‘Second.’
‘You and the kid. First and second.’
I didn’t say anything. Silence for a while. Shea coughed, a dry little cough.
‘You, ah, friendly with the kid?’ This from the offsider, Cotter. He was staring at me, black eyes gleaming like sucked grapes. His ears were pierced, but he wasn’t wearing an earring. He smiled and winked.
I said to Shea, ‘Detective Constable Cotter just winked at me. What does that mean?’
‘I’ll do this, Detective Cotter,’ Shea said. ‘So Lewis rang you at…?’
‘Two forty-five. It’s in the statement.’
‘Yeah. He says you got there about two fifty-five. Looking at his watch all the time.’
‘About right.’
‘Clarify this for me,’ Shea said. ‘It’s twenty kilometres from here. You get dressed and drive it in ten minutes. Give or take a minute.’
‘It’s fifteen the short way,’ I said. ‘I didn’t get dressed. I was dressed. I fell asleep dressed. And I didn’t obey the speed limit.’
Shea rubbed the corner of his right eye with a finger like a hairy ginger banana. ‘Old bloke worth a bit?’
‘Look like it?’
‘Can’t tell sometimes. Keep it under the mattress. That his property?’
I nodded.
‘Who stands to benefit then?’
‘There’s just Lew, his grandson.’
‘Then there’s you.’
‘I’m not family.’
‘How come you inherit?’
I said, ‘I’m not with you.’
‘We found his will,’ Shea said. ‘You get a share.’
I shrugged. This was news to me. ‘I don’t know about that.’
Cotter said, ‘Got any gumboots?’ Pause. ‘Mr Faraday.’
I looked at him. ‘Dogs got bums? Try the back porch.’
Cotter got up and left.
‘We’ll have to take them away,’ Shea said.
I got up and went to the window. Cotter had the Land Rover passenger door open and was poking through the mess inside.
‘Your man got a warrant?’ I said.
‘Coming to that,’ Shea said. He took a folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. ‘Here’s your copy.’
‘Got something in mind?’ I said.
It was Shea’s turn to say nothing, just look at me, not very interested.
I heard the sound of a vehicle, then another car nosed around the corner of the house. Two men and a woman.
‘The gang’s all here,’ I said. ‘Go for your life.’
Shea coughed. ‘I’m going to ask you to come into town for an interview. When we’re finished here. The young fella too. Don’t want you to talk to him before. Okay? So you can’t travel with him. He can come with me or you can make some other arrangement, get a friend. You’re entitled to be represented. Kid’s gotta have someone with him. You don’t want to come of your own accord, well, we do it the other way. Believe me.’
There wasn’t a way around this. ‘Let me explain this to Lew,’ I said.
Shea nodded. We went over to the smithy. Lew was where I’d left him, puzzled and frightened. I sat down next to him.
‘Lew,’ I said, ‘listen, mate. They’re going to search the place. Then they want us to go into town so they can ask us some more questions. They’ll record everything. You’ll have a lawyer with you, just so everything’s done right. All right?’
‘We told them,’ Lew said.
‘I know. It’s just the way they do it. I’ll tell you about it later. I’m going to arrange for your lawyer now. We can’t talk to each other again before the interviews. I’ll be there when you finish.’
He looked at me, looked away, just a child again in a world suddenly turned from stone to water. He was on the edge of tears. I gave him a little punch in the arm. ‘Mate, this’ll be over in next to no time. Then we can have a feed, get some sleep. Hold on. Right?’
He moved his head, more tremble than a nod. He was exhausted.
I rang the lawyer who’d handled my father’s estate. ‘You’re better off with someone who specialises in crim,’ he said. ‘What’s your number?’
I waited by the phone. A tall cop came in, opened the Ned Kelly stove and poked around in the ashes. When he’d finished, he started on the chest of drawers, working from bottom to top like a burglar.
The phone rang.
‘Mr Faraday?’
I said yes.
‘I’m Laura Randall.’ Deep voice. ‘Mike Sherman said you had a matter.’
I told her what was happening.