Pay Dirt

TWENTY-ONE

Tobin was the last to arrive. They heard him before they saw him. The sky that Monday evening was vast, still and cloudless, carrying clearly the roar and snuffle of the truck as Tobin negotiated the bends and washaways and shifted gear. They stood on the verandah of the farmhouse to watch. Eventually headlights appeared in the distance.

Wyatt walked down the track to open the gate. Behind him, Snyder and Leah talked in low voices. Wyatt had been watching both of them in the hours since his arrival with Snyder. If anything, Snyder seemed to be a little amused by Leah’s presence. Wyatt supposed that was better than hostility. Apart from some eye-rolling about the basic food supplies and the house dirt, Snyder was acting pleasant and relaxed. Snyder had done jobs like this before. He knew about being stuck in other people’s company. For her part, Leah made an effort to talk to Snyder. She seemed to know that Wyatt had nothing to say to him. But in a snatched moment she’d revealed to Wyatt that she’d never leave her daughter alone with Snyder. If she had a daughter.

Wyatt reached the road gate and waited. When he was sure about the truck, he opened the gate and stepped out into the road, flashing a torch. The truck’s headlights flashed back at him.

When Tobin was through the gate, Wyatt closed it and climbed onto the running board below the driver’s door.

Tobin grinned at him. ‘The others all here?’

‘Yes.’

‘The woman?’

‘Forget about the woman. Tell me about the truck.’

‘Pinched it this afternoon. The plates are off a wreck.’

‘Tomorrow we paint it. When that’s done, we wipe off our prints. After that we wear gloves.’

Tobin shifted into second, muttering aggrievedly, ‘You make me feel like this’s my first time or something.’

‘Your feelings don’t interest me. We’ve each got a job to do. Part of mine is to make sure nothing gets overlooked.’

Tobin scowled. The headlights were picking up the sheds, tankstands and farmhouse by now. Leah and Snyder were on the verandah, shading their eyes.

‘Drive into the long shed there on your right,’ Wyatt said. ‘I’ll close the doors behind you.’

He got off the truck and watched. When it was done, he led Tobin across the yard to the house and introduced him to Snyder. Tobin also greeted Leah, throwing his arm around her and grinning. ‘We meet again.’

He held her for a beat too long and she grimaced. ‘So we do.’

‘Yep,’ Tobin agreed, still grinning.

The atmosphere got genial after that. They went into the main room of the house, where Wyatt and Leah had laid out the supplies and set up a two-ring camping stove. While Snyder toasted slices of bread on one burner, Leah heated a saucepan of tinned stew on the other. Wyatt got out plastic plates and cutlery and poured mineral water into enamel cups for each of them. Tobin, on the floor with his head on a football he’d taken from his overnight bag, said, ‘You giving us poofter drinks?’ He grinned at Leah and Snyder, looking for a reaction. Leah smiled at him absentmindedly. Snyder ignored him. So did Wyatt.

Tobin crossed one ankle over the other and clasped his hands together behind his head. ‘What about the sleeping arrangements? Leah, where do you sleep?’

Leah jerked her head towards a door at the end of the room. ‘In there.’

‘Right, right,’ Tobin said. He paused, weighing up his words. ‘I suppose women in one room, blokes in another?’

‘We each get a room,’ Leah said.

‘No doubling up, kind of thing?’

‘No.’

Wyatt watched all this. Everything about Tobin was loaded. He was saying he liked Leah’s looks and might act on it and what did you others intend to do about it?

Separate rooms had been Leah’s suggestion. Wyatt could see the sense of it. He realised again how every job was ten per cent work and ninety per cent psychology. If there was any waiting involved, the problem was compounded. He’d always known about the emotional baggage people carried around with them, even when they should have been concentrating on a job. He knew all about hidden grievances, attacks of nerves, insanity and boredom. He didn’t want to add sexual jealousy to that. He didn’t want Snyder and Tobin smouldering away in the darkness while he shared a room with Leah. And he wasn’t worried about Leah. She knew how to handle herself.

‘Been a long day,’ Tobin said, closing his eyes and stretching. ‘Reckon I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. Give us a call when tea’s ready.’

A small table topped with green linoleum had been left behind at the house. Wyatt dragged it to the centre of the room, set it with the disposable plates and cutlery, and unfolded four canvas and wood director’s chairs. Like everything else, the chairs were chosen for easy disposability.

He thought about Snyder. Wyatt never judged whether or not he liked the people he teamed up with. He was interested only in their skills and where the cracks were. Snyder hadn’t made a good first impression but once he’d known what the job entailed he’d put his mind to it. Snyder was helping with the domestic work too. That mattered. It meant he knew about teamwork. Somehow Wyatt didn’t think they could expect that sort of support from Tobin.

They ate at seven o’clock. No one felt inclined to do anything after that. They sensed the huge darkness and silence outside, while here in the house the lamplight was too meagre to encourage reading, card-playing or talk. They were all asleep by nine o’clock and no one moved until dawn on Tuesday.

They worked hard that day. While Tobin made expert-looking road-closed signs from planks, beaten roofing iron and tins of black and yellow paint, Wyatt helped Snyder paint the breakdown-recovery truck pale blue, Brava’s colours. The next day Tobin would paint the black bull logo and the words Brava Construction on both doors. It was clear that he had a good eye and a steady hand. The truck itself was well-chosen. The tray was long and sturdy. The tailgate was easy to operate, sloping nicely to the ground, and there was a powerful winch system.

At ten o’clock Leah drove down the track in the dusty utility. She wore jeans, shirt and scarf, and was carrying a basket.

‘Where’s she off to?’ Tobin asked.

‘Every couple of days she’s been going to the short cut to pick wildflowers.’

Tobin stared at Wyatt stolidly, looking for the trick.

‘She’s checking if the local law ever go down it,’ Wyatt explained. ‘So far she hasn’t seen anyone use it, not even a local farmer, but we have to be sure.’

He watched Tobin to see that he got it. He knew it was important to take pains with Tobin. Tobin had a quick, graceful body, as if he took pleasure in using it, but his mind was plodding. What was worse, he seemed to know it.

‘Got you now,’ Tobin said.

He went back to slapping paint around. After a while he said, ‘She your bird?’

Snyder heard him. He straightened up next to the wheel hubs he was painting and said, ‘Leave it, mate.’

‘I was only asking.’ Tobin went back to his painting. Soon he was whistling a Seekers tune badly.

Wyatt got their minds off it. ‘The tarp,’ he said. ‘I misjudged the size.’

Mustering lost credit, Tobin said, ‘Looks like the boss fucked up.’

Wyatt frowned at Snyder, warning him to stay out of it, then turned back to Tobin. ‘One of us will have to go and buy another one.’

‘There’s a hardware in Vimy Ridge,’ Tobin said. ‘Plus I need toothpaste.’

They watched each other guardedly. Wyatt recognised the signs. Tobin was testing him, asking: do you trust me? If Wyatt said that he couldn’t go, the result could be resentment and trouble down the track. Wyatt also knew that he shouldn’t go in with Tobin. Tobin would think he was being chaperoned.

They continued to watch each other. Eventually Wyatt nodded. ‘Okay. Go in after lunch. Leah will be back by then. I’ll give you some money.’

They returned to their painting. Leah reappeared at twelve-thirty and they stopped work to eat sandwiches and drink cups of tea. At one o’clock Tobin changed out of his paint-splashed clothes and drove to Vimy Ridge, $500 of Wyatt’s money in his pocket. While Wyatt finished painting the truck, Leah spread maps on the table to familiarise herself with the local roads and Snyder took his big radio to the top of a hill to do a band search.

Tobin returned at four o’clock. He gazed levelly at Wyatt as he got out of the utility, then reached into the back of it and hauled out a tarpaulin. He laid it out on the grass. It was large and new. ‘All right?’ he said, looking at Wyatt again.

‘Perfect.’

They worked until five-thirty. Tobin finished the road-closed signs, then painted a couple of large Brava Construction logos on the tarpaulin. While he did that, the others washed the dirt off the Holden utility and painted it. At five-thirty, when Wyatt announced a halt, Tobin produced his football. He kicked it around with Snyder and Leah until darkness fell. Wyatt appeared to be watching from his chair on the farmhouse verandah, but in fact he was watching only the images in his head, looking at the Steelgard hit from all the angles. Dinner that night was minestrone soup and spaghetti bolognese. Dessert was a question and answer session to iron out wrinkles in the job.