Cyanide Games: A Peter Tanner Thriller
Page 40
‘You can’t do that, Lisa,’ he said when she’d almost stopped crying.
‘I can do what I want.’
‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘The deal I made is not one that can be broken.’
She sneered at him. ‘What? They’re going to kill us, Pete?’
He shook his head. ‘They came to my home, Lisa. You know them. This is not a deal that you break. Not with these people.’
They sat in silence.
‘I helped you,’ she finally said. There was more grief in her tone than anger. ‘With Anne. Finding Gaby. All of that was to stop them. That was our deal.’
He wanted to take her hand, but dared not try. ‘I’m a criminal lawyer, Lisa. My job was to save Joe, not a river. I’m sorry about how that sounds.’
‘What about your duty to my client?’
‘Did you expect me to leave him in prison?’
‘There may have been a way to –’
‘There was no other way,’ he said. ‘This was the way. Did you want me to leave him there? These are not people you make unhappy.’
‘I wanted you to tell me the truth,’ she said. He voice was louder again. ‘You didn’t trust me with that.’ She closed her eyes and shook her head, then threw the strap of her satchel over her shoulder and stood.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
She pushed her chair behind her to leave.
‘Look in the playground before you go,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Look in the playground, Lisa.’
She stared at him, then left.
• • •
Lisa walked out of the café by the door that faced the street. When she got to her car, she took out her keys and unlocked it, put her hand on the door handle, and then stopped. She turned her head, and looked back towards the park. A child’s playground was in front of her.
In the corner of the playground a man was pushing a small, black-haired child on a swing. He was looking in her direction.
She’d never seen him before, but she knew who he was.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, thanks to Tara Wynne, my agent at Curtis Brown Australia, who worked with me on a very long first draft.
My colleague David Staehli SC read a slightly shorter draft. Any mistakes in this book concerning criminal procedure, the architecture of the criminal mind, or the admissibility of evidence are his.
Sincere thanks to the team at Simon & Schuster Australia, especially Larissa Edwards, Roberta Ivers, and to my editor Kylie Mason – this novel benefited greatly from her judgement and the attention she gave it.
Finally, thanks to my wife Trish for her limitless support and encouragement with another book.
Richard Beasley
2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Beasley grew up in Adelaide, before moving to Sydney where he has worked as a barrister since 1997.
He is the author of three previous novels: Hell Has Harbour Views (which was adapted for ABC Television in 2005), The Ambulance Chaser, and Me and Rory Macbeath.
Also by Richard Beasley
Me and Rory Macbeath
The Ambulance Chaser
Hell Has Harbour Views
CYANIDE GAMES: A PETER TANNER THRILLER
First published in Australia in 2016 by
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© Richard Beasley 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator:
Beasley, Richard, 1964-, author.
Title:
Cyanide games: a Peter Tanner novel/Richard Beasley.
ISBN:
9781925368130 (paperback)
9781925368147 (ebook)
Subjects: Crime – Australia – Fiction.
Corporations – Corrupt practices – Australia – Fiction.
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover design: Alissa Dinallo
Cover image: David & Les Jacobs/Getty Images
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia