All this needed leisurely inspection. I could get Helen Broadway’s opinion on the woman’s things and perhaps get a lead on the man. I could try to identify the houses, boats and beaches. Lots to do, clues to follow, lives to construct. What I do best. I realised that it was getting late and that a drink would be welcome. Promising start, time to go. I could take some of the stuff with me and come back for the rest later. I found a green plastic garbage bag in the kitchen and dumped the handbags, a selection of the makeup, the photographs and Mr G.’s bits and pieces into it; folded up, I could easily carry it under one arm. I tossed in a pair of gold sandals with high heels and thin straps just for luck and went through to the front room.
It occurred to me that nothing I’d done so far had any obvious connection with the video girl. Evidence about her was scattered all over the room. I put my bundle down and took a closer look at the videos. Among the pre-recorded cassettes, European, British, American and Australian, were a lot of tapes for home recording. The names of movies presumably taped from TV were printed on the boxes- The Left Hand of God, Marked Woman, The Running Man- none of my favourites. I’d seen The Running Man way back, at a drive-in with my soon-to-be wife (later to be my ex-wife), Cyn. I saw it again on TV by accident. In it Laurence Harvey does the worst Australian accent in the history of the cinema. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to tape it. For the hell of it, maybe to get a laugh at the accent, I put the cassette into the recorder and hit Play. It was worse than I’d thought-a long, boring sequence with some people seen on a boat at a distance. Barely focused. Arty. I hit Stop and picked up my bundle.
I was tired of the place, depressed by it and wanted to leave, but something was nagging at me, holding me back. I looked around noticing nothing new. Then the telephone rang, or rather emitted some of those electronic beaps that make you think you’re out there with Spock on the Enterprise. I lifted the receiver and waited.
‘Who’s there?’ a voice said-female, not young.
That’s what I should be saying, I thought, but I said nothing.
‘Who are you?’ the voice said.
Hard to come up with an answer to that. What would someone good and comforting say? What would Phillip Adams say?
‘Are you crazy? Lifting the blind and turning on the light in there? Do you want to be killed too?’
‘You’re talking about Carmel Wise,’ I said, trying to sound like Phillip Adams.
‘Yes. Don’t you know they’re watching the place most of the time? They’re probably watching it now?’
‘Who’s they, Madam?’
‘Who…?’
Press a bit harder, Cliff. ‘I work for the owner of the Greenwich Apartments, Madam. Would you mind telling me who you are.’
‘I don’t want to get involved.’
You are involved, I thought. That’s what everyone always says and it’s true. Doesn’t do to say so, though. Back to Phillip Adams. ‘Please tell me…’
‘No, nothing! Just be careful!’ She slammed the phone down so hard I winced and pulled the receiver from my ear. Then I dropped the envelopes and other things. I realised that I was standing opposite the window, in the middle of a frame like a TV news reader. I dropped to my knees and gathered up the papers. Then it seemed like a good idea to stay down there while I thought of a next move. Through the door, gun up, eyes blazing? The problem with that was I didn’t have a gun with me. It made more sense to crawl across the floor to the window, knocking aside video cassettes as I went, and to sneak a look out into the courtyard.
Nothing had changed out there. Could be gunmen in the adjacent buildings, could be someone small crouched down behind the pedestal with an Uzi. I didn’t think so. What I did know was that there was someone around who knew the telephone number of flat one and was concerned enough to ring it when she saw a light. From how many windows could that be done? That sort of inquiry would have to wait. The job now was to get home with my goodies.
I turned off the lights, pulled down the broken blind and opened the door. No-one lurking in the lobby. I patted my pocket. Yep, still got the key. Out into the courtyard, out into a cool night with the leaves of the plane trees rustling in a light breeze. Traffic noise from a distance and music somewhat closer. No shots, loud or silenced. I started across the courtyard to the lane and jumped a foot in the air as there was a rushing sound behind me. I almost dropped the envelopes again but it was just a jogger-a tall, thin jogger with headband, singlet and shorts and light, slapping feet.
‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Sorry to startle you.’ For an awful moment I thought he was going to be one of those who jog on the spot while they talk to you. Mustn’t lose the aerobic effect whatever you do. But he just lifted his hand and loped off down the lane.
I said, ‘That’s okay, have a nice run,’ and followed him unaerobically. I stopped at the wine bar in Bayswater Road and had a drink. I had no trouble getting a place at the bar-the place must have been number three on the ‘spots to be seen at’ list.
3
Next morning I watched Helen while she made the coffee. She wore a red kimono-style dressing gown and looked terrific. She didn’t feel terrific though-I could tell from the emphasis she gave to her movements. The cups hit the bench like sharp left jabs.
‘You don’t want me here, Cliff,’ she said.
‘You’re wrong. I do want you.’
The percolator hissed and she went to the fridge for milk. ‘Didn’t feel like it last night. You hardly spoke and that was a perfunctory fuck.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be sorry. Explain to me.’
‘Explain what?’
She filled the cups and we sat down side by side at the bench. I put my arm around her and she let it stay there. She liked physical contact at the worst of times, so do I. It doesn’t deflect her from her purpose though. ‘When I come down from the bush to start the six months with you it’s fine at first. Lovely for the first day, terrific for the next couple of days. You know why?’
I sipped. ‘Tell me.’
‘You’re on holiday. When you go back to work it all changes. You close down. You go somewhere else. I get the fag-end of you.’ She lit a Gitane. She smoked one a day, sometimes after lunch, sometimes after dinner; rarely first thing in the morning.
‘It’s difficult,’ I said. ‘The work’s so shitty in some ways. Other parts of it I like more than anything else I’ve ever done.’
‘Mm.’ She smoked and drank coffee. ‘I know all about men liking what they do.’ Helen’s husband, Michael Broadway, ran a vineyard and farm up on the north coast. According to Helen, he worked all through the daylight hours and fixed machinery and did laboratory tests at night. Seven days a week. They had a twelve-year-old daughter and a two-year-old arrangement-Helen spent six months on the farm and six months with me.
‘I must meet up with Michael,’ I said. ‘We seem to be getting more alike all the time. Maybe that’s a function of the arrangement. We should do an article for Forum.’
She touched my hand and I could feel her wedding ring. ‘Don’t get bitter, Cliff. We’re talking, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Tell me about what you’re doing.’
‘Yes, Well, maybe you’ll see what I mean. This girl got shot a week or so ago. I ‘m looking into it for her father. There’s all kinds of strange angles.’