“His boy, Ricky, wasn’t very dark, I just wondered… what about the mother?” He looked at me again, as if he was testing the quality, the very grain of me. “Nellie? Half and half,” he said slowly.
“I see. Go on Mr Gurney.”
“Albie moved around a bit… up here… Sydney. Couldn’t settle. Nellie just had the one kid, Ricky, and she died young. The boy went to people in Sydney.”
“Did Albie see much of his son?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“That’s something you’d have to ask him.”
“Fair enough. Did Albie work for Trixie Baker?”
“Sort of- aah good girl!” Penny came back into the room with a tray. Two open beer bottles were on it and three glasses. She poured a glass for the old man and half a glass for herself. I filled a glass and we all said cheers and drank. The beer was warmer than it should be but still not bad. Gurney sighed and emptied the glass in three long gulps. He filled it again and watched the head rise and settle.
“Where was I? Albie and Trixie, yeah. You couldn’t say Albie worked for her, he was a mess then, drinking fierce. He was calling himself Carter then – this is a few years ago.”
“Why all the names?”
“Police trouble I s’pose. We all knew who he was but the whites around didn’t. It’s a bit like that up here.”
“Do you know if his son got in touch with him at that time?”
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“Albie ducked him, went bush.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sayin’. Personal to them.”
“I suppose you won’t tell me about Albie’s relationship with Trixie Baker either?”
“That’s right. Sorry. I haven’t been much help. I will say this, you seem to know a thing or two about Albie and the boy.”
“Not enough.”
“You know some. It’s dangerous. I’d keep out of it if I was you.”
“I can’t.” I finished the beer and got up. Penny had hardly touched hers and she didn’t give it a glance now. She shook hands with Gurney and he and I exchanged nods. I’d intruded too far on a matter that excluded whites or should, in his view. It was too delicate to be trusted to me with my clumsy, money-motivated ways. He’d decided that and exercised just as much of his authority as he needed to keep the knowledge from me. He knew that I’d go on, that he couldn’t stop me. He accepted that, but he didn’t want to shake my hand again.
“Thanks for the beer,” he grunted.
I said something polite and we trooped down the passage and out into the raw sunlight.
“Not very helpful,” Penny said as we walked to the car.
“Could have been worse. I got some things out of it by implication.”
“Trixie Baker told me she and Albie Simmonds were lovers. It’s on the tape.”
I nodded. “I thought so.”
We got in the car and I noticed that three of the beer bottles were still on the seat. I pointed to them.
“That was for him.”
“Not good for him.”
“I know what he’d say to that. Has he got a wife by the way?” She grinned. “I heard he has three.”
We drove off and Penny yawned a couple of times and knuckled her eyes. I pulled over under a tree and stopped. “Have a sleep if you want to. I’m going to listen to the tape.” She nodded, took her coat with her out of the car and settled herself on the grass using it as a pillow. I made a cigarette and lifted the top off one of the beer bottles. The liquid frothed out and the stuff left behind was warm but I sipped at it anyway. I pushed the “play” button.
PENNY: “Mrs Baker, can you hear me?”
VOICE: “Yes, I can hear you, who’re you?”
PENNY: “My name is Sharkey, Penny Sharkey. You don’t know me, but I know who hit you – Berrigan.”
BAKER: “How do you know that, I never told…”
PENNY: “I’m working with a man who knows all about it. He wants to fix
Berrigan, will you help?”
BAKER: “I dunno, Berrigan… he might come back…”
PENNY: “Hardy says he won’t. He guarantees it.”
BAKER: “Hardy? Never heard of him. What is he, a cop?”
PENNY: “He’s a private detective…”
BAKER: “Shit, no, nothing doing…”
PENNY: “I trust him.”
BAKER: “Well, good for you… Something about you. Can’t see with all these bloody bandages. What are you, a darkie?”
PENNY: “I’m an Aborigine, yes.”
BAKER: “I like Abos, good people. I had a good man once. (Cackling laugh).
Could be one of your tribe – Albie Simmonds, know him?”
PENNY: “I knew Ricky, his son.”
BAKER: “That right? Well, well.” (Laughter) “Yeah, well that’s another story.
What’s in this for you girlie?”
PENNY: “I want Noni.”
BAKER: “How’s that?”
PENNY: “Noni Tarelton. She’s with Berrigan now. I hope he kills her.
Anyway, she’s up to her neck in this. She’ll go to jail if I have anything to do with it.”
BAKER: “Now you’re talking! That slut Noni. Tarelton you call her? She was
Rouble when she was fucking everything in sight round here. You reckon this Hardy’s good, he’ll get Berrigan?”
PENNY: “I’m sure of it, but he needs to know the story to put the pressure on. I don’t really understand it myself Mrs Baker, I just have to ask you some things.”
BAKER: “All right, ask away.”
PENNY: ‘You’ve answered one – you and Albie Simmonds were lovers?”
BAKER: “Yeah, when he was off the grog.”
PENNY: “Hardy said to ask you about the bank job, Simmonds and Berrigan,
Noni and the money.”
BAKER: (Laughter) “Shit, he does know a thing or two. Smart bugger is he?
Alright, this is it. Joey and Albie did the job. Fifty thousand they got. Nearly killed them. Well, me and Joey weren’t getting on so well, on account of me and Albie, see? They gave me the money, but Joey got real rough one night and I decided to do him. I got Noni to get off with him and charge him with rape. I paid her a hundred dollars.” (Laughter) “Funny thing, I never had to pay her all of it because she got put away for moral danger, you know?”
PENNY: “Yes.”
BAKER: “Well, Joey got sent away. Albie went to see him. They’d been mates for years, and I don’t know what Joey told him, like, but Albie wasn’t never the same again. He went on the grog like you’ve never seen. He took his boy to Sydney. Nellie, the mother, she was dead by this time, and he stayed down himself a while. He came back from time to time but he was never much good. Nice bloke though, Albie. What’s his son like?”
PENNY: “Bit wild.”
BAKER: “Yeah? Albie was quiet, real quiet, drunk or sober.”
I stopped the machine, re-wound the tape and played the last two passages again to make sure I had it right. Then I let the tape run on.
