Johnny’s crooked smile was only for her. ‘Then it’ll be a short discussion and a long drink.’ They looked at each other for a couple of beats. He was still smiling, and she moved her hand up to brush some hair away from her face. For Lola, she seemed almost flustered.
‘Why not?’ she replied. ‘Five o’clock then, in the Esplanade Lounge.’
I had reached them now and she turned towards me.
‘Nell, you didn’t tell me you knew Johnny,’ she said.
‘We’ve only just met.’ My voice was brusque, and I tried to soften it with a smile. I wasn’t sure why I was so annoyed that Johnny had arranged to have a drink with Lola; he was free to go out with anyone he wanted.
‘But it seems like I’ve known her forever,’ said Johnny.
My smile to him in response was cool.
‘Don’t be a naughty boy,’ said Lola coyly. ‘Nell’s spoken for, you know. She has a lawyer all lined up.’
Ted Petersen and Maurie Beyer wandered over and expressed their admiration of Johnny’s work. They begged him to come and meet the boys in the press room.
‘I’ll be back in a minute, Nell,’ he said as he was dragged off.
‘Gah,’ said Lola. It was a word she used to express various emotions: boredom, disgust, confusion or admiration. I assumed that in this case it was the last, because she had raised an eyebrow and was staring at Johnny as he walked off.
‘Now that’s an attractive man. He should come with a warning: Dangerously attractive male animal, approach at your peril.’ She turned to look at me speculatively. ‘You’re a dark horse, Nell.’
‘It’s not like that. He knows I’m not interested in him. And anyway, I’m not really his type at all. Johnny likes sophisticated women.’
Like you, I added mentally.
She seemed amused. ‘He may see you as a challenge. A lot of men find challenges irresistible. I bet the boys are cross-examining him about you now.’
‘Why would they do that? They all know me.’
Lola laughed. ‘No they don’t – that’s just the point, silly girl. They debate at length about all the girls, but especially you.’
‘Debate what?’
‘Whether you’re a girl who “does it”. You know.’
I didn’t know. I was utterly perplexed.
‘Oh, Nell! You can’t be that innocent.’
When I realised what she meant I felt sick. How dare they make me the subject of press room gossip! Then I felt angry.
I said, in a very calm voice, ‘You’ve been discussing my, er, status with the press room boys?’
Lola had the grace to blush. ‘No, of course not. As if I’d do that. I just know about it. Men play those silly games all the time.’
She seemed embarrassed, which was an emotion I had never seen her display before, and maybe that made her offer advice.
‘Nell, a word of warning: be careful with Johnny Horvath. He’s a heartbreaker. I’ve heard some stories about him. Don’t do anything to upset your chances with your lawyer – Johnny will be gone, back to the front or to America, and you’ll still be here. Don’t give away anything you can’t afford to lose.’
She leaned in towards me. ‘Remember how Margie Elsing fell in love with that American naval lieutenant last year? And how she kept flashing around the diamond ring he gave her?’
Margie worked at the Australian Broadcasting Commission. I’d known her since school, and she was one of Lola’s friends too. She’d been crazy about the tall, dark-haired naval officer who’d wooed and won her in a week. Two months later he’d sailed off in his battleship, leaving her with a diamond ring and lots of promises.
‘Well,’ went on Lola, lowering her voice, ‘it turns out that he’s already married. She got a letter from one of his shipmates, who was disgusted by the way he’d deceived Margie. He’s got a wife and three young children in America.’
My eyes went wide. ‘Oh no. How’s Margie?’
‘Utterly devastated, of course. She’s putting on a brave front, though. Says she already knew and it was only ever a bit of fun.’
‘Did she . . .’ I wasn’t sure how to politely ask if she’d slept with him.
Lola’s look was scathing. ‘Of course she did. Once he’d proposed and given her the diamond she fell straight into bed.’ Her lip curled up in a sneer. ‘Oldest trick in the book and she fell for it, hook, line and sinker.’
I felt my mouth fall open, and closed it quickly. I’d really liked Eddie Cochram, who was good-looking and a lot of fun. Lola seemed surprisingly upset about it all; actually, she seemed bitter. I wondered if she’d also had her heart broken by an American.
‘How can a girl really know what these Americans are like?’ she went on. ‘There’s no way of checking if they’re married or engaged or even criminals.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘I automatically assume the worst now, and never believe a word they tell me. I have a good time and wave them goodbye without a qualm. Anything else is a recipe for disaster.’
She glanced to her left. ‘Here’s your Johnny. Just be careful with him, Nell.’
Johnny was holding his mouth very tightly when he emerged from the press room to join us, and he was holding his right hand in a fist. But by the time he reached us, his face had relaxed. He said goodbye to Lola very warmly.
I was pensive as we took the tram the short distance across the railway line into Barrack Street, thinking about Americans and the press room boys and ‘girls who did it’ and John Horvath. I glanced over at him; when he saw me looking he gave me his crooked smile. ‘Dangerously attractive male animal’ indeed!
When we climbed down from the tram I pointed across the crowded street to the Chicago Café.
‘What about there?’ I said.
‘Just like home,’ he replied.
We ate hamburgers and Johnny tried not to laugh as I tried unsuccessfully to stop the grease from getting onto my face and hands. Hamburgers were a new phenomenon, and I’d never tried one before. I told Johnny about Bernie, who owned the informal outdoor eatery by the river that stayed open all night, and how he had been the first in Perth to make them, a year ago. It started when homesick sailors asked him to mince the steak, shape it into a patty, let them grill it themselves and simply provide a bun to put the cooked meat into. ‘Bernie’s’ became a runaway success, and ‘American’-style eateries and hamburger bars soon popped up all over the city, with names like the American Silver Grill, Hollywood Café, New York Diner, Philadelphia Grill and Chicago Café.
‘But they’re difficult to manage,’ I said, putting my hamburger down.
‘Here,’ said Johnny, leaning across the table with a serviette and dabbing at my cheek. I felt myself blushing.
‘Do I look a fright?’ I asked.
He examined my face critically, still holding the serviette and smiling faintly.
‘You look swell,’ he said. As he put the serviette down the grin reappeared. ‘But ditch the hairnet.’
‘Snood,’ I said primly, waiting for my heart to stop racing. It was when I looked at my plate and saw the remains of the hamburger that I realised. I gasped.
‘It’s Friday. We shouldn’t be eating meat. I can’t believe I forgot.’
‘I’m travelling,’ he said. ‘What’s your excuse?’
‘You are not travelling at the moment. You’re a bad influence, that’s what you are.’ I met his smile with my own. ‘Don’t tell Aunty.’
‘Deal.’
He asked me if I wanted a milkshake or a soda. I said I preferred tea. He ordered coffee for himself, and we lingered in the cafe.
‘You’re such a good Catholic girl, Nell,’ Johnny teased. ‘I feel positively wicked when I’m around you.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m not really. I go to Mass every week, but I’m not a good Catholic.’
‘Ditto,’ he said.
‘Johnny,’ I asked musingly, ‘would you ever marry a non-Catholic?’ It had been on my mind a lot lately.
‘If I loved
her, sure I would.’ He smiled down at his coffee. ‘But I’m pretty sure it’s not a problem I’m going to face.’
I wondered if he meant that he didn’t intend to marry or he’d already fallen in love with a Catholic girl. Maybe he had a girl in the US.
‘How did you meet him? This Rob Sinclair.’ Johnny’s voice was light, nonchalant.
I didn’t want to discuss Rob with Johnny Horvath.
‘At a garden party,’ I said, just as lightly. ‘We started talking and eventually he asked me out.’
I decided to shift the conversation, ask him about something that had been worrying me. ‘Tell me about Lena Mitrovic, Johnny. She said something to you when she was sentenced, didn’t she? And that was her mother you were talking to yesterday.’ I held his gaze, daring him to look away. ‘That’s so, isn’t it?’
He sighed, then nodded slowly. ‘The blonde woman is her mother. Lena and I knew each other in Melbourne. We were very close for a while.’ He looked down, staring intently at something on the table for a moment, before looking up, straight into my eyes. ‘We were lovers.’
Lena Mitrovic was the girl Johnny loved. I was shocked, which surprised me, because, deep down, I had already known it. Why else would he have come so far to try to help her? So why should I be upset to hear that Johnny loved Lena Mitrovic? I loved Rob. How could I be jealous of Lena? My reaction made no sense; I had known Johnny less than two days. I took a deep breath, and as I forced myself to listen to what Johnny was saying I tried to picture Rob’s face.
‘I came out of Bataan with MacArthur in March ’42, just in front of the Japs. We had a good time in the Philippines before the Japs arrived. Not as good as Melbourne, though. Everyone was very welcoming to us Americans.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Except for Lena Mitrovic. We met at a party not long after I arrived. She sat by the wall and scowled while I tried to make her smile. I liked the look of her and I guess I saw her as a challenge.’ His smile was mocking. ‘“You teach the candles to burn bright.” That was the first thing I said to her.’ He grimaced, shaking his head. ‘I quoted Shakespeare to her. What a dope.’
There was a strange empty feeling inside me. I looked down at my hands, which were gripped together in my lap. Why had I asked him about this? I wished I could get up, leave the cafe and never, ever see him again.
‘I did make her smile – eventually – and we were an item for three months or so.’ There was a pause. ‘Nell, look at me.’
I looked up again, into his eyes, but I couldn’t work out what emotion was there.
‘I was single, so was she. It was a distraction, something that was never going to last. We both knew that. Only . . . it became complicated.’
He took out the makings of a cigarette and bent his head as he concentrated on putting it together.
‘We broke up and I went overseas again. Then I was too busy dodging Jap bullets and bombs to think about her much.’
I looked down again, this time at my tea. I put in a spoonful of sugar. I stirred it. I lifted the cup and took a sip. I tried not to imagine Johnny with Lena Mitrovic, who outshone candles and believed in free love. I wondered what he meant by complicated.
Johnny was still talking. ‘We stayed friends, though. At least until she met that scum Henzell, who convinced her that communism was the answer to all the world’s troubles, and she started to waste her time writing diatribes rather than painting. He was cheating on her, even in Melbourne.’ He shook his head, as if uncomprehending.
‘Lena’s a swell kid. One of the best. I knew that she’d followed Henzell back to Western Australia, and when I heard that she had been accused of murdering him, I had time on my hands so I came over here to see if I could help her. I tried to visit her in prison, but she refused to see me. Then I saw you talking to her lawyer in court and when you came walking down the path yesterday, looking like a million dollars, it seemed like a good opportunity to see if you knew anything that could help.’
My laugh was playful, but the empty feeling had become worse. ‘Silly me,’ I said. ‘And I thought you were taken with my bonny eyes.’ I had assumed what I hoped was a look of polite interest, coupled with worldly amusement.
‘They were an added bonus,’ he said lightly. Then he was suddenly very serious. ‘No. No, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, that’s what I thought when I first saw you, why I spoke to you. Then I got to know you and everything changed. Nell, I—’
‘Are you still in love with her?’ I was embarrassed to ask, but I did anyway.
He hid behind one of his boyish smiles. ‘Well, there’s this other girl in Perth I’m finding hard to get out of my mind.’
‘Do you think she did it?’ I was amazed that he still thought he could flirt with me. And he hadn’t answered the question.
‘The evidence is so stacked against her that my strong feeling is no. But maybe I’m just a contrary kind of guy.’ His expression was thoughtful. ‘She’s very proud, and she’d hate to be two-timed, despite the free-love rhetoric. But with Henzell she’d have had to accept it; he was not a stay-at-home type, more of your charming cad.’
He struck a match, lit his cigarette and drew on it deeply.
‘But if she didn’t do it, then who did?’ I asked. If there had been another possible suspect then Mr Williams would have made the most of it in her defence. He’d tried valiantly to argue that it had been suicide, but there was no note and absolutely no indication that Henzell had been depressed.
Ash was about to fall off the end of Johnny’s cigarette, so I pushed the ashtray towards him and I tried to remember why I so badly wanted to marry Rob. Instead, I remembered that Johnny wasn’t the marrying kind – he was the kind who had affairs with beautiful artists, simply as a distraction.
He was again thoughtful as he tapped the cigarette gently on the rim of the ashtray, twisting as he did so that the ash fell neatly in one grey cylinder.
‘The thing that really convinces me she’s unlikely to have done it is the method. Rat poison in his tea? That was cruel. The rat poison used, Konka-rats, is made out of a substance called thallium sulphate. It’s powerful stuff and a really nasty way to kill someone.’
The symptoms suffered by the victim had been reported with relish in the newspapers: severe nausea and vomiting, dreadful pains in his palms and the soles of his feet, then partial paralysis, hallucinations, convulsions and eventually coma. His hair had fallen out by the handful.
‘In the thirties, they used thallium in a cosmetic hair-removal cream for women,’ he went on. ‘It worked a treat and made the unwanted hair disappear. It was even used by doctors in cases of ringworm, to make the patients bald so that the ringworm could be more easily treated. When it made scores of women critically ill and the children with ringworm died, it was banned for therapeutic use. It should be banned entirely. It’s the perfect poison – colourless, tasteless and odourless, can be bought freely, and it has no known antidote.’
He shook his head. ‘Lena is direct, confrontational, afraid of nothing. Slipping rat poison to someone she had loved, knowing that he’d die horribly . . . I just can’t see Lena doing that.’ There was an odd expression on his face, part admiration, part exasperation. ‘She’s beautiful, smart, talented. Why the heck she wasted herself on Henzell . . . She could have been a solid artist if she’d kept it up. Have you seen anything that she’s done?’
I shook my head.
‘She’s good.’
‘So was Rick Henzell,’ I said. Let’s not forget the murdered man. ‘Rob has one of his paintings.’
It was blue with slashes of orange and red. It always made me feel happy, but slightly uneasy. Rather like Johnny did. Only I wasn’t happy at present. I glanced at my wristwatch. Three o’clock. I plastered a smile on my face.
‘I’ve got to get back and finish the column. Thanks for lunch, Johnny.’ I got up.
He rose quickly and grabbed my arm. ‘Don’t go. Not like that. Lena and me—’
I shook his hand away and int
errupted rudely. ‘I’ve really got to get back. Good luck with trying to prove Lena’s innocence. If anyone can do it, I’m sure you can.’
I was impressed at how level my voice was, how polite, reasonable and entirely unconcerned I sounded. I couldn’t smile, but I knew my tone was one of indifference.
He looked disappointed. ‘So you won’t go to Richmond with me?’
I’d forgotten about that. He wanted me to give him cover while he snooped around trying to find information to help get his Juliet out of gaol. I didn’t want to spend any more time with him; it would just make me unhappy and confused.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m going to tell Mr Gleddings that I can’t do the story. I’ve never written a feature article before. He can send someone else.’
‘I’ll help you write it,’ he said.
I shook my head. When I turned he grabbed my arm again and I pulled away angrily, not looking at him.
‘You asked about her,’ he said in a strangled voice. ‘And I told you the truth. Don’t punish me for that.’ He grabbed my arm yet again, more tightly this time. ‘Don’t punish Lena. If she’s innocent, maybe we can find out something to help her.’
‘What makes you think that we could find out anything?’ I said, trying to appear reasonable, trying to ignore how the pressure of his hand on my arm made my heart race. ‘She hasn’t asked you to, and the police investigated it all very thoroughly.’
He made a snorting sound and let go of my arm. ‘They were sure they had the murderer. They didn’t investigate at all, except to establish what they’d already decided – her guilt.’
I didn’t want to look in his eyes, so I looked at the tab on his shoulder, US War Correspondent. I remembered how he had taken on that sailor yesterday, how he had saved Evie. What if Lena Mitrovic really was innocent? Johnny was the only one who believed in her, apart from her mother. I remembered the haunted face of the blonde woman in the cafe, so desperately unhappy for her daughter. Aunty May would do anything to save me if I were in that situation.
‘All right, I’ll think about it,’ I said to his chest, watching the tan gabardine of his buttoned jacket rise and fall with his breath. After all, I wanted to do the feature, and what if Lena really was innocent? Still watching his chest, I said, ‘Yes. I’ll do it. But you’ve got to stop flirting with me. I don’t like it.’
Taking a Chance Page 9