‘I can get a list of the principals,’ Megan said.
Hank stretched to his full 195 centimetre height; the muscles in his back and shoulders pushed his jacket up and the sleeves were stretched tight by his biceps and triceps and other muscles most of us don’t have or know about. ‘Fuck that,’ he said. ‘We need to have a meeting with Ross.’
I could feel tension building between the pair and didn’t want it to go any higher. ‘It’s a nice night,’ I said, ‘and we’re in magnificent Manly. I vote we talk about it over a few drinks and something to eat.’
‘Your solution for just about everything,’ Megan said.
Not a great start.
We found a fish restaurant near the water. If there’s a better meal than grilled barramundi with chips and salad and dry white wine I don’t know what it is. We all opted for the same thing-the beginning, I hoped, of restored harmony. The first few glasses would help, too.
‘I’ll be the mug,’ Megan said when she’d demolished half of her meal. ‘What say we assemble everything we have and turn it over to the police. They grill Ross-baby, investigate Lachlan and like that.’
I shook my head. ‘We haven’t got enough on Crimond. A good lawyer’d give him protection and probably threaten Hank with a suit for something-slander, unfair dismissal.’
Hank nodded. ‘The cops probably wouldn’t touch it. It’s all too. . loose.’
Megan speared a chip. ‘So?’
Hank said, ‘I vote we put the pressure on Ross to name names.’
Megan looked doubtful; she nibbled at an impaled chip. ‘Threatening him with what? Violence?’
Hank shrugged.
I’d been digesting what we knew as well as the good food. I had a clean plate and an empty glass. I grabbed the wine bottle and poured the last of it-a small measure for each of us. It was the second bottle. We’d need coffee and a walk before taking to our cars.
‘We’ve established the connection,’ I said. ‘Good first step. Now we have to hook them firmly and get them to show their hand.’
‘How?’ Megan said.
‘By convincing them that we know, or are close to knowing, what McKinley discovered and that we’ve got a lead on who killed him.’
‘You said that. I still say how?’
‘I’m open to suggestions.’
‘Don’t be coy, Cliff,’ Hank said. ‘What’ve you got in mind?’
‘We have to draw someone, anyone’ll do, from Lachlan out into the open. We’re pretty sure McKinley was picked up in Myall. We’ve got the evidence, the specs. What if we’ve discovered a witness?’
Hank and Megan exchanged looks. ‘You cunning bastard,’ Hank said.
I nodded. ‘Thank you. I’m not saying it’ll work, but we’ve identified what they believe to be a mole-sorry for the spook-talk-inside our operation. We’ve already fed him some disinformation. We can feed him some more-like a meeting we’re arranging somewhere with a fictitious witness.’
Hank signalled for the waiter and ordered three long black coffees. ‘They’d want their hard guy, the contractor, there for a meeting like that.’
I drank the last of my wine. ‘I would.’
‘A fictitious witness,’ Megan said. ‘Jesus, we’ll need to be inventive.’
‘Jesus could just be the key,’ I said.
21
I was introduced to Ross Crimond in Hank’s office the next day. He’d come in, he said, to discuss the report and expense sheet he’d dropped in the night before, but it was clear he was looking to hang around, hoping to pick up additional bits of information. He was thirtyish, fair, freckled, stocky. He was one of those people that the loosening up of dress, language and manners that had started in the sixties seemed to have passed by. He wore neat trousers, shirt and tie and a jacket. His shoes had been polished recently. Nerdy, you’d call him, until you saw the body language and heard him talk. He spoke in a deep confident voice and moved like a dancer. Hank had told me that he had a business and criminology degree from Bond University and had won medals as a fencer. He’d passed the TAFE PEA course with flying colours and done a few yards as an insurance investigator.
His handshake was firm and I remembered his steadying hand on the stairs. ‘Mr Hardy,’ he said, ‘heard a lot about you. Glad to meet you. Goodness, it was you on the stairs.’
‘Cliff,’ I said. ‘No harm done.’
‘You lectured at the Petersham TAFE a few years before I got there.’
‘Hardly that,’ I said. ‘I gave a few talks-brought in a few cops and crims as props.’
‘You were a legend.’
I shrugged. ‘You seem to have all the right tickets, Ross. If you don’t mind me asking, why’re you slumming as a casual in this crummy outfit?’
A strike against him right there-no sense of humour. He took a beat or two to reply and said, ‘I intended to make this my profession, but quite recently I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my life and now I’m in training to be a minister in the Soul Saviour Church.’
‘Good luck,’ I said. ‘Costs money does it, the training?’
‘Not that much, but the more one can contribute to the congregation the better one prays, and performs at everything.’
‘That’s what’s wanted, performance,’ I said. ‘Hey, Hank, how was the joy flight? Did you find McKinley’s pilot?’
Hank looked up from his computer. ‘Working on it.’
Crimond smiled. ‘Joy flight. That sounds nice. Business or pleasure?’
‘Business,’ Hank said. ‘We’ve got this case-dead geologist looking for something worth a zillion. We got a tip he was looking from the air. We’re trying to find the pilot who took him up. I’ve got a licence myself. Went for a spin with Meg yesterday just to get familiarised at the airport. Could be a long haul. This report’s fine, Ross, and the expenses are on the light side. You could spread yourself a bit more.’
‘Can I help with this case you’ve got?’
‘Maybe,’ Hank said. ‘Come in here and we’ll talk about it.’
Megan went on with her work at the computer and I took myself off to the gym. I’d neglected my workouts for a few days, and I felt the effects of the lay-off when I got on the first machine. There are two schools of thought in this situation: one says push through it at the level you’re used to, and the other says take it a bit easier. I go with the latter. Wesley Scott wandered out of his office and watched me on the seated rower.
‘Haven’t seen you lately, man.’
I tried not to sound short of breath when I answered but I couldn’t help it. ‘Busy.’
‘Cemetery’s full of busy men not so busy now.’
‘You’re a ray of sunshine, Wes.’
‘I like to remind people that an hour and a dollar spent here saves money on your hospital bills. You’re doing OK, Cliff. Just don’t slack off. Let’s see another set.’
Back in the office I found Crimond gone, Megan off for a swim, and Hank looking pleased with himself.
‘How’d it go?’ I asked.
‘I think he bought it. I went with your suggestion- told him we might possibly have a witness to McKinley being taken away, but we weren’t sure. I said the party was a very religious person and you and Megan, as unbelievers, weren’t sure of his sanity.’
‘That’s good,’ I said. ‘You were extemporising there, mate.’
‘Sure. I said we were trying to line up a meeting with him and a person from his church and that maybe Ross could be useful at the meeting.’
‘He lapped it up?’
‘He’s not dumb, Cliff. Don’t make that mistake now that he’s a player. He questioned me a bit and I fed him
