THERE’S AN UNFAMILIAR CAR in the driveway of Bruno’s place, but Reynolds recognises it. ‘Ah shit,’ he says.
Up in the living room, Bruno finds a bad scene unfolding: his brother Danny sits at the kitchen table, looking like he’s seen a ghost. Across the table from Danny is a young, wiry bloke. Mid-twenties. Wearing a muscle-tee and covered in jailhouse tatts. The bloke has a retractable Stanley knife in his hand and the cat on his lap.
Bruno looks directly at the man and says, ‘You okay, Danny?’
Danny says, ‘I’m all right,’ his voice slow and steady.
Colleen steps into view. ‘Oh, finally. I just put the jug on, fellas. Take a seat.’ With that, she disappears back into the kitchen.
‘Colleen?’ calls Bruno.
‘Yeah?’
‘Tell this fuckhead to put my cat down or I’m gonna shoot him.’
‘What have I done?’ says the bloke.
Colleen reappears, holding a carton of milk this time. ‘You can’t shoot Sando. He’s new. And what then? Are you going to shoot me too?’
‘That depends,’ says Bruno.
Reynolds takes a step forward. ‘Come on. Calm down. No one’s getting shot.’
‘Okay, Sando,’ says Colleen. ‘Leave the adults to chat.’
Schlick.
Sando’s knife retracts. He dumps the cat and walks.
‘He seems nice,’ says Reynolds, taking Sando’s seat at the table. ‘Where’d you find him?’
‘Where I find all of you,’ Colleen says. She puts a cup of tea on the table for Reynolds. ‘It’s white with one, yeah?’
He nods.
‘Danny, you can take off too,’ says Bruno. ‘Don’t talk to anyone about this.’
‘I think he should stay,’ says Colleen.
‘The threat’s enough, Colleen,’ Bruno says. ‘Go on.’
Danny doesn’t get up immediately, but after weighing it up, he pushes gently back from the table and leaves. Two minutes later, Bruno hears his motorbike engine roar to life.
‘He seems like a good egg,’ says Colleen, standing back by the kitchen bench, sipping her tea. ‘But you’ll need to have a chat with him when he gets back.’
Bruno bites. ‘Yeah, why’s that?’
‘Because his brother’s a poof, that’s why. It seems he didn’t know.’
‘Christ,’ curses Reynolds.
Bruno bolts across the room, pulling up inches from Colleen’s face.
Colleen doesn’t show a lick of fear. ‘I love that you two are working together,’ she says. ‘What a world, aye?’
‘What do you want?’ hisses Bruno.
Colleen puts a hand on his shoulder. ‘Son, I will burn your whole fucking life to the ground if you don’t go and sit at the table like a good boy.’
Eye to eye.
She means it.
Bruno goes back to the table.
Stares into space.
His ears are ringing.
‘Good choice. Now, both of you, where is Mike Nichols?’
Reynolds shrugs.
Bruno’s eyes remain empty. ‘He was at the station yesterday. I told Amy this.’
‘Amy has disappeared too, and I don’t like what I’m hearing. Talk around town is that she’s a suspect in the shooting of Allan Watts. A neighbour of Allan’s described her and her car. I believe many of your brethren are out there looking for her as we speak.’
‘This is the first we’re hearing about it,’ says Reynolds. ‘We’ve got our own problems, Col. We just took three bodies out of that house you had him looking at.’
‘The O’Gradys?’
‘That’s right. I don’t suppose you’d like to share how this all came to be?’ says Reynolds.
‘That’s a long story,’ says Colleen.
‘He was a pedo,’ says Bruno. ‘There are piles of evidence. Photos of him doing it.’
Colleen takes this in. ‘I knew he was a perv, but I didn’t know about the rest. That shit doesn’t fly with me. I put Amy on the house because O’Grady has money in my casino project. He’s also a client of one of my boys, Seth Blackwell, who’s dead as of a couple of nights back. Seth was feeding me info. Phillip had financial trouble. Someone was putting the hard word on him, so I started looking into it.’
It makes sense. The casino project she’s talking about is the giant hotel complex being built on reclaimed land in Broadbeach. It’s the first legal gambling establishment in Queensland. A big win for Colleen.
Reynolds fires up a smoke. ‘What did Seth Blackwell tell you exactly?’
‘Seth was a deadshit. I liked the kid, but he’d sell his own mother if there was a dollar in it. For what it’s worth, he reckoned Phillip’s kid Samson had a line into Fantasyland.’
‘Sounds a bit rich,’ says Reynolds.
‘It was some backdoor deal via his boss at the Silver Fish.’
‘That’s the recently departed Allan Watts, right?’ says Reynolds.
‘Yep, the one and only. My guy, Mike, was also trying to get in on Fantasyland. As sworn police officers, it might be time to have a look at the Winters family and their theme park. Everyone I know who goes anywhere near that thing winds up dead or missing.’
Reynolds scratches at his face. ‘Is that really in their repertoire? From what I hear, Noah Winters is a bit of a straight shooter.’
‘I want you two to find Mike. I’m worried about him.’
‘Why’s that, Col?’
She looks into her tea mug. ‘That’s my business.’
It’s minuscule, but Bruno and Reynolds are seasoned detectives and they both spot the tell: a moment of weakness in Colleen.
They exchange a glance.
Bruno says, ‘Tit for tat, Colleen.’
‘That’s not how this works.’
Reynolds comes in. ‘How about we find Mike and then keep your name out of the O’Grady thing. It could easily go the other way.’
Colleen looks at Reynolds. ‘How about I let you off the hook and keep him?’
‘No dice,’ says Reynolds.
‘Well fuck you both, then,’ she says, placing her mug carefully on the bench.
Reynolds runs a hand through his hair. ‘He’s not going to be much good to you. He’s too bloody honest. And I’ve done my time.’
‘Okay, okay. Jesus. You’re both off the books if you can find Mike. But no Mike, no deal. I swear to god, if you two don’t deliver, a few homo pics will be the least of your troubles.’
With that, Colleen leaves.
The two men watch her, making sure she’s all the way out.