Kick Back

Forty-Two

All the doors and windows of Finn’s law offices in Quiller Place were locked but light showed faintly in an office at the side of the old house. Wyatt decided to wait. If he forced his way in now, he’d lose the advantage. And alert the old people of the street, blinking in the darkness as they waited through the long night for sleep or death to claim them.

The black Volkswagen was angled carelessly in the driveway. The driver’s door hadn’t been locked. Wyatt climbed into the space behind the front seat to wait. He moved stiffly. His clothes were a sodden wad at his waist.

It didn’t take long. He heard the expensive lock click home on the front door of the building, heard approaching footsteps, saw a shape materialise next to the car. The door opened and a bag was flung onto the passenger seat. Then the car shifted gently on its springs as Anna Reid got in and Wyatt sat up behind her and pressed his Browning to her ear.

She stiffened. A moment later she said his name. She didn’t turn around.

‘Both hands on the wheel,’ Wyatt said. ‘Where’s the gun I gave you?’

‘In my coat.’

‘Right pocket?’

‘Yes.’

‘Reach across with your left hand. Take it out by the barrel and drop it in the bag.’

He watched her closely. For the few seconds her hand was out of sight he ground the Browning against the hinge of her jaw.

She dropped the gun. ‘How did you know?’

Wyatt was silent. Then he said, ‘Let’s start with the safe. You removed the drugs when Finn went out for coffee on Friday afternoon?’

She laughed harshly. ‘Is this a grilling?’ She took one hand from the wheel and gestured with it. ‘Come with me, Wyatt. The stuff in that bag is worth a fortune.’

Wyatt beat the gun barrel against her cheek. ‘Both hands on the wheel. Answer the question.’

She sighed elaborately. ‘When he went for coffee, yes. Just before you hit the place.’

‘You knew the combination of his safe?’

‘I’ve always known it. When I first came here, before he started dealing, I found it written down on the side of his desk drawer one day’

It was plausible. Pedersen himself liked to say that most ‘unexplained’ safecracking could be traced to people leaving the combination lying around.

She turned her head slightly. ‘It wasn’t play-acting, you know, me with you.’

‘Forget that,’ Wyatt said. ‘You left the cash in the safe and hid,’ pointing his gun at the bag on the seat beside her, ‘that crap in your office?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where?’

‘Can’t we do this somewhere more comfortable?’

‘Answer.’

‘I bet you were anal retentive. Under the tiles in the fireplace. What does it matter where?’

‘You had to leave it there in case the police searched your place.’

‘Yes.’

‘How did you know when to do the job?’

She breathed in and out heavily. ‘Is this all necessary? Let’s get it over and done with, whatever it is.’

Wyatt ground the barrel against her jaw again. ‘Just answer.’

‘You’re hurting me.’ When the pressure didn’t relax she went on. ‘When I realised Finn was distributing, I started watching until I’d worked out the pattern. The stuff would arrive late in the week and all the yuppie dealers in South Yarra would buy from him on the weekends. So I waited until there was a big planning kickback there at the same time.’

A taxi entered Quiller Place and drove slowly down it, the driver shining a spotlight at house numbers. Wyatt pressed the gun warningly against Anna Reid’s temple and waited while the taxi stopped and bipped its horn and collected a home-care nurse from one of the houses.

When it was gone, he said, ‘You didn’t want to risk stealing from him directly. Robbing the safe was a smokescreen.’

‘Yes.’

‘Why didn’t you just run with the stuff that night?’

‘I never intended to run with it. I’ve got a long-term plan. I’m going to sell it all slowly, on the quiet.’

Wyatt said nothing. The pieces kept falling into different patterns. ‘Tell me about Pedersen,’ he said.

‘What about him?’

‘Was he going to do the selling?’

She shook her head. ‘He’s not involved. I just needed his talents.’

Wyatt went cold. This had never been his job, his plan. It had always been hers. ‘You were taking a risk,’ he said. ‘You caused heat for all of us. The sort of people Finn distributes for don’t rest when something like this happens.’

Neither spoke for some time. Then Anna said, ‘You told Max there was a dead man at my place.’

‘There is, but I said it to flush out Pedersen. I thought he was behind it.’

‘And I came out instead,’ Anna said, nodding her head, her glossy hair sliding apart on either side of the pistol barrel. ‘Who is it?’ she asked.

‘It’s a professional called Bauer. A hit-man, somebody who worked for whoever runs Finn.’

She shivered. ‘So your friend Sugarfoot is still out there?’

‘I doubt it. I think both Youngers are dead. They gave Bauer some names, Bauer tortured Hobba, got your name, and came looking.’

She turned her head a fraction. ‘Tortured?’

Wyatt said, ‘This isn’t Playschool.’

He saw Anna stiffen. ‘Finn will know about me by now.’

Wyatt said bleakly, ‘I wouldn’t worry your pretty head about it. Bauer killed him too. These people get rid of their liabilities.’

She breathed in sharply. ‘I know you’re angry. All I can say is, I wasn’t faking it with you.’

Wyatt pressed warningly with the gun. She changed tack immediately. ‘Oh dear, he’s in a sulk.’

The mocking voice was a tactic. She would try to get a rise out of him, then, bit by bit, try to turn him. Wyatt ignored it.

They were silent, then Anna said, ‘Why did he kill Finn?’

‘He would’ve learned from Hobba that there were no drugs in the safe, so he thought Finn was trying to pull something. Finn was already bad news for carrying on his kickback scam on the sly.’

She shivered again. ‘He tortured Finn too?’

Wyatt didn’t answer. He wasn’t interested in Finn.

‘I’m glad you got him, Wyatt,’ Anna said. She lifted a hand from the steering wheel. ‘Can I put my hands down now? My arms are aching.’

‘No. Did you kill Pedersen?’

‘God, Wyatt. What do you take me for? He’s waiting there for you. I told him I was going out for a while.’

‘Last Monday night,’ Wyatt said, ‘you came on to me so I’d forget my suspicions, right?’

‘No! That part was genuine.’

She took her hands off the steering wheel and turned in her seat and looked at him over the top of it. He leaned back, still keeping the gun on her. The wound in his side seemed to tear open and before he could control it, he breathed in sharply and groaned.

‘Oh, you’re hurt,’ she said. She reached a hand across the seat. He stared at it. She drew back again.

Then her voice took on its low growl and her face moved expressively. He remembered how desire had animated it. ‘All those things you said about working together?’ she said. ‘We still can.’ She picked up the bag on the passenger seat. ‘This would set us up.’

‘You’ve been doing fine by yourself.’

She put the bag down. ‘We can, Wyatt. It’ll be good. We’ll have a holiday first. No-one knows anything about us.’

‘There’s a dead man in your house,’ Wyatt said. ‘You’re the partner of a man who was tortured to death. The cops will find the connection. I’d say you’re fucked.’

‘If I go down, you’ll go too. Think about it. Come away with me, or help me get the body out of my house.’

Wyatt watched her for a while. He felt trapped, and he hated it. ‘One condition,’ he said. ‘You give up the drugs. If we plant them at Finn’s, the cops and whoever Finn worked for won’t look any further.’

She frowned at that. He waited. He heard the safety catch, very faint, as she apparently shifted position to get more comfortable.

When her face emptied of expression, he fired through the seat. Anna jerked back in shock and there was a crack as the windscreen frosted near her head.

‘I won’t give you a second chance,’ Wyatt said.

He reached over and dealt her wrist a numbing blow with the barrel of the Browning. Her.38 fell back in the bag again. All in all, he thought, he’d been a step ahead of her this time. It was like getting his sight back after a period of blindness. He watched her shake and moan. ‘Shut up,’ he said. ‘You’ve still got your share of the money.’