Bear Pit. Jon Cleary

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СКАЧАТЬ waited up for Lynne and we went to bed, I dunno, twelve-thirty, around then.’

      ‘What did you do between getting home at ten and Lynne’s arrival? Watch television?’

      He smiled again; he was not cocky, but there was a growing confidence. ‘You don’t catch me like that, Constable. No, I rarely watch TV after ten o’clock. I read, old crime thrillers – d’you read crime novels?’

      ‘No,’ said Gail.

      ‘I do – occasionally,’ said Malone. ‘What did you read last night?’

      ‘Elmore Leonard, one of his early ones.’

      ‘Which one?’ asked Malone, who always read Leonard.

      ‘I can never remember titles.’

      ‘Try, John.’

      The smile now was fixed. ‘Switch, that was it. The one about the guy on the toilet that’s got a bomb attached to the seat – if he stands up, he’s a goner. Very funny. Embarrassing, too.’

      ‘That was Freaky Deaky. I’d have thought you’d remember a title like that.’

      ‘I told you, I’m no good at titles. For years I thought I’d read The Maltese Pigeon.’

      ‘Nice joke, John, but let’s be serious. We’d like a look at your bank account and Mrs Masson’s.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘The price for knocking off the Premier wouldn’t have been small change. The hitman might’ve been paid in cash, people don’t write cheques for those sort of jobs. The hitman would have to deposit it somewhere. He wouldn’t cart fifty thousand around in a brown paper-bag –’

      ‘Fifty thousand?’ He seemed genuinely interested in the amount. ‘You think that’s what he got?’

      ‘Maybe more. I don’t know the price for political assassination – it may be more, much more. Do you need money, John?’

      ‘Who doesn’t? But I wouldn’t kill anyone for it.’ He was still calm, still unoffended.

      Malone so far had no doubts; but he had no conviction, either. An open mind did not mean it was non-adhesive: fragments occasionally stuck that gave a hint of a recognizable picture. At the moment it was like trying to paint a picture on water.

      ‘Why would I kill Hans Vanderberg? I voted for him in the last election. I’d do the same at the next. He was sly and conniving and half the time you didn’t believe what he said, but he got things done.’

      ‘Who’d you vote as? John June?’ asked Gail.

      ‘Yes. The Electoral Commission can’t always check on whether you are who say you are. They were satisfied I was an honest citizen – which I am.’

      ‘But John August, the real you, might not care one way or the other?’

      August just looked at her, the mere shadow of a smile on his lips, and Malone said, ‘Detective Lee has a point. Which bank do you and Mrs Masson use? We can get a court order –’

      ‘There’ll be no need for that.’ This time his voice was snappy. ‘I’ll give you permission to look at mine. But you’ll have to ask Lynne about hers –’

      ‘We’ll do that. We also want a release from you in the name of John August. Just in case you have two bank accounts.’

      August shook his head; the lock of hair fell down again and he pushed it back. He seemed now to be losing patience; or confidence. ‘You’re wasting your time. But okay, I’ll sign a release in my real name. Or what was my real name.’ He looked down at his hands, stared at them, then at last looked up. Both detectives were surprised at the sadness in his eyes: ‘How much are you gunna tell Lynne? About my past, my record?’

      ‘If we find you’re in the clear,’ said Malone quietly, ‘we’ll tell her nothing. That’s up to you … Why did you shoot him, John?’

      But that didn’t catch August off-balance: ‘Try someone else, Inspector. It wasn’t me who shot him. I’ve read what’s been going on lately. He has enough enemies to kill him from a dozen sides.’

      Malone stared at him, then looked at Gail Lee: ‘Any more questions?’

      ‘Just a couple … How much do you know about guns, Mr August?’

      ‘Not much.’

      ‘But you knew where to buy a gun? You used a gun in that job you did time for, the armed robbery one.’

      ‘That was Melbourne. I’ve forgotten where I got it.’

      ‘So a gun’s an everyday item with you? You buy one and forget where?’

      ‘It was twelve years ago, for Crissakes!’ For a moment the calm demeanour was gone; then he put it on again like a mask: ‘Sorry. I’ll remember and let you know. Can you remember what you were doing twelve years ago?’

      ‘I was about to start Year 10 at high school. I wasn’t buying a gun.’

      His look was almost admiring. Then he said, ‘It’s different these days, in high school, I mean.’

      ‘Knives, Mr August, not guns. Not yet.’ Then she said, ‘Where do you live?’

      He gave an address in Lane Cove. ‘It’s a flat, in Lynne’s name. Why?’

      ‘We’ll get a warrant to search it. Just routine.’

      The mask dropped. ‘Christ, how do I explain that to Lynne?’

      ‘Maybe you’d better tell her the truth about yourself.’ Malone stood up. ‘Righto, John, you can go. Detective Lee and one of my men will drive you back to Longueville. But if you want to keep your secret from Lynne, maybe you’d like to wait while Detective Lee gets the search warrant. Then we can search your flat and maybe Lynne won’t need to know.’

      ‘I’ll wait. I’m not gunna hurt Lynne, if it can be avoided.’

      2

      ‘Do you think the hit was meant for one of us?’ asked Aldwych.

      ‘No,’ said Jack Junior. ‘All the union trouble is over. They’ve moved on to fight other developers.’

      ‘I still don’t trust our Chinese partners. I don’t mean Les –he’s one of us. Nor the Feng family – even that girl Camilla isn’t gunna make waves.’

      The original consortium of partners had been a mixture that at times had had Aldwych thinking he was a foreigner in his own country. Besides Leslie Chung there had been two local Chinese families; there were also Madame Tzu, representing herself, and General Wang-Te, the director from a Shanghai corporation whose connections were as murky as the Whangpoo River. Sometimes Aldwych wondered what had happened to the White Australia policy of his youth. There were more bloody foreigners in the country now than kangaroos.

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ