by Derek Haines
Steve decided to head towards Katoomba. His reasoning was simple. It was the train closest to the rest room he had just left, and it was ready to leave. Once on the train, he looked at the stations on the route and concluded Springwood would be the best place to stay for a few days. Then he needed to get out of Sydney. Just opposite Springwood Station, Steve noticed a men’s hairdressing salon. Sitting in the chair, cloaked in black, he watched himself impassively in the mirror, as his hair was shaven to what is called a number one.
‘I’ll save heaps on shampoo now,’ he joked with the barber.
After his haircut, Steve walked up to the Great Western Highway and booked into a motel under the name of Sam Pierce for two nights. As he only had a little over twenty dollars in cash, he could see he would have to withdraw cash from his bank account. That would have to be tomorrow. He was totally exhausted from his events of the day. He turned on the television. The six o’clock news proved to be very informative for Steven. The headline story was about two suspected crime bosses who’d escaped from a prison van. It confirmed that the driver had been shot dead. Steve rated only a small mention towards the end of the article.
‘A man on unrelated drug charges also escaped from the van.’
Later in the bulletin there was a short story about the death of a man yesterday. Steve was stunned at the mention of the name Ted Murphy.
‘…… a shot gun was found next to Mr Murphy’s body. It appears as though Mr Murphy took his own life, but police are still investigating the incident. It is believed Mr Murphy was questioned by police the afternoon prior to his death.’
Steve sat stunned. He wanted to contact David or Tony to find out what was going on, but he knew that’d be stupid. The police would surely be awake to any of his friends and acquaintances. He would have to keep as low a profile as he could for a while yet.
Steve left his motel without paying, but without incident the next morning. He walked to the railway station and caught a train to the city. From there he caught another train to Campbelltown, a far Southwestern suburb close to Camden. He walked the short distance from the railway station to his bank, and made an over the counter withdrawal of two thousand dollars. From the bank he went straight back to the railway station and caught a train for the city, and then Chatswood, an office and shopping district just north of Sydney. There he bought new clothes, underwear and a pair of shoes. Then back to the railway station for a city bound train. As the train headed towards the harbour bridge, Steve had an idea. ‘David’s computer,’ he thought.
Not far from Central Station, Steve found an Internet café. He paid his five dollars and quickly drafted an email to David.
‘David,
I’m ok. I had a bit of luck on the way to Silverwater. I heard about Ted Murphy on the TV. What the hell is going on? I got pinched for a little cocaine, and now it seems like all hell has broken loose. Vince sent his lawyer in to help me. I bet he’s pissed off!
Can you meet me? We need to talk?
I’ll be at the Tourist Information Centre at Echo Point in Katoomba tomorrow at noon.
Please meet me there. Don’t forget to delete this once you have read it.
Steve.
ps. I’m loosing my hair with all this excitement.’
Steve hoped he had remembered David’s email address correctly. He double checked the address again. ‘[email protected]’ After checking one more time he hit the send button. Steve knew David was habitual in checking his email every evening, so he was sure to get the message. Waiting for five minutes, the message didn’t get returned so he must’ve remembered the address correctly. Now all he had to do was hope David showed up.
David was at work when Steve sent his email. It was a slow day. He’d tried to call Vince to see what he should be doing. His job had ground to a halt. With As New Spares closed, and its manager dead, David wondered what was in store for him. Vince’s secretary wasn’t her usual helpful self. She just told David that she would tell Vince that he’d called. She didn’t know when he would be available. The afternoon was grinding away slowly. David played solitaire on his PC, and he said nothing as he watched his three staff filling in time. One was reading and the other two playing cards. He could feel the guillotine coming down on his new career. Tony was due in tomorrow morning. David didn’t know what the future held, but at least Tony had become a trusted friend. He wouldn’t feel so alone and isolated with Tony back in Sydney.
One of his assistants walked into his office, and sat opposite David’s desk.
‘Do you have any idea what’s going on Dave?’
‘None at all Colin. I’ve tried to call Vince, but I haven’t heard back from him.’
‘It’s bloody bad news about Ted huh?’ Colin asked David.
‘Yes, awful.’
‘What do you want us to do? There’s no work.’
‘I know Col. All we can do is just wait and see. Find a good book. Until I can speak to Vince we’re all in limbo. The only news I’ve had was a memo cancelling my trip to India next week.’
‘Well, looks like a visit to the library tonight,’ Colin smiled.
‘Yes. Good idea. Look it’s nearly four. You guys may as well have an early finish. Hopefully I’ll hear from Vince this afternoon, or in the morning. We should know something then.’
‘Ok, see you in the morning Dave.’
David waited in his office until five thirty. No word from Vince. He left and headed home. On the way he picked up some Chinese take away for dinner, and a six pack of beer and made it home in time for the seven o’clock news. There was no news about Steve or Ted Murphy. The only item of note that caught David’s attention was the news that the two crime bosses that had escaped with Steve hadn’t been found despite an extensive man hunt. David ate his food as he watched the news. When he’d finished his dinner, he left the TV on to make some noise as he cleaned up. Having finished his first beer, he took another from the fridge and then turned on his computer. He logged on and walked away and continued tidying up the flat. He wondered if he was developing a wife mentality in wanting to have the flat clean for Tony’s arrival tomorrow morning. His computer made a ding dong sound to alert him to the arrival of email. After wiping down the kitchen sink, he dried his hands and headed to his PC. He opened the email file. Reading Steve’s email, David stood open mouthed. His eye caught the sight of his hand shaking near the computer mouse.
‘Oh fucking hell!’ he murmured to himself.
David deleted the file. Then wondered if he should’ve kept Steve’s email address. Too late now. He read the rest of his email, just in case there was another from Steve. There wasn’t. Only junk mail, and one from his sister. He shutdown his computer, and sat on the sofa wondering what the hell he should do. The single thought that David had, was that if he complied with Steve’s request, he’d be involving himself in a crime. Meeting an escaped prisoner was very dangerous and risky. It could lead to David himself being arrested. And if he did meet Steve, what was he going to ask David to do? Then on the other hand, Steve was a friend and had been very helpful in helping David back on his feet. Or had he? Had Steve only been helping himself?
‘What a fucking mess,’ David said aloud to no one. ‘What’ve I got myself involved in?’
He jumped in surprise when the telephone rang. He hoped it was Tony.
‘Hello,’ David said as he answered the call.
‘It’s Vince, David. You were trying to get hold of me. Sorry to ring so late, but it’s been a busy day,’ Vince said politely.
‘Yes, it’s been an eventful couple of days.’
‘You know about Ted and Steve then I presume,’ Vince asked.
‘Yes, I saw the reports on last night’s news,’ David said wanting to admit to knowing as little as possible. ‘I just can’t believe it.’
‘Nor can I David. Has Steve tried to contact you at all?’ Vince asked.
Alarm bells were ringing in David’s head as he answered Vince’s question.
<
br /> ‘No Vince.’
‘Well, I think he’d be wise to run as far as he can. He’s in very deep shit,’ Vince said in a tone that chilled David to his core. ‘Now you rang me David, what can I do for you?’
‘Well it was just simply to know what to do as far as work was concerned Vince. With the India and Thailand trips cancelled, and the Ted and Steve situation, things’ve ground to a halt in my section. I have three assistants with little to do,’ David explained as coolly as he could.
‘It’ll take a few days for things to settle down David. As New Spares will be affected badly of course, but there’s still work to be done with the accessory imports. Let’s just ride out the next few days and look at it then,’ Vince said in a reassuring tone.
‘Ok Vince, will do.’
‘Why don’t you have a talk to my service manager in the morning? He’s got a stock take to complete over the next week, so he might be able to use your three guys there,’ Vince suggested.
‘Yes, I will Vince,’ David said just before Vince hung up. David’s hands were shaking, and he could feel the beads of perspiration on his forehead.
David didn’t know what to do. He thought of ringing Tony on his mobile phone, but decided to wait until Tony arrived. Tony didn’t need all this when he was driving all night. A shower was a better idea. He stood under the water and tried to relax himself. The knot in his neck and upper back subsided somewhat under the warmth of the water but there was no simple answer to his dilemmas. Should he just run from Sydney? It seemed a simple answer. But where too?
‘I wish I still had the beach house to escape to,’ he thought to himself. With that thought, the pain and frustration of the past six months started to fill his mind. ‘What would I be doing now if my wife hadn’t have left?’ he thought. ‘Spending a quiet Wednesday evening. Reading a book. My wife next to me knitting, or doing needlework. Thinking about a small deal of irrigation pipes. Talking about who may be coming up to the house for the weekend. Idle chat about family. Coffee and home made biscuits. A normal quiet Wednesday evening with the sound of the surf breaking in the darkness.’
‘Why did you leave?’ David almost cried aloud.
‘You selfish motherless fucking whore!’ David shouted through the water.
‘You fucked my life you cow! You fucking slut!’ he shouted again. David started to sob, and slid down the wall of the shower and cowered in the corner of the frosted glass shower screen. He sat on his heels with his arms around his shins; his chin resting on his knees.
‘It’s not fair,’ he mumbled. ‘It’s not fucking fair.’
David started to shiver. The shower was now running cold so he moved from his almost foetal position in the corner of the shower. Getting out of the shower and grabbing a towel, he started to dry himself. When he’d finished he hung his towel and caught a sight of himself in the mirror.
‘You pathetic little man,’ he sneered and spat at his own reflection.
David dressed himself in a track suit and returned to the living room where the television was still on. He tried to lose himself in a program about Stalin and Hitler, but his mind wouldn’t leave the present. ‘Should I meet Steve? Do I have a job? Will Tony be here in the morning? Should I just pack up and get out of Sydney? Will I end up like Ted Murphy? Will the police knock at my door? What will I say?’ The questions ran in rampant procession through David’s mind. None had an instant logical answer. He lit a cigarette and tried to concentrate on getting his hands to stop shaking. They wouldn’t. He had another beer. He wished he had a bottle of scotch.
Near midnight he tried to go to bed. Sleep wouldn’t come. He tossed and turned. After an hour he got out of bed and had a cigarette. He was tired, very tired, but sleep was far away. He tried again after an hour. He could only toss and turn until he gave up. Turning the television on, he found an old John Wayne movie. It helped a little in numbing his mind. After a half hour of watching the movie, David’s head started to nod as he began to dose. The sound of gunshots from the television woke him for a moment, but he went back to his dose easily. The sound of the flat door opening startled him in his dream like state. He almost fell off the sofa.
‘I saw rabbits that had a look like that in my headlights on the Nullarbor,’ Tony said as the sight of a startled David trying to wake up amused him. ‘Had a busy few days I hear.’
‘Oh shit Tony,’ David said trying to get his brain into focus. ‘Are you a sight for sore eyes.’
‘I’ll make a coffee while you wake up. You can tell me all about it then.’
David looked at his watch as Tony dropped his small carry bag into his room. It was four am. As Tony started to make coffee, David freshened himself up splashing a few handfuls of cold water over his face in the bathroom.
‘So what the hell’s been going on?’ Tony asked as he put two cups of coffee down on the dining table.
‘Nothing up until three days ago, then all of a sudden the shit hit the fan. Everything’s gone totally fucking mad.’
‘Have you found out anything?’
‘Not really. But I have a bad feeling Steve might be at the centre of all this,’ David said, and filled Tony in on the sequence of events leading up to Ted Murphy’s death, and his deduction that Vince had started taking action regarding As New Spares as soon as Steve had been arrested.
‘Have you spoken to Vince?’ Tony asked, now very concerned at the state of events.
‘Yes, he rang me earlier this evening. He was cool as a cucumber. He just told me to wait for things to settle down, but seemed keen to know if I’d heard from Steve.’
‘I bet Vince’d like to find Steve. Sounds like Steve might’ve dropped Vince right in it.’
‘Yep, sounds like it.’
‘Our friend Steve’s got himself in very deep shit this time. He might consider himself lucky if the cops find him before Vince does.’
‘Tony, there’s one other thing,’
‘Yes?’
‘Steve sent me a note. An email. He wants me to meet him tomorrow at midday,’ David said, looking for guidance from Tony.
‘Oh Boy!’
‘He said he needed my help.’
‘Oh David, I’m sure Steve needs lots of help. You know what could happen if you did meet him? How much shit do you want to get into?’
‘He’s our friend Tony.’
‘Yes, he is. He’s also a fucking imbecile. He’s played with fire all his life. You know that. Dave you should start thinking about protecting your own skin. I’m not sure you or me are in the clear yet. Think about something for a minute,’ Tony paused.
‘What?’
‘I know, well knew Ted Murphy reasonably well. I just can’t understand him blowing his own brains out just because the cops ask him a few questions. It doesn’t make sense. Now, if I’m right, and let’s just assume for a minute that I am, then he was murdered. Now why would anyone do that?’
‘He may’ve been up to something. Something unrelated to As New Spares. Debts?’
‘No. It has to do with the business. You said the police took boxes of files from the office.’
‘Yes.’
‘So whatever the cops talked to Ted about, it had to be directly related to As New Spares,’ Tony concluded.
‘And maybe Steve?’
‘Well, Steve gets arrested late in the afternoon. I get told to hide my arse in Perth that very same afternoon by Ted. I found out the truck in Melbourne was despatched to Sydney at the same time I got my call from Ted. It picked up all the stock from As New Spares early the next morning and was told to hightail it to Adelaide. Ted gets the cops visiting that day. Ted is dead by that evening. Where does that lead us?’ Tony asked David.
‘Vince?’
‘Do you get a suspicion that our employer might have something to hide in As New Spares? Something Steve knows about. Or spilled the beans about to the cops?’
‘Drugs?’
‘Maybe. I don’t know. But I think we’re getting warm,’ Tony s
aid.
‘Steve would have all the answers.’
‘Yes, I’m sure he would know. He probably knows more than Vince.’
‘I could ask him tomorrow,’ David said sheepishly.
‘You could. Yes David you could. Probably while you share the back of a police wagon and a few years in prison you could have him tell you the whole bloody story.’ Tony said almost angrily.
‘Tony, it’d help to know what sort of shit we’re in. Should we be bolting from Sydney?’
‘Do you think we have reason for concern?’ Tony asked in return.
‘Did Ted?’
‘Ok. Where did Steve say he wanted to meet you?’
‘Echo Point at Katoomba. In the tourist centre at midday.’
‘I hate to be melodramatic, but have you considered the possibility that the cops, or even Vince are keeping an eye on you. Hoping for something as simple as this. You’d be an obvious choice for Steve to make contact with if he needed something,’ Tony said and waited for David’s tired brain to start working.
‘No I hadn’t. Surely not. This isn’t a yank cop show. For god sake, it’s sleepy fucking Camden.’
‘I don’t think I’d call Vince sleepy Dave. Even if I’m wrong, is it worth the risk to get thrown in fucking prison for aiding and abetting?’
‘No. No it’s not. Sorry Tony, I’m not thinking that well the last few days.’
‘Dave, does anyone know I was heading back early?’
‘I don’t think so. I haven’t told anyone.’
‘So no one would miss me if I went to have a look at the Three Sisters at Echo Point.’
‘Oh no Tony. After what you’ve just warned me about. Why the fuck would you do that?’
‘To deliver the mail,’ Tony smiled.
‘What the fuck’re you thinking of doing?’
‘Finding out what shit we’re in, and how deep. Get your computer fired up. I want you to write a letter.’
‘Ok, c’mon, fill me in on this whacko plan festering in your head. You’re supposed to be the sensible one here.’