14

TEDDY

That Friday morning, the sky was the same grey as Teddy’s balcony. She messaged Art while leaning against the railing in the biting air, thinking that somewhere out there, Cole was waiting to be found, hiding from the world, or dead.

Ten minutes later, Art had still not replied. Teddy had now showered, dressed, and was wondering if she should call Cherry and ask about her holiday, because she missed her tiny, chaotic voice. She was tempted to ring Jun now so she could talk to her, but then she might have to answer some questions, like: if it was just a chauffeur job, why didn’t Choker get Teddy to do it instead, and let his partner have a holiday?

Sometimes Teddy thought she found it harder than Alice did to keep secrets from Jun. He wasn’t flawless, but he was a genuinely good man, the kind you wanted your friend to have forever. If he ever found out about their line of work, he could take Cherry away from them both to keep her safe; in fact, if he didn’t, she would think infinitely less of him.

She fished her phone out of her pocket and called Art. He picked up and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Home,’ he said. ‘Nearly.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘For fuck’s sake. I’ll come get you – it’s probably quicker to get to Adrian’s from your place anyway. I’ll be there in fifteen.’

‘Make it thirty.’

She was at Art’s place in twenty. From the front, it was a nice, understated weatherboard; you wouldn’t know there was a tennis court in the backyard, or a wine cellar Art’s parents had installed in the home and refused to give their children a key to. Nina, Art’s sister and housemate, changed jobs and addictions a lot, and was one of the more challenging people that Teddy and Alice had met in their lives. She was the one who answered this morning when Teddy knocked on the door, resplendent in her barely awake glory: lanky strawberry blonde hair, oversized Melbourne Girls Grammar School hoodie – though she was three years out of it – and a celery stalk dripping with the red juice of a bloody mary dangling from her hand.

‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ Nina asked.

‘You should put that on your welcome mat,’ Teddy said mildly. ‘I’m here for Art.’

‘He’s not in,’ Nina said. Somewhere behind her, a man – not Art – let out a laugh, and Teddy held up her hands.

‘I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.’

Nina snorted. ‘It’s not that type of interruption. But you can leave anyway. Take these two with you.’

She stood to the side as a woman in a black turtleneck and a man with a big full beard passed, both nodding to Teddy without any warmth. She watched them walk away down the road, hands in their pockets.

‘I’ll tell Art to call you,’ Nina said.

‘I can wait,’ Teddy said.

Nina took a bite of her celery. ‘But it’s cold outside.’

‘Well, I did mean inside.’

‘It’s too messy,’ she said. ‘Your car is better.’

‘I don’t mind,’ Teddy said. ‘I’ve seen your place messy before.’

Nina shook her head in frustration, and said with a hiss, ‘He’s a good person, my brother.’

‘I know,’ Teddy said, surprised.

Nina leaned forward. Her breath stank of a long, long night. ‘Better than you,’ she finished.

‘All right, buddy,’ Art said, coming up the hallway behind his sister, bundled up like a toddler in a wool-lined jacket and scarf. ‘I think you need a nap.’

‘I have work,’ Nina said plaintively.

‘Well, then, you need about six coffees first, okay?’ He hugged his sister and said, ‘Also, brush your teeth.’

‘Fuck you,’ Nina said, and shuffled away.

‘She said you weren’t home,’ Teddy said, as they went down the drive.

‘She didn’t hear me come in,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure she even heard anything you said to her. Too busy entertaining her friends.’

‘They didn’t seem very friendly.’

‘I think you’re taking the word too literally.’

‘Is friend not a literal word anymore?’ Teddy unlocked her car. ‘Also why was she saying you were a good person, and I’m not?’

‘Because she hates you for getting me a job with Choker,’ he told her. ‘She thinks you’re a master criminal, ruining my life. She’s also very conflicted because my income from said job is keeping her in food and streaming services while she spends all hers on party drugs and booze and false eyelashes.’

‘They’re very good lashes,’ Teddy said, trying not to feel hurt.

Art stood in front of her car. ‘I have two things to tell you this morning,’ he said. ‘The first is that I got the number of a friend of Cole’s from our pal Streets last night. Remember her talking about a guy called Hank?’

‘That’s great! When are we meeting him?’

‘I haven’t called him yet.’

‘Why not?’

‘I,’ he said delicately, ‘was busy.’

Teddy rolled her eyes. ‘Spare me the details. Fine, we’ll call him when we’re on the road. What’s your second thing to tell me?’

Art ran his finger over the top of Teddy’s car, looking it over disdainfully like Mary Poppins checking for dust. ‘We’re taking Nina’s wheels, not yours. Your heater sucks in comparison.’

‘Don’t say things like that where she can hear you,’ Teddy said, protectively covering her Corolla’s side mirror with her hands. ‘Besides, there’s no way you’re driving with a hangover like that.’

Art pressed the remote unlocker and Nina’s sleek Mercedes, which was parked in the driveway, lit up and chirped. ‘Sounds great,’ he said and threw her the keys.

Teddy looked at them and said, ‘Why not your Jeep?’

‘Do you see it here? It’s at the shop. Why else do you think I’m working so many days this week?’

‘You really need cash that urgently?’

He got into the car without responding. Teddy eased into the driver’s seat and said carefully, ‘Those two people at your house – were they the kinds of “friends” who wanted money?’

‘Leave it, all right?’ he said. ‘I’m tired.’

Teddy said, ‘You know we can help with those type of people, right?’

Art rubbed his face all over. ‘Not these type of people,’ he said. ‘Look. I might be behind on some payments. To Dutch.’

Dutch was to the south-eastern suburbs what Choker was to the north-eastern; they were business rivals, occasional uneasy partners against Melbourne’s government officials, and hadn’t been in a physical fight for a record four months.

‘What the hell do you owe him for? Haven’t you got enough contacts to do whatever shifty stuff you need with our own company? Fucking hell, Art.’

‘Listen. You know Dan, right?’

Teddy did, in fact, know Dan. They were longtime rivals and sometime friends, occasionally, alas, with benefits. ‘What about Dan?’

‘You know about that time with me and Dan, at Revs. When we got into a fight and I punched him a bit too hard.’

‘Detaching his retina and derailing his Olympic shooting career? Yeah, I heard about it. I thought Dan was over it.’

‘Yeah, well, he is. But Dutch, ever the businessman, is not, all right? You make that Olympic shooting joke like everyone else, but that’s exactly what I’m paying back. Now I owe him the amount Dan would have made for a gold medal, and the cost of his flights overseas to said Olympics, all this other stuff – it’s a whole bullshit invoice that Dutch’s accountant laid out for me. Thirty thousand dollars.’

Teddy blinked. ‘Jesus. But aren’t you rich? Can’t you ask your folks?’

‘What would I even say? “Hey Pops, I’ve got a debt from permanently disabling somebody, help me out?”’

They sat in the quiet for a moment, then Teddy said, ‘Dutch is full of shit. Dan was never that good a shot.’

‘Think you could stand up for me in court and say that?’

‘Of course.’

‘When I’m dead, I mean.’

‘Then no,’ she said. ‘You couldn’t pay back my parking fees.’

He laughed.

‘You should’ve asked Alice to fix your Jeep,’ she said. ‘Won’t Nina be mad we’re taking her wheels? She already hates me.’

‘She’s working from home, and she’d be madder if she got it impounded for drink-driving,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry. If you crash it, I’ll take the blame.’

‘I’m not going to crash it,’ Teddy muttered.

Art wasn’t wrong; Nina’s car was much nicer than Teddy’s. ‘I’m not putting the heater on,’ she said. ‘Put your damn seat warmer on if you need.’

He ignored her to lean forward and crank the heat.

‘Driver makes the choices,’ she said. ‘It’s going off in three minutes.’

‘Fine.’ He put his gloved hands in front of the vent.

‘Do those mittens have the letter N on them?’ asked Teddy suspiciously.

‘Listen. She won’t mind that I took these either.’

They’d barely driven a block when Art’s phone rang. He picked up, listened, and said, ‘Of course, we’re happy to talk to you,’ then put the phone on speaker.

‘Hi, this is Teddy,’ she said. ‘Can we help you?’

‘Yeah, hi. I’m Elmo.’ His voice was reedy, distant and between accents. ‘I’m Cole’s cousin. I just got back into town and my aunt Heidi says you’re helping find him?’

‘We sure are. When did you last see him?’

‘Christmas,’ Elmo said. ‘It’s been a while.’

‘When you say got back into town,’ Art said, ‘how do you mean?’

‘I was in England,’ he said. ‘I dropped by Heidi’s because she loaned me a power adapter. I didn’t know Cole was missing until I saw your business card near the door and asked why she needed a private detective.’

Teddy caught something bitter in that. ‘You think she should’ve told you earlier?’

‘Well, yeah. When I got there I’d asked how he was and she said, “I don’t know”, but I didn’t think she meant he was actually gone.’

Art grimaced. ‘Did you have something you could share with us?’

‘Well, Heidi wanted me to tell you about a conversation I had with him when I was away. How Cole said he’d love to come to England sometime. Like, move there.’

‘Heidi thinks he’s in England?’

‘I dunno. I asked her if he’d been trying to get work over there and she said he’d just be a barista or something. He used to do that before his carpentry or whatever job. I thought you needed to be, like, a rare type of worker or something to get a job over there? Like, it’s pretty expensive. I needed some big cash to get there, and I don’t think Cole has any.’

Teddy said, ‘Did you think he meant what he said?’

‘I dunno. He was pretty drunk, I reckon. That’s the only time he really calls me. I’m not offended, though, because I never call him, drunk or sober.’

‘Why not?’

‘He’s a fucking bummer,’ Elmo said. ‘Like, I don’t want him dead, but he only ever calls up to complain.’

‘What makes you think he’s dead?’ Teddy said.

‘That’s not what he said,’ Art told her, covering the phone with his hand.

‘I don’t think he’s dead,’ Elmo said. ‘I’m saying I don’t want him to be. Do you think he’s dead?’

Art looked at Teddy reproachfully.

‘No,’ Teddy said. ‘I just have to ask these things.’

‘Anyway, I’m still pretty jet-lagged,’ Elmo said. ‘I’m gonna have a nap. Call me if you need anything. I hope he didn’t go over thinking I was going to be there to help.’

He rang off. Teddy stared out the window, thinking.

‘So there’s a chance he’s in England,’ Art said. ‘Along with every other Australian.’

‘It’s not like Elmo sounded confident about it. Seems like a message from Heidi, if anything.’

Art raised his eyebrows at her. ‘You think you know more about this kid than his mother does? You don’t think maybe she could be right about Cole just skipping town?’

‘She’s a jerk,’ Teddy said. ‘And, no, I don’t think that.’

‘You think she’s a killer?’

‘Not really,’ Teddy said quietly.

‘So maybe she’s a jerk who’s also right about her own son? That he’s gone overseas?’

‘All I know,’ Teddy said, ‘is that this kid has nobody so far who gives a shit about him, and this fact is what drives me. It’s fucking grim is what it is, you know? Cole doesn’t have anybody who cares enough to look for him just for him. But he has me, you know?’

Art shook his head softly beside her.

‘And I don’t give up on people because they’re inconvenient. I don’t give up on kids just because they’re assholes. Hell, I was an asshole at nineteen too.’

‘I bet you fucking weren’t,’ Art said. ‘I bet you were as charming as you are now.’

‘I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.’

‘I don’t think he’s probably fine because he’s boring,’ Art said, ‘I think it because all the signs point that way.’

‘Not enough signs,’ Teddy said. ‘So let’s go look for some.’