Chapter 48

The Paddington skating rink was rapidly returning to the state nature intended. Weeds pushed themselves up from the charred remains of the building where thousands of teenagers once spent their Saturday nights. A couple of young gum trees reached for the open roof. As the wind picked up, chip packets and sheets of old newspaper rustled around in the darkness, looking for escape. Harry peered up through the skeletal remains of the skate rink’s roof. The stars were gone, obscured by clouds. Every now and then lightning flickered through them, followed a couple of seconds later by a boom of thunder. Jess snaked her fingers through his.

They waited. A gentle rain fell. Harry started to think that this was a trap, or that he’d gone to the wrong place and Dave was already dead. Then a car pulled up outside, headlights panning across the open doorway. Car doors opened and shut, and a silhouette appeared in the doorway of the rink. Crow waited, hiding behind Dave, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom. He moved forward towards Harry and pushed Dave down onto the ground. Dave’s hands were tied behind his back, his face mottled with bruises and dried blood.

‘Harry, I’m sorry, don’t…’

Crow silenced him with a kick, and pointed his gun at him.

‘Harry Hendrick! Or should I call you Rob?’ he said. As he emerged from the gloom, the light fell across his face. He was grinning. He turned to Jess. ‘Strange idea for a date, but whatever floats ya boat, I guess.’

Heathy appeared behind them, took up position halfway between Crow and Harry. He had a big black shotgun. His face was a mess of half-healed scabs.

‘Did you choose this place because of Rob? This is where you killed him, right?’ Harry said.

Crow snorted. ‘Fun times. That’s all ancient history, Harry. He was too nosy for his own good. Just like you.’

Jess stepped forward. ‘Rob and Kyla didn’t deserve what happened to them. They deserve justice.’

This time Crow laughed out loud. ‘And what good would that do? Huh? We’ve all made mistakes. You’ve made mistakes, right?’

‘Mistakes? Is that what you call what you and Cardinal did to those people in Afghanistan? To Ahmed? Rabs? You sabotaged a fucking Black Hawk, for Christ’s sake!’ He peered into the darkness behind Crow. ‘And what you did to Kyla? Rape? Murder? Just a mistake?’

‘Jeez, mate, and you call yourself a journo,’ Crow said. ‘I’ll cop it on the chin for most of that but not Kyla. I had nothing to do with Kyla. I was a little busy with Rob. Fingers don’t break themselves, y’know. Kyla was all the Chief’s work.’

‘Andrew Cardinal?’ Jess prompted.

‘It’s one of his specialities. He took her out to Swenson’s new block of land. And she didn’t come back.’

Heathy snorted.

Lightning flashed, gleaming off the dull metal of Heathy’s shotgun. Thunder boomed and for a moment Harry thought he’d pulled the trigger.

‘Where are the documents, Rob?’

Dave looked up. ‘Harry, don’t…’

‘Shut it, sunshine,’ Crow said. He knelt down behind him, picked up Dave’s head and slammed it against the floorboards. With his other hand he pressed the gun into Dave’s side, then looked up at Harry. ‘You know what a nine-millimetre round will do to his guts from this range? It’ll fuck him up but won’t kill him. Next time there’s thunder, I’m pullin’ the trigger.’

Harry could feel Rob back there, but if Rob had any answers, he wasn’t sharing. Crow and Dave were a good five metres away, too far to try and rush them. Heathy now had his shotgun up, aiming at him and Jess. He glanced into the darkness. He’d just have to trust Christine.

‘Okay! Okay!’ he said. ‘It’s in the water tower! The documents are in the water tower.’

Crow’s brow furrowed, he turned his head to one side. Harry’s hands shook violently, rain fell into his eyes. Lightning flashed and thunder followed a second or so later. Dave cried out. Crow took the gun away from Dave’s side.

‘Interesting,’ he said. ‘Because we searched the water tower, came away with zilcho.’

‘I swear,’ Harry said. ‘That’s where they are.’ Doubts flew through Harry’s mind. What if his map theory was wrong? What if he’d read the map wrong? What if someone else had found the documents and they weren’t there any more?

‘If you’re lying to me, you know how this ends, right?’

‘Get on the floor, both of you,’ Heathy said. ‘Hands behind your backs.’

Harry lowered himself to the wet floor. He could feel Rob calculating, working out the odds of escape. In the corner of his eye he saw Crow yanking Dave to his feet, as Heathy laid his shotgun on the ground. Harry grunted as Heathy dropped a knee into his back, then pulled his hands together. He grimaced as a cable tie bit into his wrists. As Heathy moved to secure Jess, he looked to her and mouthed ‘Sorry’. She blinked it away and shook her head with reassurance.

Heathy slammed his foot down in the small of Harry’s back, sending an explosion of pain through him. He started to black out, and Heathy grabbed his hair and shook him awake.

‘That’s for that shit you pulled in the hospital,’ he said, then laughed. Hyuck, hyuck, hyuck.

He dragged Harry to his feet. Then Jess.

‘Come on, let’s go,’ Crow said.