something had actually happened or I'd imagined it.
He didn't do sympathy. 'Couldn't tell one Lebo from another, eh?'
'I didn't know what your man looked like.'
'He'd have held his warrant card up at the peephole.'
'Okay. I was careless. My guard was down.'
'It could be that you're past it. So it was Selim Houli and from your description it sounds like it was a bastard called Yusef Talat that took you. And Houli wanted to know if you'd seen Richard Malouf?'
I nodded and wished I hadn't. Everything above the neck hurt and I wondered about the hospital's policy on painkillers. I reckoned that I could do with something pretty heavy.
'That's right,' I said. 'So it all comes back to that. Is Malouf alive or not? And why does it matter to so many people?'
'No idea,' Chang said. 'What's wrong?'
Sweat had broken out all over my body and I was shivering. Chang's face blew up like a balloon and when he stood he looked to be three metres tall. I heard him call for a nurse and then there was a bustle of bodies and voices and I could make no sense of it at all.
When I came out of the warm mist Megan and Hank were there, looking relieved. They told me that I'd had a bad reaction to one of the drugs I'd been given and had gone into a coma for a day or so.
'Dangerous places, hospitals,' I said. 'Remind me to stay out of them in future.'
'What the hell were you doing to take a beating like that?' Megan said. She was beginning to show signs of the pregnancy and I couldn't help smiling at the sight.
'Don't smile,' she said. 'You're supposed to be retired.'
I filled them in as best I could, skipping bits here and there, admitting that I was close to broke and facing a worrying debt.
Megan said, 'I hope you've kept your medical insurance up.'
I nodded. 'I trust you're well covered. How's it coming along?'
She couldn't help smiling herself now. 'Perfectly.'
'Are you going to need any help, Cliff?' Hank said.
Megan glared at him. 'You're not going on with it after this, are you?'
'I have to, love, but not for a while. I've got the police onside for a change, and if I need help, Hank, I'll ask.'
She wasn't happy, but, stubborn as she was, she knew I was the same. They undertook to collect the mail at my house, to visit and to help me get home. I slept a bit, ate and drank a bit, managed to shuffle along to the toilet taking my drip stand with me, and felt improvement hour by hour.
The drip had gone and my mind was clear and my body less aching when Chang appeared again. He was accompanied by a small dark man, immaculately dressed, who he introduced as Detective Sergeant Karim Ali.
'You had me worried,' Chang said.
'I'm OK, a minor glitch. I know what you're going to say-nothing to be done about Houli. No evidence.'
'That's right.'
'Who's this Talat character?'
Ali shrugged. I could tell at once that he didn't like me- some cops do, most don't. 'Muscle, ex-militia.'
'He's good at what he does. I'm wondering if he was involved in Nordlung's death. Nordlung looked to be a pretty big guy. Yachtsmen are strong. Someone must have subdued him efficiently and quietly before putting him into the water.'
Ali said, 'It's possible. He's got all the skills-frogman, paratrooper, explosives expert.'
'Shit,' I said, 'how'd he get in?'
Ali was hard to read; he smiled, almost as if what he had to say pleased him. 'Identity fraud picked up way too late. We could do something if we got hold of him, but he keeps a very low profile.'
'Houli said he was under pressure and I believed him. I'm wondering who's the greater threat in all this-the Wongs or Houli and his mate?'
'Interchangeable,' Chang said.
Ali shook his head. 'I've lost count of the number of people Houli has terrified.'
'About what?' I said.
'Money, what else? Not having it, losing it, owing it. The immigrant's greatest vulnerability.'
'Hardy,' Chang said, 'we're not going to get anywhere unless you tell us who contacted you in the first place. That's where this particular skein starts-we've got a mysterious disappearance that may mask a murder, a definite murder, that's Nordlung, and a serious assault on you. Who was it?'
I thought hard about it while they waited. I had no contract with Standish and no real obligation. No money had changed hands and, after what his wife had said, there was reason to think he didn't have the money to pay me anyway. I had no professional reputation to safeguard, but somehow all that didn't count for much. The habit of protecting the person who'd assigned a job to me was ingrained. As well, I remembered the way Standish had looked in the restaurant. Evidently Chang still hadn't checked with Caulfield.
I shook my head. 'I'm sorry, Stephen. I can't tell you. Not yet anyway. Give me some time to check on a few things. Maybe then.'
Chang looked at Ali. 'Told you.'
'Tell you one thing, I think the place they took me was underneath the Tiberias Club. I recognised the music.'
'Big deal,' Ali said. 'How about holding him on the drugs charges until he cooperates?'
Chang said, 'No, I blew any chance of that when I arranged for him to be brought here. We'll just have to wait until he fucks up again and hope that tells us something useful.'
'They tell me I could've died if I'd been dumped in a lockup overnight. Thanks.'
But they were already on their way out. Chang turned at the door. 'I'm beginning to wish I'd left you there.'
11
I was in hospital for over a week. I didn't have a ruptured spleen, and the doctor told me my broken eardrum wasn't infected and would repair itself in time. He confirmed what I'd said; I appeared to be a good healer. I'm the least metaphysical person I know, but I tend to believe that recovering from injury or illness is partly a state of mind thing. I wanted badly to heal.
Frank Parker and my lawyer Viv Garner visited-still no grapes. I walked the corridors. Megan brought in books, pyjamas and my medications. I abandoned the Miles Franklin winner and read a biography of Bernard Spilsbury, the famous English pathologist, and re-read George Shipway's Knight in Anarchy, one of the best historical novels ever.
Early in the morning, Megan brought in some clothes, my wallet and cheque book, and I got out of the hospital with a credit bank balance, just. Doctor Rasamussen, still looking weary, told me to take it easy and to watch my blood pressure.
'Don't get excited,' he said.
'What if I get a hole in one?'
'That'd be an exception.'
'It sure would.' I didn't tell him that I didn't play golf.
We went to the car park and I found that Megan had driven my 1988 Falcon. She settled herself behind the steering wheel.
'I've been driving it around a bit to keep it running. I love this car. Are you going to leave it to me in your will?'
'No, I'll leave it to the kid.'
She patted her belly. 'Fair enough. I won't say a word about what you do next, but don't even think about
