Geoffrey Cousins - The Butcherbird

Hedley Stimson smiled at him gently. ‘Yes, Mr Beaumont. Every student clerk and second-rate solicitor has read the law books. You’re not going to win cases by seeking wisdom in their dry pages. Sooner or later the law’s about human behaviour, about motive, about greed, about lust and power and love and violence, about trust and the breaking of it. That’s all in these books. If they make any new laws, I read about them. Otherwise, I stick to life.’

Jack nodded. ‘And the people you admire in these books, they just give up, do they? They don’t question or probe or struggle? They just turn their backs and walk away? If you tell me I’m being paranoid and I’ve misconstrued all this, okay. But is that what you’re saying?’

He felt a hand on his elbow and the voice of Godfrey Kemp say quietly, ‘Come on, Jack, Mr Stimson has given us his opinion, and it’s good advice so-’ But before the sentence was finished the gravelly voice broke in.

‘Yes, it’s good advice, Mr Beaumont. However-’ He paused. Godfrey Kemp dropped his hand from Jack’s arm in surprise. Never, in twenty-five years of briefing Hedley Stimson, had he heard a ‘however’ after the ‘therefore’.

‘However, Mr Beaumont, the advice I’ve given you is the best advice anyone could give you. It’s not necessarily my opinion about what is the right course of action morally, legally or from any other point of view. It’s not necessarily what one of the heroes in those novels you’ve been gazing at so intently would do. But this is not a story we’re discussing, Mr Beaumont. We are discussing your life, and whether you’ll be able to enjoy it with some degree of normality or whether you’ll be chewed up in a legal mincing machine. Do I make myself clear?’

Jack looked at the book he was holding in his hand. ‘This is one of my favourite novels.’

Hedley Stimson smiled at the battered old paperback. ‘Mine also, Mr Beaumont. When I find the human condition slightly repulsive, I read it quietly with a strong cup of tea.’

Jack was still standing in front of the desk, legs slightly apart, challenging something-he wasn’t quite sure what. ‘Then what is your view? Are there laws being broken here? Can people be damaged? Are there corrupt persons at work who should be brought to justice? How do I fight this? How do I look at myself in the mirror if I crawl away?’

The face seemed to be hewn from stone, so fixed was the gaze directed at Jack. ‘Sit down, Mr Beaumont.’ Slowly he eased the chair back slightly from the desk. ‘They’ll chew you up, son. Do you understand that? Chew you up, spit you out; win or lose, your life will never be the same again. Do you see that?’

‘I see part of it.’ Jack’s shoulders were hunched forward with concentration.

The minutes ticked away. Gradually the enormous hands rose from the desk and began to conduct words in the air. ‘In my opinion there are likely criminal and civil proceedings of a serious nature which might result from substantiation of the concerns you have outlined to me. These include breaches of the Corporations Act in respect of the conduct of directors, failure to disclose conflicts of interests, possible falsification of accounts by management condoned by the auditors, possible fraud charges arising from the conduct of the chief financial officer in respect of documents filed with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, as well as the Australian Stock Exchange. There are also probable causes of action for shareholders arising from these misleading documents, not to mention other potential actions under Section 52 of the Trade Practices Act. These are merely my preliminary views.’

Jack didn’t look away or shuffle in the chair. At last he asked very quietly, ‘Then how do I fight?’

Hedley Stimson turned to his colleague. ‘Mr Kemp, I know you have a meeting. Please feel free to leave. Mr Beaumont and I have concluded our conference and are merely chatting to no great point.’

Godfrey Kemp departed, surprised and confused. He’d never left a client alone with Hedley Stimson before, or indeed any other barrister. It was bad practice not to have a witness to a discussion in chambers.

‘So you admire the hero in that book, do you? Well, Mr Beaumont, no doubt you’d like to fight injustice in the courts and emerge victorious, having protected the interests of all the widows and orphans who live in the humble dwellings insured by your large but probably unscrupulous company, run by a gang of thieves but presented to the world with your own brand of polished salesmanship. Thus you are established as a man of true substance and ethics by these heroic actions and spend the rest of your life smiling admiringly at your burnished image in as many mirrors as you can find. Is that your idea?’

‘Something like that, but just the one mirror will do.’ The old lawyer chuckled quietly at Jack’s response. ‘Have you ever been in a war, son?’

‘No. I’m one of the lucky ones who’s never held a rifle except in the school cadets.’

‘They’re not good, the little I know of them. I was in Korea, which was no picnic, but my father was killed at Gallipoli. God knows what that was like. This might be your Gallipoli. Why would you want to bring that on yourself?’

‘I didn’t bring it on myself. I just happened to be there. But I can’t walk away and turn my back on it, can I?’

‘Thousands would. And do.’ There was silence again. The eyes stayed fixed on Jack, but no longer with the searching stare. ‘I’ve waited a long time to meet you, son, a very long time.’

He stood and walked to the window, looking down into Phillip Street, where all the other lawyers and their clients were scurrying off to sue or be sued. ‘If you want to fight, you’ll need troops. Not just lawyers, they’re easy. Analysts, strategists, actuarial advice, communications advice-God knows what. And money, lots of money.’

‘I can get all that.’ Jack was still holding the book in both hands. He put it on the desk. ‘But will you help me?’

The hand that reached forward seemed larger than the book.

‘You realise the point of To Kill a Mockingbird is that sometimes it can be right to remain silent?’ Jack said nothing. ‘But not this time, I hear you say?’

The book was placed carefully on the desk and the old lawyer sat, just as carefully, as he always did when advice was about to be despatched.

‘Very well. We won’t meet here again. I’ll write an opinion confirming my initial advice to you not to proceed. Somehow these matters seep through the walls and become known. You will appear to follow my advice. We don’t want our opponents marshalling their resources until we’re ready to fire the first shot. You’ll get your team together and report to me using only this phone number.’ He took a card from the holder on the desk and wrote on the back of it. ‘You’re not to communicate with Mr Kemp again except to inform him that you have decided not to proceed with the matter. I trust Kemp more than anyone I know, other than my wife, but his walls are also porous. When we meet we’ll meet only at my residence, and in the manner I instruct. Is this clear? Do you begin to understand the nature of your folly?’

Jack spoke immediately. ‘Yes. I’ll call within the week.’ Hedley Stimson walked with him to the door, opened it and said in a slightly raised voice, ‘Goodbye, Mr Beaumont. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more encouraging advice-but best wishes in any event.’

There had never been a meeting of the group before for any reason other than for lunch. They were a club with no name, no rules, no aims, and their only premises were the wooden-floored rooms in the restaurant at Bondi. This was Monday and the restaurant was closed, yet they sat at the long table looking down on the distant surfers sliding and dipping and cutting back across the face of the breaking waves. Today there were no rich smells of garlic and grilling meat or pungent aromas of chilli and shellfish drifting from the kitchen. The room smelled musty and dead. All the other tables had chairs standing on them. The vases were upside down on the old carved sideboard and somehow the atmosphere was equally inverted.