oriented. So was I, in my way, but there was something there, and I suppose it was in the back of my mind to develop it when I rang her.
'Tell you what, Lil. If anything comes of this I'll let you in on it.'
'Yeah, yeah. But I'll hold you to that and give you this-from what I've heard about Greaves, which is bugger-all, so this is just intuitive stuff, I'd guess that he's a man out to make a big score.'
We left it there. I felt like one of those con men who sell off acres they hold a shaky title to, over and over and over again. But I just might be able to make good on the deal.
The online bank showed that Lou's cheque had bounced and that my account had been debited for the dishonoured fee. I rang and told them to re-present it and that I'd pay the fee to accelerate the clearance again. Hardy the gambler.
That left me with Steve Kooti. A knock came on the door. I opened it and Tommy stood there, uncertain but optimistic.
'Hey, man, you owe me a hundred bucks.'
I had to laugh. 'So I do.' I felt for my wallet but discovered that I didn't have enough cash. 'Have to go to an ATM.'
I pulled the door closed and we started down the stairs. On the way I told him I hadn't meant to run out on him, it was just that I had to follow someone. 'Anyway, I didn't get you in trouble. I didn't go near the house you showed me. How did you find me, by the way?'
'Found one of your cards in the car.'
'So you can go back and get on with your job hunting.'
'Kinda like it down here.'
'Hard without money.'
There was a queue at the ATM and just for something to say I asked him if he knew Steve Kooti.
'I should. He's my uncle.'
I looked at him sharply. 'I thought you were a Koori.'
'Koori one side, Maori the other, with other stuff thrown in. Real mongrel, me.'
I got the cash and gave him the hundred. 'Hang on. I'll buy you a drink.'
He shrugged his acceptance and we went to the pub near the railway station. His was a schooner of New and mine was a middy of light. He took a long drink and sighed. 'That's good. Pity I'm out of smokes.'
I gave him a twenty and he came back with a packet and lighter. 'I'll buy the next round,' he said.
'We'll see. Tell me about Steve. He used to be a heavy, now I'm told he's in the God squad. Does he hang out with Manuma's lot, the protection mob?'
'Shit, no. Used to, but now he's in the other church. Big John's Island Brotherhood, Uncle Steve's in Children of Christ.'
'What's the difference?'
Tommy sucked in smoke and beer. 'Not much as to singing and praying and that, but a lot in other ways.
IB's for coconuts only. Doubt they'd let me in, being part Koori. CC'll take anyone.'
'What else?'
He looked at me shrewdly. 'You're trying to get me in trouble again. Have to pay to do that, man.'
I thought briefly about an idea that had come to me. Tommy had an attitude and some bad habits but he looked strong and he was enterprising. He'd talked about wanting to work. I figured he was worth a chance, especially as he could be useful. 'What if I said I could get you a job here?'
'Doin' what?'
'Gardening, A month's work for sure. Maybe some painting after that.'
'Sounds good. Where?'
'Lilyfield. Friend of mine's bought a rundown house there. Big garden completely overgrown. It needs clearing and straightening up. Then the joint needs painting and repairs. You could doss there while you worked.'
For all his street-wise toughness there was suddenly a bit of vulnerability about him. The thought of having somewhere to live, a real job to do, a place in the scheme of things, seemed to change him from a passenger to something more positive.
'You dinkum?'
'Yes. Course if you fucked up…'
His cigarette had burned out and he hadn't lit another. His beer was getting warm. 'I won't. What was it you wanted to know?'
'Let's get this fixed up first.'
Mike D'Angelo, who operates a bottle shop in King Street, is a friend. He'd bought the Lilyfield tumbledown and intended to live there, but with three shops to care for he hadn't the time to clear the block-round about a third of an acre. He'd asked me if I knew a reliable handyman. I bought Tommy a new pair of jeans and a clean T-shirt and he tidied himself up in the little bathroom in my building. I took him to meet Mike and they got along well. Mike handed Tommy the keys to an old ute he had parked behind his shop.
'You'll have to dump lots of loads. Keys to the house and a couple of sheds are on the ring.'
'Right,' Tommy said.
Mike handed over forty dollars. 'Two fifty a week. This comes out of it. You'll need boots and gloves. There's some tools in the ute. Power's on and the phone's connected, I think.'
'Right… thanks.'
'I'll show him the place,' I said.
'Watch out for snakes.'
'My totem, man.'
Mike laughed. 'Bullshit.'
'Right,' Tommy said.
We bought work boots and gloves in a disposal store and I drove to the Lilyfield place with Tommy following in the ute. It was a corner block near a park and every weed and noxious growth in the area, native and introduced, had invaded and taken hold. The land was choked with lantana and bougainvillea and wisteria and others I couldn't identify. Tommy took a look and sucked in a breath.
'Whew, big job.'
'You up to it?'
'You bet.'
'He's paying you two fifty a week and free rent. You're looking at a couple of grand easy.'
'I'm grateful, man. Best thing that's happened to me in a long time.'
'Good. Mike runs a pretty big operation-he's got a couple of shops and he's got interests in other businesses. Play your cards right and you could have a career with him.'
Tommy nodded.
'Let's have our talk and I'll leave you to it.'
Tommy Larrigo told me, in his own words, that there was ongoing tension between the Island Brotherhood and the Children of Christ and those attached to both organisations. Now that he was out of the area, he felt free to say that the Brotherhood, while providing some community services, also had a dark side-assisting the Department of Housing and real estate agents in evictions and taking bribes to stave off evictions. As Rudi Szabo had said, there was an insurance scam industry in Liston and adjoining suburbs and it had to be controlled by someone. He'd assumed Steve Kooti was somehow connected with it, but Tommy assured me that the criminal element in the island community was a worry to his uncle, who'd had more than one confrontation over it with John Manuma and others.
I helped Tommy unload the tools from the ute and unlocked the house and the sheds where there were more tools, rusty and cobwebbed but useable. His enthusiasm mounted with each discovery. The power was on in the house but the phone wasn't connected. I gave him my mobile and asked him to call his uncle and arrange a meeting between him and me.
Tommy laid it on thick-how I'd got him this great job with prospects and what a good guy I was and how he wouldn't be hanging around Liston with his arse out of his pants anymore.
