Peter Corris - Matrimonial Causes

I moved up, too. ‘I don’t like warnings, Andrew. I like to know what’s going on.’

The use of his first name annoyed and provoked him as it was intended to do. He swung the racquet at my head, but I’d been ready for that from the first and I ducked under the swing and hit him with a short right jolt, just below the mono-grammed pocket of his tennis shirt. A hard blow above the heart can paralyse anyone who isn’t either trained to cope with it or so full of booze and rage it doesn’t matter. Andrew, for all his flash, wasn’t a boxer or a street fighter. He went down in a heap and lay gasping for wind and strength on the concrete floor. He tried to sit up but his legs were jellied and he fell, getting more oil stains on his tailored, sharkskin shorts.

I’d been wanting to hit someone for the past few days and now I’d done it. Somehow, it didn’t give me the satisfaction I’d expected. I looked down at him as he fought for his breath and dignity and suddenly I had doubts. With the wind knocked out of him, his clothes dirty and his pride hurt he didn’t seem so formidable. Also, he looked genuinely puzzled. He levered himself up on unsteady legs, gripped the car door handle and struggled upright.

‘Who… who did you say you are?’

‘Cliff Hardy — I’m a private detective.’

‘You behave like one. I’m calling the police if you don’t leave immediately. I’m going to take some sort of action against you, anyway.’

He was starting to recover his no doubt considerable confidence and I was losing ground. He wasn’t behaving as I’d expected. ‘I want to talk about Virginia Shaw. She’s my client.’

That got his attention but, perhaps understandably, he was more cautious than interested. ‘I’m not sure that I know anyone by that name.’

‘You know her, Perkins. You set her up with Charles Meadowbank. She hired me to deliver you a message.’

‘You have a strange way of carrying out your commissions.’

This wasn’t going anything like the way it was supposed to. I was on the back foot now and he could see it. He massaged the place where I’d hit him, applied a little pressure and winced. I reminded myself about the phone call to his office and the bullet whining off the bricks in St Peters Lane. We were standing in the garage with the door open to the street. It wasn’t the right place to conduct this sort of business and I felt I had to get some leverage on him somehow. I pointed to his sports bag on the seat of the Alfa. ‘Collect your stuff and close the garage, then we’ll step into your place and have a talk.’

‘Don’t give me orders! You’re trespassing, you’re guilty of assault…’

I pushed him back against the car. ‘Listen, I was there when Meadowbank got shot. You’re involved. Then someone took a shot at me. I’m holding you responsible until something convinces me otherwise.’

He bent and picked up the racquet that had bounced off the wall and lay near the front wheel of the car. I was half hoping he’d give it another try but he didn’t. He reached in for his bag and then shut the car. He moved past me and touched a switch on the wall. The door slid into place on oiled tracks. ‘Very well,’ Perkins said. ‘I’ll give you a few minutes, but your PEA licence is hanging by a thread.’

He opened the door at the back of the garage and we went up some steps to a path that led to the house. Perkins took the steps up to the front door three at a time until his bruised chest slowed him down. The massive front door was open. We stepped into a dim lobby.

Perkins started up the curving staircase that was about twice as wide as mine in Glebe and had no missing uprights. ‘I own the top two floors.’

‘Good for you. Anyone live with you?’

‘Not at the moment, no.’

He opened a door on the first level-entrance hall, carpet, high ceiling. I followed him into a sitting room half the size of a tennis court with three doors to other rooms and one wall made entirely of glass. The view was towards Royal Sydney Golf Course with a lot of trees in between. Perkins put his sports bag and racquets down on a chair. The furniture was big and old, the carpet thick and oriental, the paintings big and modern. The room screamed money. Perkins stood in the middle of his carpet and said, ‘You wanted to talk, talk.’

I shook my head. ‘Not here. I feel overwhelmed by your affluence. Where’s the kitchen? I could do with a drink.’

‘Good idea.’ He went to the window and pressed a couple of buttons. Glass panels slid apart and warm air flowed into the stuffy room. Then he opened a door and we went down a short passage to a kitchen that looked as if it had been built last century but fitted out last year. It was all metal and glass, bristling with electrical appliances. The fridge was a double-door monster and you could have roasted a sheep in the oven. Perkins washed his hands at the sink and dried them on a spotlessly white hand towel. ‘Of course, we could have had a drink in the den, but since you prefer the kitchen, what will you have?’

‘Beer if you’ve got it.’

‘Think so.’ He opened the fridge and rattled around inside it, coming up with two bottles of Heineken. It seemed to me that he’d taken longer about it and made more noise than was necessary, but I was too slow to react. I felt something metallic press into the base of my skull and then move away to the left.

‘This thing behind your ear is a shotgun,’ a calm voice behind me said, ‘and you should stand very, very still.’

I did as I was told. Perkins put the beer on the kitchen table and let out a long breath.

‘Thanks, Carl,’ he said.

‘OK, Mr Perkins. What now?’

‘I’m not sure.’

I felt a hand move down my spine and then the gun was pulled from its holster. ‘Carrying a gun,’ Carl said.

‘I’ve got a permit.’

Perkins laughed, well in charge of the situation now, the way he liked to be. ‘It still extends my options, if you see what I mean.’

I saw, and didn’t like it.

‘The question is, do I ring the police or let Carl deal with you out the back… or do something else?’

He was a dangerous customer. I could see him almost tasting the violence, wondering how far he could go with it. All the way? Just possibly. Armed private detective breaks in, assaults prominent barrister, causing physical injury. I hadn’t seen Carl yet but he sounded capable and willing. It was one of those times when you have to do something to take the initiative, whatever the risk. I turned slowly, reached up and moved the barrel of the shotgun, still without looking at Carl. I was eye-locked with Perkins.

‘Don’t make it worse than it is,’ I said. ‘Let’s call it square for now. Where was the buzzer? In the garage or up here?’

‘Both,’ Perkins said.

‘Neat. You take all the points. We still have to talk. Tell Carl to put my gun in the fridge or somewhere and go away. You probably want that beer as much as I do.’

Perkins was a quick decider. He nodded and took a bottle opener from a hook on the wall. ‘It’s all right, Carl. There won’t be a problem.’

‘What about the gun, Mr Perkins?’

‘Unload it and leave it here.’

Carl was a heavily-built type with wide shoulders, not a candidate for the Meadowbank job. He leaned his shotgun against the fridge and expertly released the swing-out mechanism of the. 38. He up-ended the gun and the cartridges dropped into his hand. He put the lot on the top of the fridge, picked up his twelve-gauge and left through a back door without speaking again.

‘Man of few words,’ I said.

Perkins levered the tops from the bottles. ‘But of efficient action. He keeps watch on this set of houses twenty-four hours a day. Don’t ask me how he does it.’