May Ling nodded. There was a long silence as Gretchen looked at me and back at May Ling, whose face was set implacably. It was obviously a scene she'd played in before.
'Oh yes,' Gretchen whispered. 'But I just need a small hit now.'
'No way,' May Ling said.
We got Gretchen to a clinic in Marrickville I'd had dealings with in the past. My doctor, Ian Sangster, signed the admission form and May Ling acted as guarantor for the fees, next of kin and contact. Gretchen was passive, resigned.
'She's in for a rough time,' I said as we left the clinic. 'Coming off one dependency's bad enough, but three or four…'
'Five,' May Ling said. 'She's a sex addict as well. So where did that get us, Cliff?'
'When did I become Cliff?'
'Today. You handled all that very well. My confidence in you has grown.'
'That's nice and I guess you've shown your softer side with your sister, but I'm not sure we're playing on the same team. You want to find Malouf so as to get Houli and Freddy off your back. You don't care what they were up to with Malouf or who killed Stefan Nordlung and the mystery man. Right?'
We were walking along Marrickville Road towards where
I'd parked the Peugeot in a side street. May Ling stopped, slumped into a chair outside a cafe.
'I'm tired and hungry.'
I was, too. We ordered coffee and sandwiches and we drank and ate steadily without speaking. She finished first, wiped her hands and sniffed at her fingers.
'I haven't smoked for years. Bugger Sunny. I've hauled her out of trouble since she was thirteen and had her first abortion, but she is my sister and I do care about her.'
I nodded. 'Parents?'
'Both dead from overwork. They built up a restaurant and import business from nothing. When they died Freddy managed to take it over-I never found out how. That's why I studied law, to see if I could get it back, but I got sidetracked and Freddy grew too big and nasty to go up against.'
'I can believe that,' I said. 'But you stayed in touch with him, borrowed money.'
'Yes. But getting Sunny hooked, that's just too much. I'll do whatever I can to screw him. So I do want to know why people got killed and why Freddy and Houli are so worked up about Malouf. It's almost as if they're afraid of anyone catching up with him before they do, don't you think? As if they're scared. What was he doing? He obviously wasn't just a smartarse screen jockey who ripped off people like you, too lazy to look after their own investments.'
I laughed. She was clear-headed and unrelenting. That was the moment I decided to trust May Ling sufficiently to share some information with her and Standish and try jointly to get below the surface into what was really going on.
When I got home I phoned Sabatini at his paper and was told he'd gone on leave. I called the Bondi Junction travel agency and spoke to Troy. He told me Rosemary had gone on leave.
'Anyone else asking for her?'
'How do you mean?'
'You remember the man of Middle Eastern appearance who came in a few days ago? Snappy dresser?'
'Yes.'
'Has he asked about her?'
He hung up. My guess the answer was yes, and that Houli or Talat had frightened him. I phoned Standish and told him Houli was likely to be applying pressure and so was Freddy Wong.
'Why?'
'We've taken two women they were dealing with out of circulation. Safely.'
'Who's we?'
'Me and the police, me and May Ling. Is she there?'
'No. I don't understand any of this, Hardy. It sounds as if you've just made things worse.'
'Before they get better, let's hope. Have you still got that place at Darling Harbour?'
'Yes, I took it for a month.'
'I suggest you get hold of May Ling and meet me there tonight. We need to have a sort of conference to try to figure out what's going on and what to do. There's more information, but it's hard to interpret. Three heads needed.'
'God, you're a bastard. First you tell me to get back to work and now you want me back in hiding. And what's all this about you and May Ling?'
'Tonight,' I said. 'About eight.'
I phoned Chang and asked if he'd had any luck tracking down Malouf's boat.
'There's no such vessel registered in New South Wales,' he said. 'We're widening the search but I'm not optimistic. I think your informant, to put it politely, was full of shit. I tried to contact her but what d'you know? She and the journo have skipped out and I haven't heard a word about it from you. Not happy, Hardy.'
I couldn't blame him and tossed up whether to add Gretchen Nordlung's confirmation that the boat existed, sketchy though the evidence was. What was the point? May Ling wasn't going to allow him to interview her sister in the clinic and he wasn't likely to take much notice of junkie evidence anyway. I needed more solid information on what Malouf was doing before I could make use of the police again. Chang hung up on me-two in a row.
I chanced my luck and rang Perry Hassan. I asked him if Malouf had dealt with overseas clients and institutions while in his employ. Perry let out an exasperated sigh. 'Not on my behalf,' he said, 'but from what the auditors have turned up he did.'
'Why did you let him?'
'You can't control them. Smart operators like him can play any game they please.'
'Did he handle the business of Lebanese and Chinese clients in Sydney?'
'Of course.'
'D'you know who he dealt with offshore?'
'No, and I don't want to know. Give it a rest, Cliff. I'm struggling to keep my head above water here. Give it a rest.'
At least he didn't hang up.
The apartment had been cleaned and tidied since the last time I was there and Standish himself was looking in better shape. Not quite his old self, but getting there. May Ling had changed her casual outfit for a blouse and a long, dark skirt that set off her slim figure. There was a smell of Asian takeaway in the air and they were drinking coffee laced with French cognac. Standish offered me the same and I accepted.
'May Ling says you were pretty useful today, Hardy,' Standish said. 'Thank you, but I'm still in the dark about your plans now.'
'I don't have any plans. I just want to lay things out to see if we can make any sense of it. Maybe make some guesses?'
May Ling raised an eyebrow. 'Guesses?'
'Some of the best moves have been made on the basis of guesses.'
'And some of the worst,' she said.
'True.'
Standish was impatient. 'This is going nowhere. We know that Houli and Wong are in cahoots. We know that Malouf had dealings with both. ..'
'And with other members of both communities,' May Ling said. 'Finance matters, I suppose; trying to make use of them in their bloody criminal activities-drugs, girls…'
Standish nodded and ran with it. 'Getting them into financial difficulties with loans or investments that went sour and then putting pressure on them. But to do what?'
I said, 'To do something that was worth killing two people for and makes it essential to find Malouf.'
We drank our coffee and thought. May Ling shrugged and got up to brew another pot. I wandered over to the window and looked down onto Darling Harbour where boats, moving and stationary, showed lights. There was a famous replica there, I seemed to recall. Captain Cook's Endeavour or the Bounty? Couldn't remember.
'Is the replica of the Endeavour or the Bounty down there?' I asked when May Ling had poured the coffee and
