Peter Corris - Master's mates

Strings must have been pulled between Canberra and Sydney, the feds and the state cops and God knows who else, because when Stewart Henry Master surrendered to the authorities, his sentence was reduced to five years to be served in a minimum security institution. Terrorism and the whipped-up threat of it dominated the headlines and Master’s progress received minimal publicity. The word is he’ll be out on day release before too long.

I’ve tried to steer clear of cases involving undercover police operations and the intelligence services. With those people you never know when you’ve got hold of the right end of the stick. Master looked set to get off lightly. Did that mean there really was a legitimate undercover operation and he was bound to come out smelling cleanish? Or had he undertaken to be the heroin conduit from the start and just got lucky? Black Andy Piper’s fingers were in so many pies it was impossible to tell where his influence stopped and started. Was North his man all along? I never found out and maybe they didn’t really know themselves.

Lorrie Master was happy to fork over the hundred grand. All in all, she’d outlaid more than she’d said she would when she engaged me in the beginning but she didn’t complain. She invited me to sail with her, but Stephanie Geller cast my horoscope and said I shouldn’t venture out on water, especially given my gypsy ancestry. Anyway, by then I had other things on hand and I didn’t go.