Miss Shaw told me that she’d been recruited to act as a co-respondent in the divorce of Meadowbank versus Meadowbank with Mrs Beatrice Meadowbank as the petitioner.
‘Recruited by who?’ I said. I’d rolled and lit a cigarette by this time. I’d noticed a few butts in the pot-plant where I’d tipped the iced tea, so I had everything I needed.
She sipped some beer with every appearance of enjoyment but with her, who could tell? ‘By a lawyer named Andrew Perkins who used to be a… client of mine. It happens all the time. Mr A wants to marry Miss B but he doesn’t want her cited as the co-re. Someone like me is found and money changes hands, quite a bit of money in my case. Charles wanted a divorce so he could marry someone else. I don’t know who, but it was tricky in some way.’
‘What way?’
‘I’m only guessing, but I think the woman might have been married herself.’
‘Very tricky, that.’
‘Yes, well we met by arrangement, Charles and I, and we… committed adultery. Well, he did. I’m not married so I don’t know whether I did or not. Do you know?’
I shook my head. ‘Go on.’
‘Charles fell in love with me. He wasn’t a fool, he didn’t want to marry me or anything. But he didn’t want to marry the other woman either. And he didn’t want to go through an expensive divorce.’
‘How did you feel about him?’
She gave me a sample from her catalogue of looks-this one meant, Virginia knows the score. ‘He wasn’t the worst man I ever met, and he was one of the richest.’
‘OK. What happened next?’
‘Charles got very edgy. I’m pretty good at getting men to open up, but I couldn’t get much out of him. Just hints, you know? He’d say things like, “It’s all a bit of a mess” and “They’re not going to like it”.’
‘Did he mean his wife and her lawyer?’
She drained her glass. I gestured with the bottle but she shook her head. What else could I do? I poured the rest of the Flag Ale out for myself before it got warm, drank some froth and waited for her answer.
‘No. It was more serious than that. I really don’t know how to describe it, but he was frightened. Defiant, but scared. I think he was a brave man. That was one of the things I liked about him. I admire bravery, physical courage.’
She was one of those women who keep you on the sexual hop. Everything seemed to come back to basics-you, me, male, female. I dropped my cigarette butt into the pot-plant mud and cleared my throat. ‘Meadowbank felt physically threatened, you’d say? In danger?’
‘Yes.’
‘But he didn’t take any precautions. The two of you just walked out of here.’
‘He kept a gun in his car. I saw it. He tried to hide it from me, but I knew. He really was a good man in his way, Mr Hardy.’
I made another cigarette and looked out over the blue water and white sails, thinking about good men. I’d known a few here and there, and Virginia Shaw’s description of Meadowbank more or less fitted him into the mould: good men tried to minimise the harm they do. I sheltered the flame against the slight sea breeze and got the cigarette lit. Why a couple of lungsful of tobacco smoke helps the mental processes has never been explained to me but I’m sure it’s true. I was convinced now that Miss Shaw had a problem. There were things in her story to check-the gun in the car for one, also some of the arrangements. And she was scared. I noticed that she sat well back from the edge of the balcony and it wasn’t just to stay in the shade.
‘You didn’t recognise the guy with the gun, did you?’
‘No, nothing like that. I’ve moved in some shady circles and known some very unsavoury people, but not murderers.’
‘Meadowbank ran a finance company. That’s almost a recipe for making enemies.’
She shook her head vigorously; the loose brown hair flew about her head. She was intense now, uncaring of the impression she made. ‘No! He was killed because of this divorce business. I’m sure of it’
‘What do you want from me, Miss Shaw?’
‘You’ll help me?’
‘I’m for hire. If it’s legal, I’ll do it.’
‘Legal?’
I swilled the dregs in my tankard. ‘Arguably.’
‘I want you to escort me to the airport. I’m going away for a while. Then I want you to see Andrew Perkins and tell him I don’t know anything about what Charles was doing or planning. Nothing! I want to be in the clear.’
‘Is that all?’
‘No. I want my bloody fee.’
5
She left me on the balcony and came back a minute later with a cheque. I was collecting cheques like an autograph hunter. Virginia Shaw’s was half the amount of the one I’d got from Menzies, but I had a feeling it was going to involve me in a little more work. She was wearing a jacket that matched her dress. I gathered it was time to go. She went into one of the rooms and came back carrying a suitcase and a handbag.
‘You were packed,’ I said.
‘Yes.’
‘Booked your flight?’
She nodded as she made some unnecessary repairs to her make-up.
‘You were confident I’d help.’
‘Not really. I was going anyway. I just feel better knowing there’s someone here looking after my interests.’
A nice, professional way to put it. She closed the French windows but left the bottle and glasses on the coffee table, telling me someone would be in to clean up. On the drive to the airport she wrote out Andrew Perkins’ number and a phone number where she could be reached in Melbourne.
‘How long do you plan to be gone?’
‘Until I hear it’s safe to come back.’
It was all pretty irregular. I wondered how Detective Pascoe would feel about Virginia Shaw’s absence. Presumably she’d be needed as a witness at the inquest, like myself. It wasn’t exactly my problem but it could become so. Irregular, but interesting. Much more interesting than factory fires and phoney break-ins and disappearing motor vehicles. The arrangement Virginia Shaw had come to with the lawyer was almost certainly unenforceable, but I was curious to see what the shyster had to say when I put it to him.
Miss Shaw had booked a first-class, nonsmoking Ansett seat to Melbourne. She checked her luggage through and I accompanied her to the departure lounge. She gave me her hand and I shook it gently.
‘Thank you, Mr Hardy. I have every confidence in you.’
‘What about the inquest? You’ll be called.’
She smiled. ‘That’ll be weeks and weeks away, won’t it? You’ll have everything sorted out by then, I hope.’
It sounds dumb, but I made noises that suggested she had the right man for the job. All I can say in my own defence is that she had a strange ability to convince you that what she wanted was both reasonable and in your best interests as well. I wasn’t a complete innocent, though. I left her well before boarding time to give her the opportunity to duck away and do something different if that’s what she had in mind. I watched her from a discreet distance. She looked at the departure board and her watch. Then she went to the newsstand and bought a magazine. When the flight was called she was one of the first through the door.
It was mid-afternoon. I’d arranged to take Cyn out for dinner so I had a few hours to fill in. I hadn’t heard from Alistair Menzies and it seemed like a good idea to find out how much of his cheque was still mine. I rang the office from the airport and was told that Mr Menzies could spare me ten minutes at 4.30. I agreed. That gave me time for a sandwich and a quick drink in the bar. I was glad I wasn’t a professional if it meant only having ten minutes at 4.30.
On the drive back to the city I decided that my client was suffering from an excess of imagination and caution. There seemed to be no reason why a man would be killed for changing his mind about getting divorced. And the judgement of a woman who’d certainly gone into shock immediately after the shooting was bound to be faulty about the intentions of the assassin. I’d extract a promise to pay from Perkins if I could, and that would be the end of it.