Street Smart (Matt Reeves Thriller)

by Ben Onslow

  He’d give his boss the pictures and information, and Draper had better do some good for these kids.

  When they got back to the apartment. Matt parked at the back and then helped Charlie out of the car.

  “Come on. We’ll get you inside so you can rest that ankle.”

  As they were going up the stairs, he asked, “Ever done any waitressing?”

  “Nope,” she said. “Why?”

  He got her settled on the couch.

  “Got a couple of mates with a café. It’s in Queenstown, so it will get you away from Fraser.” Tom and James were good guys. They’d help.

  “But how would I get there? I don’t have any money.”

  “I’ll fund you.” He hauled his phone out and hit Tom’s number.

  “You still looking for waitresses?” he asked when Tom answered.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve got a friend here who would be interested. And she can draw. You might be able to help her there too.”

  “She another stray you’re rescuing?” asked Tom. Occasionally when they were travelling, he’d meet someone and offer them a bed or money to get them out of a jam. It’s not that he had a thing about strays, but if he could help someone in trouble, he tended to do it.

  “Something like that.”

  “Okay. When does she turn up?”

  “Soon. Can she stay with you until she gets settled?”

  “Yeah, we’ve got a couch.”

  “I’ll let you know when to expect her.” He put the phone back in his pocket. “It’s sorted.”

  Charlie looked a bit lost. “I’d rather stay here.”

  He sat down beside her again. “You can’t. My next step is to go find Barnes and get him to take me on. I don’t want you where Fraser is.”

  He’d made the decision when Charlie was telling him about the kids in the parking building. He had to do something.

  “You and me both,” said Charlie. “Are you going to try and get something on Barnes?”

  He nodded.

  “And Fraser?”

  Matt grinned. “Yeah, and I hope they don’t suss me out as fast as you and Billy did. Now, we need to get you some clothes. I can’t send you down to Tom in my little brother’s gear.”

  “I’ve got clothes in Karori.”

  She really was starting to trust him.

  “Your sister’s place?”

  Charlie nodded. “If you took me to our house. I could get some.”

  “Yeah. I can do that. First, we’ll book a flight so I can let Tom know when to expect you. Then we’ll head for Karori.”

  He booked a ticket for Charlie. He was lucky there had been a cancellation for a flight later in the day.

  Then they went to Karori to get her things.

  Chapter 10

  HE FOLLOWED CHARLIE’S directions out of Wellington, past the Botanical Gardens and through a tunnel to Karori. The township had been built running up a hill, a collection of small shops in old buildings on each side of a narrow street. They passed a church protected by old oak trees starting to come into leaf. He could see the lime green tips.

  “Take the next left turn,” Charlie said.

  He turned left onto a street filled with suburbia. Nice houses, leafy yards.

  “Our house is just past this intersection.”

  He crossed the intersection.

  “Pull in here,” said Charlie when they came to a huge two storey Victorian villa. The house was a surprise. A big garden with established trees, a white picket fence across the front. He’d figured she didn’t come from poverty. The way she spoke and some of the things she’d drawn suggested that. But he hadn’t expected opulence.

  He looked at Charlie. “Is this where you grew up?”

  She nodded.

  He leaned over a bit more so he could see the house better. Charlie’s parents had been wealthy. The property had seen better days. It was starting to look like it could do with a bit of maintenance. But a few years ago, and not that many, it had been spectacular. A bloody nice place to live.

  “Things must have been bad for you to take off.”

  “They were.” Charlie got out, then turned back. Still holding the car door, she bent down a bit so she could see him.

  “Will you come in? If Sean is home, I’d like someone with me.”

  “I thought you rang your sister and checked?”

  Charlie nodded. “I tried, but she didn’t pick up.”

  “Okay.” He got out too. He could act as her bodyguard for a while. It shouldn’t take her that long to pack.

  The girl who answered the door was the girl in the drawings. Even in jeans and the little cardigan thing she was wearing, she was beautiful. She’d made no effort at all to look good, hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair when she got up this morning, but was still stunning.

  She hung on the door handle and stared at them, vague and unwelcoming. She looked like Charlie would in five or six years’ time. Tall and slender, the same brown eyes surrounded by long dark lashes as Charlie, and the same almost chocolate coloured hair.

  “Hello, Rachael,” Charlie said hesitantly.

  Her sister frowned a little, still vague. And wasted.

  “Charlotte?” Then she seemed to wake up from a dream. She let the door handle go, came down the steps and hugged Charlie fiercely.

  “I’ve been so worried.” Then hands resting on Charlie’s shoulders, Rachael stepped back a little to look at her. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Rachael nodded at Matt. “Who’s he?”

  “A friend.”

  “Have you been living with him?” she asked.

  “No,” said Charlie. “He’s just helping me now.”

  Her sister frowned again and studied Matt suspiciously, then turned back to Charlie. “Why are you here?”

  “I came to get my gear. Is Sean in the house?”

  “No. He’s gone out. He’ll be back soon.” Charlie’s sister stepped away from the door and let them in. “I don’t want any trouble.”

  Charlie released a breath in a puff. “If you don’t want trouble and Sean comes back before I leave, you’d better keep him away from me.”

  Rachael nodded at Matt. “Is that why you brought him?”

  “Partly.” Charlie went into the house, then waited for Matt to come in too.

  Rachael shut the door and followed them across the entrance hall. The floor was square black and white marble tiles. The side table against the wall was covered in junk but looked antique. The chair and umbrella stand beside it did too.

  But the place was a tip.

  Charlie looked at Matt. “My bedroom is upstairs.”

  “Do you want me to come too?”

  She nodded, so he followed her up the massive curving staircase that led to the next floor. The carved wooden bannister was wide and chunky like in some old public buildings.

  Bloody hell. The house he grew up in was nice, but nothing like this.

  Rachael came up behind them.

  “Where have you been, Charlotte? You’ve been gone a month.” She’d pulled herself together a bit and was acting like an older sister now.

  Charlie had got to the top of the stairs. “With some friends.”

  “Where?”

  She looked at Rachael for a moment and then shook her head. “Nowhere. Now I’m going somewhere different.”

  “Will you be safe?” Rachael asked anxiously.

  Charlie walked across the landing. “Safer than here.”

  The doors to the six bedrooms stood open. None of the beds had been made.

  Charlie stopped by one of the bedrooms. The room she’d drawn. But now, it looked like there’d been a fight in it. Filled with mess and broken furniture.

  Charlie went in, stepping over the chaos, ignoring a broken chair and an eiderdown pushed off the bed.

  “I see you cleaned up my bedroom after I left,” she said. “God, Rachael. How can you live like this?”


  That was pretty funny. This kid had spent the last month living in a parking building, sleeping in the cars, using whatever the owners of the cars had left in them, and washing at the café. Now she was criticising her sister’s housekeeping.

  Rachael shrugged and leaned on the door frame. “Sean said we can get someone in to clean up when we’ve got a bit of money.”

  Charlie opened the wardrobe door. “With you making it.” She pulled out a small backpack stored there, then went to a chest of drawers. She started at the top, chose things she wanted and shoved them in the pack.

  She didn’t say anything else to Rachael while she was doing it.

  And Rachael seemed to have run out of things to say too. She just watched Charlie packing.

  When the bag was full, Charlie did up the straps then turned back to her sister.

  “Come with me,” she said. “Please. Leave Sean, get clean and start again.”

  Rachael shook her head. “I can’t. Sean looks after me.”

  Charlie gave a snort and shrugged into the backpack.

  She turned back and grabbed a dark green jacket out of the wardrobe. Then pulled her phone out of the pocket of Josh’s jeans and held it up.

  “Ring me if you change your mind.”

  Rachael nodded. “You’ll answer?”

  “I’ll answer. But don’t ring if nothing has changed.”

  Then she hugged her sister goodbye.

  Matt went back to the car with Charlie.

  Charlotte apparently.

  “Is Rachael an addict?” he asked as they drove off.

  Charlie nodded. “Sean got her hooked. I tried to get her to leave him. But she wouldn’t. So, I had to.”

  “Good move.” He was pleased he’d found someone else to look after Charlie. It didn’t look like her sister could.

  He drove on to the airport. He had a few questions for Charlie. Going to the house and meeting Rachael had been an eye-opener. The trashed bedroom answered a few of the questions about what had happened to make Charlie choose to live on the streets. But not all of them

  They had an hour to wait at the airport, so he had an hour to get the full story.

  “You go get changed and I’ll get us something to eat,” he said when they got there.

  “Okay.” Charlie took off to the airport toilets, and he found a café that looked like it served decent food.

  Charlie arrived at the table at about the same time as the food.

  In her own clothes, she looked more like she had when he first saw her three weeks ago.

  She handed over the jeans and sweatshirt she’d been wearing all day.

  “These are yours.”

  “Thanks.” He put them on the floor beside his boots. Then pushed the milkshake and one of the muffins over to Charlie.

  “Do you want something different?”

  She shook her head and sat opposite him.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened to make you leave home?”

  Charlie pulled the muffin apart. “I told you. Sean moved in. I moved out.”

  “There’s got to be more than that. Who owns the house?”

  Charlie ate a crumb of muffin and then shrugged.

  “It’s half mine. Mum and Dad left it to Rachael and me.”

  “Did your parents leave you money too?” It wasn’t cheap to keep a house. Maybe Charlie had money, and he could help her get access to it. Then maybe she could go back to school and wouldn’t have to work after all.

  Charlie sighed. “They did, but it’s all gone. That tends to happen when an addict is looking after the money. And Sean helped her spend it.”

  “How does she pay the bills now?”

  Charlie gave him a, don’t be obtuse look.

  Okay, that answered his question. Rachael might be a junkie, but the way she looked, she wouldn’t be short of customers. And he guessed this Sean was her pimp as well as her supplier.

  “Sean who?” he asked. Because he might just look into what else Sean was into. Apart from stealing from orphans, then terrorising them. Then pimping out the older sister.

  Charlie looked at him, puzzled. “Sean Reilly. Why?”

  “Just interested. And it was Sean who trashed your bedroom?”

  Charlie nodded. “A few months after Mum and Dad died, I went back to school. I was at a boarding school. And things seemed all right. We missed Mum and Dad, but we were coping. Rachael went to work. I went to school.” Charlie had some more of the muffin.

  “But things changed?” he prompted

  Charlie nodded again and had some of the milkshake.

  “Rachael met Sean. When I came home one of the holidays, Sean had moved in. It didn’t seem too bad. I didn’t like him, but Rachael did. Then the next term, Sean came and got me from school and said Rachael couldn’t afford the fees anymore.”

  “The money had gone?”

  Charlie nodded. “So, Sean said. I moved home, and things were terrible. Rachael spent all the time stoned. And Sean would bring men home.”

  Charlie looked up from the milkshake. “You can guess the rest.”

  Yeah, he could guess the rest.

  “Jesus. So, you left.”

  “Yep. And I’m not going back.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said.

  Matt watched Charlie’s plane until it was out of sight. Then took his phone out and called Draper.

  “We need to talk,” he said.

  “You want to meet up somewhere?”

  “Yeah, same place as yesterday. I can be there in about twenty minutes.”

  “Okay,” said Draper. “See you soon.”

  Matt finished the call, went out of the airport and back to his car.

  When he got to the Irish Pub, Draper was there and already settled in.

  Matt wandered over to him, sat down at the table and gave Draper the copies of Charlie’s sketches.

  “These are the kids who were living in the parking building. Drawings of what they looked like and everything I could find out about them.”

  “Thanks.” Draper leafed through the pile, studying each picture and reading the information. “These are good. I recognise the faces, and there’s enough information to sort out who they are if they’ve been reported missing.”

  When Draper had been through all the pages, he stacked them together and then asked, “Have you decided what you want to do?”

  Matt nodded. “I’ll stick with it. I’ll get Barnes to give me a job. I’ll work with him and figure out everything he’s into. Give me a couple of months, and I’ll hand him to you on a platter.”

  “Good,” said Draper. “That’s what we need. Anything else?”

  “Have you heard of a Sean Reilly?”

  Draper shook his head. “Is he working with Barnes?”

  “Don’t know yet.” But it was possible. If he was going to do undercover work, he’d include Sean in the investigation. And he’d see if he could get Charlie’s inheritance back. “Can you find out if he’s on our radar?”

  “Yeah. I can do that. Anything else you need?”

  Matt thought about it for a moment. Not really, and the less he had to do with Draper, the less chance of Barnes getting suspicious.

  “No.” He stood up and pushed his chair in. “And it might be a while before I make contact again. I need to play the part.”

  “Fair enough,” said Draper. “Get in touch if you need help.”

  Matt nodded. Now, to talk himself into a job.

  He headed off to find Barnes at the Amnesia Club.

  The End

  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Street Smart. If you did, please consider leaving a review. It would help so much.

  And to find out what happens next.

  Read: The Ride by Ben Onslow

  Amazon buy Link: https://geni.us/QYCnq

  Or try the first chapter before you buy.

  The Ride

  Chapter 1

  CHECK THE REVS.

  Balance.

 
; Ride down the bank to the creek. Go between the flags.

  I gently squeeze the throttle.

  Take my weight back a bit. Dozens of other riders are on the course too. The noise from their bikes rebounds off the willows and echoes around the paddock. Have to do better on this section than the last lap. Dabbed twice and got a two.

  The world contracts. It’s just the water, the bike, and the line I’ve planned.

  Follow the smooth water. Keep the revs up. Go forward. Turn slightly. Feel the front wheel slip. Don’t hop.

  Correct, regain momentum, carry on forward, stay flexible, open stance, knees bent, smooth with the throttle, no abrupt movements or acceleration, and focus on the line. Most of my weight on the rear, front wheel light.

  And a bit of willow hits my face. I feel the wheel slide to the side again. I take the risk, hop.

  And have to dab.

  Fuck, a point.

  I concentrate. This is an observed trial, final round of the North Island champs. Yesterday I didn’t do any better than I’m doing today.

  I get the balance right again.

  Forward.

  Adjust body position.

  Lean back, get traction. Climb the rock, drop down, climb again, slide in. Forward again, follow the line. Get to the end flags. Ride between them.

  Finished.

  I climb the bank and go back to the start where Eli and Sam are waiting on their bikes. Sam’s already done her run.

  “Good ride, Josh.” Eli’s ready to go, he does up his chinstrap, and checks his throttle is working.

  “The branches got me,” I tell him.

  “Yeah, I saw.” He trundles off and starts his ride.

  I unzip my top and pull the scorecard out. The dog clip on the lanyard catches. The hole in the top of the scorecard rips.

  That’s the way my day is going.

  The observer comes over, so I hand her my card and she clips the one.

  The observer moves back to her spot, and I watch Eli drop down into the creek smooth as.

  Sam looks over at me, her helmet off. The labrador hair tumbles around her shoulders, eyes dark gold like her hair.

  “You’re not doing that badly, Josh,” she says.