Outside Des’s house in Northcote, I said to Lyall, ‘Won’t be a minute.’
Des came to the front door in overalls. ‘Jack, my boy,’ he said. ‘Doin a bit of work out the back.’
‘Flying visit,’ I said. ‘Got all the money back. Sixty-five thousand. No worries about the house now.’
He tugged at a huge earlobe, shook his head, smiling.
‘Well, I bloody never,’ he said. ‘I bloody never. Knew you could do it, though. In the bones, I knew it. Gary?’
‘Still missing,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘What’s the bill then? What’s the fee?’
I furrowed my brow, did the sums in my head. ‘Comes to a hundred bucks, Des.’
‘Tell you what, Jack,’ he said, patting my arm. ‘Done such a good job, I’m makin that a hundred and fifty.’
‘Thanks. I’ll come around, take you to the bank to make the deposit.’
He followed me to the car and I introduced Lyall. They shook hands. ‘You kin rely on this fella,’ Des said to her. ‘More I look at him, more he puts me in mind of Bill too.’
‘Who’s Bill?’ Lyall asked as we drove away.
‘Just someone with whom I am often compared,’ I said. ‘Unfavourably, for the most part.’
She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, put a hand on my thigh. ‘Can’t be the part I’m most familiar with.’