My thoughts were uncomfortable. Felicia Todd was involved in a deception about Todd’s creativity. She had scores to settle and there might be justifications for it. But I was worried that she might know something about Barnes’ dealings with Eleni Marinos and Athena, and be holding out on me. It was tricky territory. In my experience, men can talk about their present partner’s ex-partners without distress, but women find it difficult. I don’t know exactly why this is; perhaps because women like to work things through and, by definition, they cannot work through relationships they haven’t been in. I wanted to see Felicia, and advance our budding love affair, if that’s what it was, and this topic wasn’t calculated to help. It was a new slant on conflict of interest.
I went home and packed a bag, drew out some money and filled the Falcon’s tank. I set off for Thirroul with two guns and not many ideas. In Rockdale I waited at the lights alongside an Athena armoured van. The large driver wore aviator glasses and had silver insignia on the epaulettes of his shirt. He read a copy of Evan Whitton’s Can of Worms while he waited. He chewed gum, too. With operatives like that available, I wondered why they would employ a little runt like the one who had broken my bathroom window. Then I remembered his neat driving the night he had followed me, and his quick recovery from O’Fear’s ‘little tap’. Maybe his gun hadn’t been loaded; maybe he was a master of restraint.
I got to Thirroul around three. A battered Holden ute was parked in the Todd driveway and a big German shepherd greeted me at the gate.
‘Easy,’ I said. ‘Friend of your owner’s friend.’
The dog barked and Deborah appeared at the d oor. She was wearing her overalls with the bottoms tucked into football socks above dirty gym boots. ‘It’s all right, Hero,’ she said.
The dog wagged its eight-pound tail. I patted its head and stepped past.
‘Hero?’ I said.
Deborah nodded. ‘Hero was a woman, didn’t you know that?’
‘I forgot. Well, I suppose I should’ve phoned, but…’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Nothing.’
‘If you think Felicia and me’re having an affair, you’re dumber than you look. Forget it. We’re friends. She’s straight. Got it?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you’re here. Some pretty strange things’re happening. Where is she now?’
‘Having a sleep. We talked late and had a few drinks. She’s got no head, poor love. Got up for a while this morning and crashed again. She’s told me a bit about what’s going on.’ She glanced at my bag. ‘See you’ve come to stay.’
‘Not if she doesn’t want me to.’
‘She will. I want to talk to you. Come around the back.’
I followed her and Hero around to the back of the house. We went up the steps and took chairs on the deck. The Pacific Ocean foamed quietly on the beach a hundred metres away. I squinted and could see the dark smudges of ships strung out on the horizon. Deborah looked in the same direction.
‘Strike’s tying up the port,’ she said. ‘Bludging men’ll be the ruin of this country.’
‘You’re not exactly laying bricks yourself at the moment, Deb.’
The rumble of her laugh was a lot louder than the waves on the beach. ‘I think you might be all right, Chris… or whatever your name is.’
‘Cliff,’ I said. ‘My mother wanted Errol as in Flynn, but my father wouldn’t wear it.’
‘Thank God for that. Fel’s having serious thoughts about you. She’s guilty, of course, because it’s not long since her husband died.’
‘I feel guilty about that, too.’
‘You shouldn’t. The man was a shit. I didn’t shed any bloody tears when they hosed him off the highway.’
I was almost shocked; it was the third bad opinion of Barnes Todd in a row after all the glowing tributes. Deborah’s viewpoint was necessarily slanted, but in the investigative business three sources amounts to confirmation. I tried to keep my voice neutral. ‘Why d’you say that?’
She pushed back some straggling dark hair. Hero, the dog, watched her every move and looked as if it would jump off the bluff into the sea if Deborah told it to. She smiled down at it and Hero curled into a big relaxed ball. Maybe that was what Deborah liked-attention and obedience. ‘Todd owned this place for years. It was pretty much of a ruin and he only got around to getting it fixed up after he married Fel. I did most of the work on it.’
Things weather fast on the coast, and I hadn’t noticed that the deck and the sliding doors and the landscaped garden were newish. ‘That’s when you met Fel?’
‘Yes. I knew Todd before that. He used to bring women down here.’ She laughed. ‘Well, why not? I would, too. It’s a great place.’
‘What’re you getting at, Deborah?’
‘He wasn’t faithful to her. He brought a woman down here after he was married. Twice at least. I didn’t give a shit at the time. No business of mine, and I’ve got no faith in heterosexual monogamy. I suppose she’d have done the same after a while. But it cuts me up that she regards him as a saint. She won’t hear a word against him. Started out the other night talking about how nice you were and ended up crying over Todd. Bloody madness. Still, I suppose you’re no prize either.’
‘Probably not,’ I said. ‘Look, this isn’t idle curiosity. It could be important. Can you describe the woman?’
‘Bottle blonde. Forty or more. A real bitch.’
‘Do you know her name?’
She shook her head. ‘Heard it, but I forget. Foreign.’ She heaved herself up from the deck chair, and the dog rose in a simultaneous motion. ‘Well, three’s a crowd. I’ll take off. Tell her to give me a ring.’
I stood and had an impulse to shake hands, which I suppressed. ‘Thanks for looking after her.’
She snapped her fingers, and the dog bounded down the steps. ‘You do the same,’ she said.
Inside, the house was dark and cool, I put my bag down and went through to the main bedroom. Felicia was lying on the bed in a huddle. She heard me and sat up.
‘God, you gave me a fright!’
‘Sorry. I should’ve rung but I wanted to see you, not talk to you on the phone.’
She held out her arms. ‘I’m glad.’
I went over to the bed and we reached for each other. She pulled me down and kissed me hard. She was wearing a long red T-shirt and skimpy underpants and her body felt comforting and exciting at the same time. She lifted the shirt and put my hands on her breasts.
‘I like that,’ she said. ‘Oh, I like that. I got drunk last night.’
‘So I hear.’
She jerked away. ‘Christ! Deborah!’
I kissed her. Her breath was a little winey but not unpleasant. I eased her pants down from her full, rounded hips. ‘Don’t worry. She’s gone.’
‘Let’s fuck,’ she said.