by Peter Corris
Guthrie looked like a man out of his depth, or like someone called on to do something foreign to his nature. It sounded as if he’d lost his temper pretty quickly: I tried to imagine a confrontation between the neat, compact little man and the moustachioed individual I’d seen the night before. It seemed like a bad mix of characters and styles.
‘Did he see Jess when he was up at Newport?’ I asked.
‘Don’t know. If he did, he didn’t say. Is it too soon to ask you what you’ve been doing?’
I gave him a quick report and showed him the photos. He put on a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles to allow him to study the picture of the dark man more closely. He shook his head and handed it back.
‘Don’t know him. Never seen him. Was Ray drunk?’
‘No, they only had a couple of drinks.’
He looked at the group picture again. ‘Something between him and the woman?’
‘Yes.’
‘God help him. I wish you could have followed them.’
‘I tried.’
‘It’s the police angle that worries me as much as anything.’
I nodded. ‘Someone raised the possibility of ex-cops.’
‘God, is there anything worse?’
‘Not much.’ I felt disloyal to Parker and others by saying it, but there was a lot of truth in it. This thing was going to get worse before it got better; and I couldn’t see any point in softening it up for him. ‘Did you tell your wife about hiring me?’
‘Yes. She seemed to think it was a good idea.’
‘You didn’t tell Ray?’
‘No, but… I think that’s one of the things he was ranting about. Something about being followed. That must be about you and the other night. He might’ve accused Pat of putting someone on to him. It’s all pretty confused in my head now.’
‘I’ll have to see her.’
He unhooked the spectacles and looked at them as if he hated the evidence of his ageing. Then he shoved them into the shallow pocket of his shirt, where they dangled precariously.
‘I’ll talk to her. Hang on.’
We’d had this exchange standing up in the middle of the room. One wall was taken up with framed photographs and another by a bookcase which held a clutter of books and magazines-mostly about boats. I wandered over to look at the photographs. The oldest one showed Guthrie with a boyish physique at the oar in a scull along with his partner who looked almost identical. They had the toothy grins of young title-winners. There was a picture of Guthrie in the Olympic team wearing the dowdy uniform of those days. Then the subjects became familial and property-oriented: Guthrie, possessive and smiling, standing beside a small and pretty dark woman; two adolescent boys crewing a yacht with their step-father; Ray Guthrie sitting at the wheel of a Mini moke.
I browsed in the bookshelf, but I’d rather look at water and swim in it than float on it or read about it, and I wasn’t very interested until I came to Technique of Double Sculling by Paul Guthrie. It was published in 1975, not much more than a pamphlet, and it was dedicated to Ray and Chris. Paul Guthrie had taken on the role of father early and seriously.
Guthrie came back and escorted me down a passageway to a room near the front of the house. The passage turned twice; it was quite a long walk.
‘She’s in here’, he said. ‘D’you want me to stay or what?’
‘How do you feel about it?’
‘Might be better if you have a talk on your own. He’s her son.’ There was a lot of hurt in the last phrase and it struck me how much store Guthrie put by this family he had constructed. The threat to it was more than just a threat to something comfortable and familiar, it was a threat to his future. No way to be helpful there. I nodded.
‘I’ll be around if you need me’, he said.
I knocked on the door and pushed it open. The bedroom was full of late afternoon light through a big bay window with a deep seat built into it. There was a double bed in one corner of the room, a cedar chest and big wardrobe with mirrors. It was neat but not too neat; there were clothes on the bed and shoes on the floor.
If Pat Guthrie had been pretty ten years ago, she was something more than that now. She had an elegant narrow head with fine, delicate features. The grey blended with fair streaks in her mid-brown hair to look interesting. She had a wide mouth that looked capable of expressing all the emotions. There wasn’t much emotion showing now, though; she was sitting in a chair by the bay window, but her gaze was on the floor, not the spectacular view.
‘Mrs Guthrie’, I said softly. ‘I’m Cliff Hardy, your husband…’
‘Come in, Mr Hardy. I’m sorry we have to do this in here. I just can’t face the rest of the house for a while.’
‘That’s all right.’ I walked into the room and she shifted the chair so I could sit in the window recess. She was wearing a white dress with a square neck that showed the intricate bones of her neck and shoulders-birdlike, but not scrawny. She was deeply tanned, and had dark eyes and eyebrows as some Celts do. I’d have bet on a Scots or Irish maiden name. There were tear marks in her light make-up and a damp spot on her dress. She was handsome; she had a fine house, a good husband and two sons. She was also deeply miserable.
‘I know a bit about the background to the troubles with Ray’, I said. ‘Can you tell me what was disturbing him so much today?’
‘Didn’t Paul tell you?’
‘He told me about a dispute over Ray’s possessions on the boat. But there’s more to it than that. You tell me.’
‘How do you know there’s more?’
‘From looking at you. From the way you were looking at the floor. From the way you’re looking at me now.’
Her mouth moved into what could have been a smile if there’d been any warmth in it. ‘That’s absurd. You must be a charlatan to say things like that.’
‘Uh huh. I’d bet what’s on your mind goes back way beyond today, way beyond three months ago when Ray took off. It goes a long way back.’
She’d lifted her head politely when the conversation began; although she was deeply troubled there was no weakness in the face-her firm jaw and high cheekbones were striking and strong. But she was sceptical- Scots, I thought, I’d have bet on Scots.
‘How could you possibly know that?’
‘It isn’t so hard. I’ve seen a lot of people in distress. But really, it’s just transference: if I’d been sitting and looking the way you were I know I wouldn’t have been thinking about today or yesterday.’
‘You’re right, of course. But I don’t think I can talk about it to you.’
‘I think you have to, Mrs Guthrie. I don’t have any degrees or certificates, but I know about this kind of trouble. I like your husband. I want to help.’ I was carrying my photograph collection with me in an envelope-they were starting to get a little battered. I took out the one of the group in the Noble Briton and the one of the dark stranger with the bald head and the cop’s walk and passed them across to her.
‘Here’s your son, just the other night, with two of the most unpleasant people in Sydney.’ I pointed to Catchpole and Williams. ‘And with someone else who doesn’t look all that nice.’ I moved my finger across the surface of the photo. ‘Do you know him, Mrs Guthrie?’
She glanced, looked away quickly. ‘I’ve seen the woman.’
‘When?
‘Today. She was in the car with Ray. I don’t know the man.’
I took out the old, creased photo of the Digger lighting his fag and held it for her to see. I didn’t let go of it.
‘You know him, don’t you?’
‘Yes’, she said softly. ‘I know him. He’s the boys’ father.’
9
You’d better tell me about it.’
She got up from her chair, crossed the room and closed the door firmly. Barefoot, she would have stood about five foot four, putting her on approximately the same eye level as her husband. She moved stiffly and bent slowly to pick up the other two pictures which she’d dropped when I’d shown
her the old photograph. She handed them back to me and sat down.
‘It terrifies me to see Ray with people like that’, she said. ‘His father never drew an honest breath. Of course, that’s what all this’s about-Ray and Chris’s father. You knew that?’
I nodded and took out a notebook to encourage her to keep talking. People sometimes make an effort when they see someone is taking the trouble to record what they say.
‘What’s the father’s name?’
‘He had a number of names. I knew him as Peter Keegan.’
‘How old would he be now?’
‘About fifty-five.’
‘Your husband had the impression that he was dead.’
‘Yes. I encouraged that impression.’
‘He was in the army?’
‘Yes, God knows why, probably to sell things to the other side. I think he was Keegan then. Yes, he was. I saw some papers once. What a mess.’
The mess came out piece by piece: she was born in Brisbane where she’d qualified as a physical education teacher specialising in gymnastics. Six months of the Queensland education system of the 1960s was enough for her. She broke her bond with the Education Department and came to Sydney. She couldn’t work in the school system, so she gave private gym lessons, did physiotherapy, coached swimming. She thought of herself as a bit of a rebel, almost an outlaw for having broken the bond.
‘I wasn’t really a rebel; I’d had a very conventional upbringing. But breaking the bond felt like a criminal act. Money was sacred.’
‘What was your maiden name?’
‘Ramsay, why?’
‘Never mind. Go on.’
‘It wasn’t really so serious, breaking the bond. All they did was harass your guarantor and mine was my father, who died in the year I left Brisbane. Still, I played the runaway. Peter encouraged it.’
‘How did you meet him?’
‘At a gym; he was hurt, quite badly. He said it was a football injury but, looking back, I suppose he did it in some brawl or other.’
‘What did he do for a living?’
She explained that he had presented himself as a businessman. He talked about interests in flats, hotels, other things.
‘I believed it all. He had plenty of money and charm. I was flattered. It sounds absurd now, but I was a virgin…’
She suddenly looked directly at me, as if she was seeing me for the first time. ‘God, how can I be babbling like this, I don’t even know you.’
‘You don’t have to know me’, I said. ‘It’s probably better that you don’t. You need to talk to someone, that’s obvious. And I’m here. I’m also very pro-Guthrie as it happens. Go on.’
She smiled for the first time-a good, generous smile that let something go.
‘I got pregnant and I got married. People still did in those days.’
She was right, they did. I remembered how narrowly I’d missed the fate myself.
‘What about your family?’
‘Just a mother and a sister in Brisbane. We’d lost touch. I was in love; I didn’t give them a thought. Well, Peter was good during the pregnancy, and he doted on the baby. He said that having Ray was the most wonderful thing that’d ever happened to him. I believed him-for a while.’
‘Then?’
‘Then things I’d hardly noticed before started to bother me: where he went, who he was with, where the money came from. I started to look at him more clearly. He was a real mixture-of softness and hardness, openness and secrecy. Mixture, that’s what I thought then. Schizophrenic is what I think now.’
‘Why d’you say that?’
‘He really did know a lot about economics and money. He’d studied it and he kept reading about it-theories and practice. He did have a company too, at least one. I forget the names. But there was a wild side to him as well: he fought in pubs, crashed cars…’
She paused and looked past me and out the window. I swung around on the chair to look too. The light was dying in the sky. I stood up to stretch and watched the water change colour right then-it went from a pale blue to a gunmetal colour, streaked with red. She tugged at the curtain but didn’t close it. I sat down on the bench again, doodled for an instant and looked at her, ready to go.
‘He went with prostitutes. We had a fight about that. A big fight. I couldn’t understand it; I still don’t. He promised to give it up and he did for a while. We got back on good terms again.’ Her smile this time was rueful. ‘Chris was the result of that.’
There was a soft knock, and Paul Guthrie put his head around the door.
‘Is everything all right in here?’
She gave him one of the generous smiles; Guthrie seemed to soak it up. I wouldn’t have minded one myself. He smiled back.
‘Just give us a few minutes more, love’, she said.
‘Right.’ He nodded at me and withdrew.
‘I’d better be quick. Peter didn’t keep his word. He played around all over the place. I’ve never understood why he got married in the first place, except that he was obsessive about children.’ She shook her head as if to throw a thought away. ‘He actually wanted a daughter! When all this shit was going on-it was unbelievable! I left him and took the boys. I went to Brisbane for a while, but the only place I wanted to live was Sydney, so I came back. I never saw Peter again. That sounds bad I know, but I haven’t given you all the details. None of his businesses were legal; he had a conviction for assault and one for carnal knowledge. I felt I didn’t know him. He’d told me thousands of lies. I didn’t want the boys to have anything to do with him. He went overseas when he said he was just interstate. I thought he might take them away. I couldn’t trust him at all. I didn’t ask for anything; I just took the boys and hid. Do you understand?’
‘I think so.’
I was thinking how, after a relationship ends, you come to feel that you never really knew the person at all. It must be a shock to get that feeling while the relationship’s still a going concern. I’d been so interested in the story I’d forgotten to take notes. I scribbled down a few points, added a few question marks.
‘How did you find out all about his criminal life?’
‘I hired a private detective. I used Peter’s money to spy on him. I got tougher as I went along, I can tell you.’
‘Who was the detective?’
‘I’ll never forget him. He was loathsome. His office was at 32 Mahoney Place in Surry Hills. These days I drive blocks out of my way to avoid that part of the world. His name was Phillips.’ She seemed to dislike even saying the name. ‘He knew his job, though. He wrote me a detailed report on Peter.’
‘Have you still got it?’
‘Somewhere. I don’t know…’
‘You say you never saw Keegan again.’
‘No, I didn’t see him, but he made contact with me. Very formal and correct. He sent me money for the boys. He didn’t press to see them and I wouldn’t have let him.’
‘When was the last you heard of him?’
‘About five years ago.’
She had the answer ready for the next question before I’d even formulated it.
‘Yes, he kept sending money after I was married to Paul. Paul’s businesses didn’t really start to do well until five or six years ago. He’s a very good businessman, but he’s very cautious. He built them up slowly. The money from Peter was useful.’
‘Paul didn’t know about it?’
‘No.’
I chewed on that for a minute, thinking what a savage animal pride could be. She knew what I was thinking. I forced a smile.
‘Well, we’ll worry about that when we have to. What did Ray have to say about his father? That’s what’s on his mind, isn’t it?’
She drew a deep breath and straightened her shoulders; the tanned skin was drawn tight over the frame of her bones and in the half-light the hollows below and to both sides of her neck looked like smears and daubs of dark war-paint.
‘Ray was always more interested in his real father than Chris.
That’s funny, because Chris is the reflective, scholarly one. I remember I once said something to Chris about it; like, did he mind not knowing his real father. He said, “Mum, that’s the least of my worries.” It was true, too. Ray would ask about him sometimes; I’d try to fob him off. I don’t suppose I did it very well. I just wanted to forget, blot it all out. But you can’t blot things out for other people, can you?’
I shook my head.
‘Chris thought of Paul as his father, Ray didn’t. It comes down to that. Perhaps it was just the extra year or so that made the difference. A few more meetings, games… I don’t know.’
‘You didn’t talk about this with Paul?’
‘No, never.’
‘So, what happened three months ago? What happened today?’
‘Much the same thing really. Ray accusing me of concealing things about his father from him. Of preventing him from meeting him. Calling me a liar. It’s true, I am. I did conceal things, I’d hate them to meet. I’m sure it would wreck everything. But I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t know where Peter was. I don’t, and I haven’t had any contact with him for years. Ray seems determined to find him. He’s going to Brisbane to get help from Chris.’
‘I can’t quite see why you didn’t talk any of this over with Paul.’
‘I wish I had now. But I couldn’t. I had a very bad time after leaving Peter. Some bad experiences. I couldn’t believe that anyone so wonderful as Paul could exist, let alone want me and the boys. I didn’t want there to be any problems. None.’
‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying?’
‘Yes, Mr Hardy. There was no divorce. As far as I know, I’m still married to Peter Keegan.’
I had to think up a story for Paul Guthrie, fast. A version of the truth is what I came out with-Ray’s troubles were still unclear to us but he had talked about his brother.
‘He told your wife he was going to Brisbane to see Chris’, I told him after Pat Guthrie had made some reassuring noises and told her husband that she had a lot of confidence in Mr Hardy, and that she was going to have a sleep.
‘Why, for Christ sake?’ We were in the kitchen and Guthrie was making tea. I hoped to avoid that.