open, and Wyatt smacked him with the. 38. Nurse dropped like a stone.
Wyatt spoke into the phone, Were in, and dropped it back into his pocket.
The money was in eight metal strongboxes, verifying Anna Reids information. There was also a large police revolver and cash stacked on a shelf in paper bands, the banks own holdings. Wyatt filled his pockets with the loose cash then hauled out the first strongbox and ran with it toward the corridor. He passed Nurses office. He said nothing. Riding said nothing.
At the back door he stopped, put down the strongbox, wedged open the door, ran out to the Volvo. He lifted the boot and ran back for the strongbox. About one minute had passed. He calculated that they could be out of there in another five.
He tossed the strongbox into the Volvo and was back in the corridor when he heard the boots on the asphalt outside.
Thirty-two
They had been waiting for him on Sunday night. Intercom system, security locks, first floor apartment with alarms and barred windows and balcony, and they were in his lounge room waiting for him. Lovell hadnt seen the black limo parked outside so it must have been around the back somewhere. Mr Bone, he said.
Bone was grey, long-faced, with the balding look of a sly monk or scholar. Lovell had never seen him without his charcoal grey suit and black tie and the only time hed seen the man alone was twelve months ago, when Bone had hailed his taxi and heard his story and made him an offer he couldnt refuse. At all other times Bone was with his driver, a big-jawed man who liked to bounce on his toes and keep his hands curled at his sides.
Lovell had kept a wary eye on the driver, dumped his bag in the corner and gone to the drinks cabinet. Get you something?
No thanks. But you go ahead, Bone said.
The situation had called for something with a bit of bite, like Jack Daniels. Lovell kept the neck of the bottle away from the rim of the glass, not that his hands were betraying him much.
Yet.
Hed sat opposite Bone. The driver had edged around and after a while Lovell heard the guy breathing behind him, long regular intakes and exhalations. The whisper was, it was the driver who knocked people that Bone wanted knocked. There were two that Lovell knew of, dealers whod become addicts, a big no-no as far as the organisation was concerned. I can explain, he said.
Bone picked a speck of lint off his knee and smoothed the expensive cloth. That would be a start. My partners and I, we ran a few possibilities past each other. One, your courier was arrested. Two, your courier robbed you. Three, your courier was robbed. Four, you robbed us. He looked up. Not necessarily in order of importance.
Lovell had known then that Bone had been speaking to Rice, the Drug Squad detective. It was a courier problem, he said.
And youve taken care of it?
I have.
Good. That still leaves us with a shortfall, though, doesnt it?
Ill make it up.
Of course you will. Youre obliged to, for a start, and we dont doubt your ability. The problem is, we may have lost valued customers as a result of last weekend.
Mr Bone, theyre a dime a dozen down there.
Im glad to hear it. Bone got up. Because weve started losing business to some Lebanese outfit. He showed some emotion. Quite mad. Kill their own mothers if there was a dollar in it.
Its not my fault what happens at street level.
It is if you cant fill orders and we lose buyers as a consequence.
Ill get you your cash.
Bone and the driver were at the door now. Bone said, Thats not the point. What this organisation depends on is regular cash from regular clients. He paused. And your New Guinea trips? Everything clockwork there?
Lovell swallowed. Of course.
Bone had smiled. Fine, Ian. Well speak again. You have forty-eight hours.
They had left Lovell with a headache like a steel band around his skull.
He slept badly. Then, at two oclock on Monday morning hed woken up thinking: Why not a second loan?
Banking hours were ten till four, but Lovell got to the TrustBank in Logan City at nine-twenty-six. Catch Nurse while the guy was still half asleep and easily persuaded. If Nurse needed extra persuasion, Lovell had it, his. 22 target pistol, the shape cold and sculptured like some sort of ray gun.
He rapped his knuckles on the glass.
A minute later, when nothing happened, he rapped again. A minute after that he wondered if maybe it was a public holiday. In his line of work, public holidays didnt mean much. No, all the shops were open. The post office was open. Bank staff worked nine to five; they had to be in mere, thirty minutes to opening time, having coffee, putting cash in the tills. So why were the blinds still closed? How come the place looked so shut up?
Lovell had gone around to the rear of the building. There was Nurses silver Volvo. The boot lid was up. The back door was propped open.
So the bastards were there. They just werent answering the front door. All right, in through the back.
And now the doorway was darkening and a man wearing a suit was coming through it, moving fast. A box thudded into the boot of the Volvo; the car shook with the weight of it.
The thing was, the bloke had a balaclava over his head. Lovell blinked. If this was a snatch, that was his cash they were taking.
Thirty-three
Wyatt ducked, turned, bringing up his gun in one movement.
A man hed never seen before was framed in the doorway, body low, swinging a pistol on him. It was some kind of fancy target pistol and Wyatt heard it snap sharply a couple of times. The shots went wide. He returned the fire, then ducked back into the bank.
Riding was there, dancing lightly, shifting his aim, looking for trouble. Wyatt pushed him back into Nurses office. Stay with them.
Already there were raised voices on the footpath outside. Wyatt slipped farther into the bank, using desks and filing cabinets as cover. He waited. He couldnt show himself at the corridor. He and Riding could try for the front door but that would mean showing themselves on the street. If the gunman let them get that far.
Who was he? Was Anna Reid pulling some kind of cross?
Wyatt edged around to the main counter and crouched there, two metres from the corridor entrance. The gunman moved first. He came through fast and low, firing rapidly. Wyatt tried to track him with the. 38.
Riding was the first to die. He stepped out into the gunmans path, readied the shotgun, and caught a slug high in the cheekbone. Wyatt saw him spin back against the wall and glass split and fell in shards around him as he slid to the floor.
By now the gunman was past Wyatt. Wyatt rolled free of the counter, looking for a clear field of fire, and saw the gunman die.
It was Nurse, dazed and bloodied and filled with something like hate. He seemed to shake the banks revolver like a deadly forefinger at the gunman and fire it at the same time. The gunman pitched over backwards.
Nurse saw Wyatt. He ducked into the strongroom.
Wyatt moved. He wasnt going to play cat and mouse with Nurse. He ran for the Volvo, leaving seven strongboxes behind.
The big car snaked a little until the rear tyres caught. He heard the boot slam. Out on the street people
