be sure of anything. Suppose it worked out like that. I was part of a police intelligence operation that went wrong, was probably fucking bound to go wrong. You think those guys are going to own up and let me walk away? No chance. If I go back inside I’m dead.’
‘We’re wasting time,’ I said. ‘Get the coffee and the pills and the scotch. Put them in your briefcase and anything else that shows how much money you’ve got. We’re out of here.’
We did it quickly. Master scooped up the guns and I let him. O’Connor showed good housekeeping skills and we were out of the apartment within minutes.
‘Where’s your car?’ I asked O’Connor.
‘In the garage.’
‘We’ll take it and put mine down there.’
Another few minutes, a couple of zaps of the remote control, and we were on the road in O’Connor’s silver grey Beemer with the Mitsubishi safely tucked away from eyes in the sky and on the ground.
O’Connor was driving with me beside him and Master in the back, and as soon as we turned out of his street he asked where we were going.
‘Good question,’ I said. ‘Master?’
‘Other side,’ he grunted.
‘Tunnel or bridge?’ O’Connor said.
‘Whatever you fuckin’ please.’
He sounded ragged again and I opened O’Connor’s briefcase, ignoring his protest, and took out the thermos and packet of herbal kick-starters. I passed them back to Master. ‘You have to get a grip. You were about to tell us something back there when my phone interrupted you.’
Master accepted the thermos and I heard him screw the top off and pour. The BMW held the road like a snake slithering on glass. I heard him break the tablets out of the foil, drink and swallow, drink again, and replace the thermos cap.
‘Fuck, that was strong. I’ve changed my mind, Hardy. How do you get in touch with Piper?’
‘I’ve got a number to ring.’
‘Do it!’
‘Oh shit,’ O’Connor whispered.
‘What?’ Master and I spoke simultaneously.
‘I’m almost out of petrol. I wasn’t expecting to go touring around with-’
‘Shut up!’ Master sounded more alert and focused already. Maybe my metabolism’s wrong for Guarana. ‘This is your territory. Where’s the nearest service station?’
‘I don’t know. I fuel up where I park. In the city.’
‘Fuckin’ yuppies,’ Master said. ‘Hardy?’
‘I’m inner-west. This is downtown Baghdad to me.’
O’Connor’s fleshy pink knuckles were whitening on the wheel. I looked at the gauge and saw that it was dipping below empty.
‘There!’ Master snapped. ‘Pull in at that BP.’ He was suddenly fully charged and I had to wonder how many of the pills he’d taken, or if they were what O’Connor said they were, and just how strong O’Connor had brewed the coffee, or what else he might have put in it. Then I heard the slide on Master’s pistol as he cocked it.
‘While he’s getting the gas, Hardy, you make that call.’
O’Connor slotted the car in to a pump, got out and looked helplessly at the mechanism.
‘He doesn’t know what to do,’ I said to Master. ‘And I’m not sure my mobile’s going to operate in here with all this shit around. We’re going to attract attention. I’m going to help him and then make the call. Okay?’
There was a silence that felt like a minute but was probably only seconds. ‘All right, Hardy. You pay. He gets straight back in. I almost trust you. But I’ll blow your fucking brains out if you… shit, I feel weird…’
I got out of the car with the hair on the back of my head bristling, thinking that Master could snap at any
