Peter Temple - Dead Point

He was silent for a moment. ‘Got through to me, possibly not a personal problem we’re havin. Get my meanin?’

‘This it?’ said Cam.

A sign on the fence said: Kingara. David amp; Jean Hale. We crossed a cattle grid and drove down a lane of young poplars. There were horses in the paddocks on either side. Straight ahead was a bluestone-faced house, long and low with a slate-tiled roof, behind a struggling privet hedge. We parked next to a Holden ute with a history.

‘Stretch the legs,’ said Harry. ‘Meet the lady. Can’t hurt you blokes to meet normal people.’

‘I dunno,’ Cam said. ‘Might find you like normal, ruin your whole life.’

As we sat there, a tall woman, slim, thirties, early forties, strong features, long blonde hair pulled back, ears showing, came around the corner of the hedge. She was wearing horse gear: checked shirt, Drizabone vest, jeans, gumboots. At the same moment, a wheaten labrador with the faintly puzzled but amiable look of its kind came through a hole in the hedge, tail wagging.

‘Normal,’ Cam said. ‘I suppose I could like it, somebody shows me how.’

We got out, cold after the car.

‘Come with a crowd,’ Harry said to the woman. He went over. They shook hands. She put her left hand on his shoulder, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

‘Thanks for comin,’ she said, voice a little blurred. ‘After ten years, you still took the trouble…’

Harry put up a hand. ‘No trouble.’

He introduced us. We shook hands and I resented the fact that her hand seemed to linger in Cam’s longer than it did in mine. She had light-blue eyes, a little puffy: she’d been crying. I’d seen my own eyes like that in many a mirror, some of them spattered with substances whose composition or origin one did not wish to guess at.

‘I’ve got scones in the oven,’ she said. ‘Haven’t made scones for yonks. You used to like scones, Harry. Still?’

Harry dry-washed his hands. ‘Still,’ he said. ‘Always. Good memory. Lead the way.’

On the verandah, Jean paused to take off her gumboots, quick, supple movements, rubber boots off, feet into worn, receptive shoes. We went through a sitting room with a stone fireplace into a big kitchen, smell of baking, cast-iron stove, sash windows in the north wall, painted cabinets and a big pine table, eight chairs. The view was of an old orchard, much older than the house, in need of heavy pruning.

‘Live in here,’ said Jean. ‘Warm. You don’t mind the kitchen?’

‘That’s where you eat scones, kitchen,’ said Harry.

The scones were steaming, pale yellow inside. Butter lay on the rough surface for a second, liquefied, sank. Quince jelly, lemon marmalade and Vegemite. I started with the Vegemite, two scones, moved on to the quince jelly, two scones, pretended I’d had enough, consented to eat one with marmalade. Two, three.

Harry and Jean talked horses. Winter sun slanted in from the north-west. We drank tea out of white mugs, tea made in a pot. ‘Sorry, no coffee,’ Jean said. ‘Can’t afford proper coffee these days, can’t drink the instant stuff.’ She looked at Harry. ‘Thought we’d be able to afford a new ute after last week, never mind coffee.’

Harry didn’t say anything, ate his sixth scone, all with quince jelly. Cam was on his fourth. Jean offered him another one.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Don’t stop now, spoiled for life. Come out here and pitch a tent.’

‘So,’ Harry said, last morsel swallowed with tea. ‘What happened?’

She pushed hair off her forehead. Her nails were cut short. ‘We lucked onto this horse, Lucan’s Thunder. Owners wanted a new trainer. Complete amateurs, the owners. I thought, same old story, it’s always the trainer’s fault. But it was. Dave knows him a bit, says he’s an arsehole. Piss artist. Dougal Mackenzie? He’s had one or two in town?’

‘The name rings,’ said Harry.

‘Christ knows what Mackenzie’d been doing with this horse. I’d say very little and then badly. I put in a bit of time with him, got the diet right, you could see early on he was a rung up from the usual.’

‘New South form, that right?’ Harry retained form the way teachers used to remember pupils.

Jean nodded. ‘Griffith, around there. Won two from seven, picnics really, then these owners bought him and gave him to Mackenzie and he was a dud from then on. Six starts, six-zero.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, when we started gettin some really good times from him, we thought we had a chance for a bit of a collect.’

‘Owners inside?’ said Harry.

‘Yes. We said we’d talk to you, they didn’t want to know, didn’t want to share it around. Got a bit greedy, I spose.’ She looked down, put a hand to her forehead. ‘Wouldn’t have happened if we’d gone to you.’

We looked at each other. Harry nodded to Cam.

‘Doesn’t follow, that,’ said Cam. ‘We got turned over a while back.’

‘You?’ She looked at Harry.

He nodded.

‘Hurt the commissioner bad,’ said Cam. ‘How’d they do you?’

‘Dave’s mate put this bunch together. Sandy Corning, he’s a local, a really nice bloke, straight as they come. Got these blokes he knows. Did okay to start but then the owners buggered it, the mates, the aunts, nannas, the lot, all shoving money at the books. So in the end, the collect was only about sixty grand after commission.’

‘Where?’ said Harry.

Jean drank tea. ‘Near the course. The Strand, near Mount Alexander, know that part?’

We all nodded.

‘Dave didn’t want Sandy to carry the money home, they were going to meet on The Strand. Dave was there first. He talked to Sandy on the mobile, Sandy was in the carpark, collectin…’

‘Not clever,’ said Cam.

‘No, well, the whole thing’s not clever. This car blocks Sandy near The Strand, the other one’s behind him, his door’s locked, the animal smashes the window with a sledgehammer, one of those little ones, y’know?’

We waited.

‘Sandy’s got the money in this bag, it’s a kid’s schoolbag. He just offers it to the bloke. No, they pull him out…’

She sniffed, found a tissue, wiped her nose. ‘Anyway, the bastards bashed him.’

‘How bad?’ said Harry.

Jean looked at the table. ‘This woman from across the road hadn’t come out, she’s a nurse, he’d a died there. Rib punctured his lung, jaw broken, nose broken.’

She looked at us. ‘He was offerin them the bag.’

We sat in silence.

‘Cops say what?’ Harry asked.

Jean looked at the table again, shrugged. ‘Nothin. Lookin for them.’

More silence.

‘You can say anythin,’ Harry said.

She sighed. ‘Dave’s on the piss before lunch, smokin again. Eight years off em, back to sixty a day. Doesn’t sleep. I’m scared. We’ve had it now, goin down the tubes here for three, four years. More. Bloody owners. First they love the trainer, then the trainer’s ratshit, horse’s better than the trainer…’

‘What about the horse?’ said Cam.

‘Took him off us. The next day. The one bastard rings up, says they’ve decided they want him with a more experienced trainer. Jesus, I could’ve…’

She caught herself, put a hand on top of Harry’s, rubbed it. ‘Last luck we had was with you. Thought that was the start of big things.’

Harry put a hand on hers, briefly, a hand sandwich.

Jean got up, galvanised, brisk. ‘Shit, you don’t want to hear this. More tea? I can make fresh.’

We shook our heads.

She made the gesture of helplessness. ‘Well, that’s all.’

Silence. The labrador came into view in the orchard, stately walk, tree to tree, the honorary colonel inspecting the regiment. One tree offended him and he peed on it.