Peter Corris - O'Fear

‘You’ll have to tell me a bit more about your understanding with Mrs Todd. She’s a subtle woman. If I’m going to be involved at the security end I’ll need to know any… angles.’

Lang passed his hand over the thin dark hair on his rather pointy head. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘maybe I should protect myself. I’m not going into this thing with my eyes shut, you know.’

‘What thing, Mr Lang?’

‘Did you know Todd? Like him?’

‘I knew him slightly. He was okay.’

‘Do you think he was honest?’

‘More or less.’

‘Exactly. He was certainly smart. You don’t think the photographs are his work, do you?’

I tried to remember whether Felicia had actually said so. I couldn’t recall. ‘I assumed it.’

‘Exactly. So will everyone else, and the catalogue will confirm it.’

‘Are you saying he didn’t take the photographs?’

Lang gave me a level look. ‘Did I say that?’

‘Whose work are they?’

‘Who do you think? I’ve said enough. This is all very delicate. What about the security?’

I told him I wouldn’t handle it, but I gave him the name of a firm I occasionally deal with. I didn’t think it would hurt to stay in some kind of touch with the snaps and daubings.

O’Fear eased himself gently into the car. He was wearing a grey suit that was slightly too big for him. He had lost weight in gaol. I put his bag in the back, but I didn’t open any doors for him or offer other help. He would probably have broken my arm.

‘How bad is it?’ I said.

‘Could be worse. Glanced off a rib. A dozen stitches and no ballet dancing for a while.’

‘Where d’you want to go?’

‘Where does anyone want to go after a period of durance vile? To a bloody pub, boyo. Have you got a shooter?’

I nodded and started, the car. We drove to a pub in Chifley near the Star drive-in theatre. It was showing a couple of the Harrison Ford Indiana Jones movies and I wondered who would want to go to drive-ins any more, now that we had videos and all-night TV. Unless it was for the same old reason.

The pub was undergoing a refit and only the saloon bar was open. There was no draught Guinness, so O’Fear accepted a bottle of Sheaf stout. He filled a schooner expertly and drank it down in a couple of long gulps. I had a middy of the same stuff in lieu of lunch.

O’Fear wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, refilled his glass and signalled tor another bottle. ‘Ah, that’s better.’

‘You’re not going to tell me you went all those months without a drink. I could smell it on you the other day.’

‘It’s not the same.’ We were sitting on bar stools. O’Fear pushed some of the change from my ten bucks across the bar and the barman replaced the empty bottle with a full one. He took some money and put back very little. The walls of the bar were covered with photographs and paintings of cars and horses. I didn’t think Felicia would approve too much of my spending her money in here.

The barman put a clean glass in front of him and O’Fear ignored it. ‘Bloody prat,’ he said, ‘I like to stick to the same glass.’ He drank deeply. ‘This has the breath of freedom in it. Well, Hardy, you almost got me killed, so when are we going to start talking money?’

‘Eh?’

‘This has got to be big. I’m inside there, cruisin’ along and mindin’ me own business. Me only worry is that I haven’t see me boy Danny for a bit. Come to think of it, I could’ve hired you to look about for him. Anyhow, one fine day I talk to you, and the bail’s up and some bastard sticks me. Now, it was worth somebody’s while to do that, so it has to be worth my while to put me life in hazard.’

‘Christ, what do you want? I got you out, didn’t I? That’s my own money I put up.’

‘So it is. And you’ll get it back when I stand trial. What would you say to a fifty-fifty split?’

‘I’d say no.’

‘If I go to Tasmania you’ll lose the lot. I hear the folk scene’s still very big down there.’

‘You wouldn’t be hard to find.’

‘But think of the expense. Come on, boy, you want to know what happened to Todd, don’t you?’

‘Do you know?’

‘I can help you find out. Now, don’t be mercenary about this. We’re in the same boat.’

‘How’s that?’

He finished his drink and licked froth from his lips. He belched deeply. ‘Honour demands that you complete the job and commonsense demands that you be paid for it. I need the money too, and by Christ my honour’s at stake.’

He poured another schooner full and I let him top up my middy. It had been a long time since I’d drunk stout and I wasn’t sure I still liked it. I thought I could probably acquire the taste again. O’Fear sipped at the froth and grinned at me. ‘It’s grand for the pain.’

‘I’m curious about your honour.’

All the lilt and blarney were suddenly gone from his voice. ‘No one puts a knife in Kevin O’Fearna and walks around to boast about it. Have we got a deal?’

I thought about it while another mouthful of stout went down. O’Fear was no one’s idea of a perfect partner. He was reckless; he had a bad temper and he got too drunk too often. On the other hand, if it came to a fight there was no one better to have on your side. And a feeling was growing inside me that this was getting bigger than a one-man job. I had the beginnings of some plans-trap setting and such-all of which would require manpower.

‘I don’t know whether to be flattered by your enthusiasm or overwhelmed by your generosity,’ O’Fear said.

‘I’m being realistic,’ I lied. ‘Maybe you don’t know anything at all.’

‘I know something. But I don’t know enough to make sense of it.’

‘What about your own case? Could this be related in any way?’

He hesitated, but only for a split second. ‘I think not. It’s my opinion that little matter’ll take care of itself.’

I told him about the searches of Todd’s houses and Warren Bradley’s suspicions regarding the way Todd’s car had left the road. He nodded and touched his side tenderly. ‘Like I said, something serious.’

The drink had relaxed me; I was musing now. I allowed myself a thought I wouldn’t have entertained before my conversation with Piers Lang: Maybe Todd was blackmailing somebody. But I said, ‘Somebody’s looking for something Todd had. What would it be? Evidence of some kind. If Todd had evidence, why didn’t he do something with it?’

‘You know the answer to that.’

My mood was almost philosophical now. ‘Yeah. He couldn’t trust the cops.’

‘Or didn’t know which ones to trust. He might have made enquiries though. And where one person can enquire, another can enquire too.’

‘You should have been a lawyer, O’Fear. A judge. Instead of a dumb mick brick-shifter.’

‘I’ve met a few judges. I can’t say that I liked them much.’

‘You’d better tell me what you know. And for five thousand dollars, it better be good.’

He grabbed my hand and pumped it, which hurt me and must have hurt him too. We were a couple of minor casualties. ‘We’ll make a great team, Cliff. But can I tell you something?’

‘What?’

‘You could do with a shave.’

I thought the first problem would be to get him out of the pub. I didn’t want to start off with a boozy ramble about this and that, in which the connections were apparent only to minds leached by alcohol. I was wrong. He came willingly, without even finishing his third schooner and leaving a good bit in the bottle. We drove to Maroubra, my old stamping ground, where the memories are fading as the landscape changes; most of the shops where we bought the sweets that ruined our teeth are gone, and parts of the beachfront have had more facelifts than Liz Taylor. But the sand and water do not change and we sat in the car and looked down at the pool and up and out into infinity.