I had my mobile sitting on the table along with the .38. The phone rang. I felt sure I knew who it’d be. I answered.
‘Hardy.’
‘This is Rod. Is Kristie okay?’
‘Sort of.’
‘Tell her I’m sorry.’
‘Tell her yourself.’
‘No.’
‘Where are you?’
He laughed. ‘Goodbye, Hardy. I hope never to see you again.’
‘Don’t count on it. How’s Jack?’
He cut the call.
Kristie looked up from what she was doing and wiped her hands on a cloth. Hung the cloth where it belonged. Normal things. She knew how to cope.
‘That him? What did he say?’
‘He said he was sorry.’
She shook her head. ‘He’s not, but he will be.’
Kristie made the coffee and we drank it spiked with the brandy. She stuffed rocket and grated cheese into some bread rolls and I ate three to her one. She told me that Templeton had said he was due some leave and that they should get away somewhere. She’d suggested the cottage.
‘And you wanted to put him to the test?’
‘Johnnie told you about that, did he? Yeah, well I did. I was very keen on him and I wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t make it.’
‘Did he?’
She paused and drank some coffee. ‘He went up it. Like climbing a ladder. Then we ... well, what does it matter now? I know why he kept me with him. I should have known from other clues.’
She said that when he’d had too much to drink, Templeton let slip that he was unhappy in the police force. He also talked about the buried money more often than she was comfortable with.
‘Rog ... Rod, that is, knew that you wanted to talk to me because I told him. And he knew that you’d be in touch with Johnnie. Johnnie knew that I’d bring a new man here. He just used me as bait to get hold of Johnnie. He’s a bloody good actor. I believed what he told me about...’
‘The undercover guys have to be that,’ I said. ‘It might not have been acting, altogether. He sounded sincere when he said he was sorry.’
‘No.’ She touched her face. ‘Looking like this puts blokes off, all except the kinky ones and who needs them? Fuck him!’
What she said about Templeton’s actions made sense and fitted in with a hint Ted Power had given me: I don’t think he feels fully appreciated. Kristie was constructing defences, something she was good at. I suspected she might be in the mood to be useful to Marisha and I could do myself some good by bringing them together.
‘He’ll make Johnnie show him where the money is,’ Kristie said. ‘He’ll get it, kill Johnnie and disappear.’
‘To do all that’s a big ask. Twizell’s tough and he’s been around.’
‘Johnnie’s not tough. He only acts tough.’
‘He implied he’d had military experience.’
‘Yeah, in some bullshit peace-keeping gig. Briefly.’
I wasn’t sure peace-keeping operations were as soft as she thought. Maybe Jack Twizell could make a stand, but I couldn’t see any way I could play a part in that. I tried to tell myself I was in the box seat—Kristie could tell all she knew about the Twizell family papers and I could complete my job for Wakefield. Whether he got what he wanted or not I’d be paid. And there was Marisha. But there was also Hector Tanner, who couldn’t be feeling well disposed towards me, and I had a guilty feeling about having led Jack Twizell into a potentially deadly trap. Things are never simple.
Kristie was listless, a bit drunk from the brandy and at a low ebb. She needed activity and motivation.
‘Come on, Kristie,’ I said. ‘We have to get out of here. There’s someone I want you to talk to and I need to ask you about Grandma Twizell’s papers when you’re up to it.’
She nodded and stood. ‘I’ll get my stuff.’
‘Let’s hope Rod didn’t disable Jack’s car.’
~ * ~
He hadn’t. He was banking on us not knowing where Jack’s cave was. Safe enough for me, but I didn’t know about Kristie. She’d brought all she wanted to take from the cottage in a backpack. I unlocked the car and we climbed in.
‘This is Johnnie’s?’ she said.
I nodded.
‘I wonder where he got the money.’
‘I do, too.’
‘How long after he got out before you caught up with him?’
‘Day and a bit.’
‘Long enough for him to do a deal with someone else about getting the money and getting something in advance. He’d have been thinking about it from day one, inside.’