He said, ‘I’m about to drive Hector to Newcastle to see his father.’
I said, ‘There’s a whisper that Joseph fired the shots.’
‘He wouldn’t. He hires people for that kind of work, mostly. Unless it’s very personal. He hired the hit on McKnight.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m putting this together from bits I’ve overheard and things Clem’s told me when he’s pissed. Joseph thought McKnight was edgy. He got someone to pressure him and he learned that McKnight was all set to talk to some journalist Jobe was talking to. Joseph’s got too much to hide to let that happen.’
That made it likely Joseph was behind the attack on his father and Marisha. I asked Templeton if he had enough to get Joseph arrested.
‘Almost. Things are happening; gotta go.’
~ * ~
Marisha and I went to bed, sleeping comfortably together like a married couple without the need for sex. But it was a different story in the morning.
After a leisurely breakfast we left the hotel soon after ten o’clock and I was surprised that there was no sign of a police presence.
‘Some protection,’ I said.
Marisha didn’t answer. She was staring at a poster outside a newsagency: GANGLAND BOSS KILLED—SON ARRESTED. The story, with photographs, occupied the whole of the front page: Jobe Tanner had died of his wounds in hospital overnight. Joseph Tanner had been arrested on a charge of conspiracy to murder. Hector Tanner was being sought by police.
~ * ~
part two
* * *
~ * ~
14
Marisha worked her phone, contacting everyone she knew who might know what had happened and what the official line was. She learned that everything had changed in a few hours overnight. Jobe had identified the man who’d shot him. The police picked him up. Charged with wounding at that time, he had rolled over and named Joseph as the one who’d commissioned the hit. He’d be pissed off and worried later when the charge was upgraded to murder.
From Templeton I heard that there had been a violent confrontation between Joseph and Hector involving threats and weapons. Hector took himself off before Joseph was arrested and Templeton claimed not to know where he’d gone. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. The Tanner crime network fell apart in a matter of days without the lynchpins.
Marisha filed several stories drawing on some of the information she’d had from Jobe. They were picked up by other media and her profile rose sharply. With the threat from the Tanners reduced, she went back to her flat and started serious work on her book. I hung around for the next day with her and we got on well, but her focus was on the book and the rewards it might bring her. I’d developed very strong feelings for her and, in the game of who-can-help-who we seemed to have fallen into, I had one card to play—Kristie.
‘I really want to talk to her,’ Marisha said.
We were eating breakfast on her balcony on a mild morning with the sun filtering through light clouds and the waves enough to tempt some surfers—black dots out beyond the breakers.
‘So do I,’ I said. ‘But I don’t know where she is.’
‘You’ve got her number.’
‘Yeah. She’s in the book. I tried the landline and went to the address. Nothing. Same on her mobile and the number for her undercover mate.’
‘Whose name is?’
I shook my head.
‘You’re a detective, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, and do you know what we do a lot of the time? We stir a bit and wait for things to happen.’
‘Great.’
It was shaping up as that kind of relationship: good but combative. I’d told her something about the Wakefield matter and my hope that Kristie could be useful. She was only mildly interested. I’d also sketched in a bit about Johnnie Twizell and the buried money. That interested her more as a sidebar to the Tanner story.
‘When’s his hearing?’ she asked.
‘Yesterday. I’m waiting for a result.’
‘And then what?’
‘If he gets out I’ll see if he can help with the Wakefield thing. He might even know where Kristie is. They were together for a while.’
‘What about the buried money?’
‘I don’t give a shit about it.’
‘I do.’
I reached over and stroked her arm. ‘So we’d better stay in touch.’
~ * ~
I drove back to Sydney, checked on things at home and in the office, visited Megan and phoned Wakefield to bring him up to speed.
He struggled to keep the excitement out of his voice. ‘Are you saying this woman knows about a set of family papers?’