Hey!’ The call came from the other side of the street and a little behind me. It came from a car, not an ordinary car like a Bentley or a Saab, but from a silver Cadillac. Why I hadn’t spotted it until then I don’t know. With its gleaming chrome and tinted glass it was like a peacock in a chookyard. A thin white arm reached out of the window in the front of the car and on the road side. It beckoned to me and I got out and went across to it and the car. The Cadillac was like one of the old, Gothic models that had been put on a diet. It was lower and sleeker but a longish walk would still be required to get round it. It carried cheeky gold and blue Californian number plates with the New South Wales plates mounted above them. The customised plate was MAC 1.
The arm belonged to a blonde. She had makeup in every place it could be applied and her almost white hair was curled and twisted in ways that cost money. She put a cigarette in her mouth and narrowed her eyes. At a distance, she’d have passed for eighteen, up close she looked as if she should be in the third form somewhere doing domestic science.
‘Can you give me a light, please?’
I shook my head. ‘You’re too young to smoke.’
‘I’m too young to do a lot of things,’ she giggled. ‘Doesn’t stop me.’
I glanced back towards The Reefs. The wrestler was laying down the law to my client but she shook her head and puffed smoke and didn’t seem concerned. The blonde didn’t like being looked away from.
‘Hey, are you sure you haven’t got a match?’
‘I’m sure,’ I said. ‘There’ll be a lighter on that flight deck somewhere.’
She shook her head. ‘There’s so many switches, and Mac won’t ever leave me the keys. He’s afraid I’ll just drive away.’
‘Can you manage a left-hand drive?’
‘Huh?’
‘Never mind. What’s Mac’s game? Hamburgers?’
She laughed. It was a sound she hadn’t worked on unlike her voice, which was stage-throaty. The laugh was clear and girlish and suddenly it all felt sad and smutty-the schoolgirl with the cigarette in the big, arrogant car. She was wearing a pink top and tiny shorts, spike heels and a thin gold chain around her right ankle. She saw me looking and poked her tongue out between her little white teeth.
‘You’re in trouble,’ she purred. ‘Here comes Bob.’
I swung around to see a big man moving fast around the back of the car and coming towards me. I stepped away from the Caddy and heard the blonde giggle again.
‘On your way, mister,’ Bob said. He was six foot three and under the tight tennis shirt he had wide shoulders and a flat middle.
‘Just chatting,’ I said.
‘He said he wanted to fuck me,’ the blonde said. ‘He said he wanted to suck my tits.’
I felt a small wave of panic rising. Bob looked like just the sort of boy you’d hire to stamp out unwanted tit sucking. He kept his hands low and put his back gently against the car. It was a good position in which to duck or from which to launch an attack. Bob knew his business and I just wanted to mind mine.
‘The lady’s overwrought,’ I said. ‘She reads too much.’
‘That little twat can’t read,’ he said. ‘And you’d need the mouthwash handy if you were going to suck her.’
‘He wanted to show me his dick,’ the blonde chirped.
‘If he did, you wouldn’t know whether to lie down or open your mouth.’
‘You’re a shit, Bob. I know what you want.’
He sighed. ‘I want to keep Mac happy and draw my pay. That means keeping sluts like you unbruised. You won’t be the last, Sharon.’
‘Look,’ I said, ‘it’s been exciting talking to you, but I think I’ll be going.’
‘You do that.’ He rubbed against the car like a cat. ‘I’m a bit disappointed. Thought you might have a go.’
Sharon wriggled in her moulded bucket seat and pulled her top down an inch.
‘Get rid of him, Bob,’ she hissed. ‘Mac’s coming.’
I turned and saw the bull-like man heading towards us with his head down and his shoulders hunched. He kicked savagely at a can in his way and it screeched and clattered across the concrete.
Bob had straightened up like a guardsman awaiting inspection. I grinned at him. ‘Another time,’ I said. I backed across to my car, got in and drove away before Mac made it out to the street. In the rear vision mirror I saw Bob pull open the kerb-side door so that Mac could settle in behind the left hand drive steering wheel.