The Tattooed Man (41 page)
‘That’s great,’ she said.
Both the expression on her face and her tone of voice said the opposite.
‘What is it? Is there something you haven’t told me? Are you going to recover? You said the prognosis was good.’
‘No, the doctors said I was very lucky. I should be okay. They just have to keep an eye on me for a while.’
She wasn’t looking at him directly.
‘Grace, why aren’t you smoking? And why did you order decaf? You hate it.’
She glanced around and then back at him. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said.
‘When did that happen?’
‘The night you took out my kitchen tiles,’ she said, giving him that look of hers. ‘I was going to fix everything in the morning. I never got the chance.’
‘What do you want to do?’
‘I’ve binned my cigarettes, Paul, and I’m drinking this stuff. What do you want to do?’
Harrigan had always had an eye for the main chance. ‘We can do this together. You could move in with me.’
‘Well,’ she said a little breathlessly, ‘you could move in with me.’
‘You, me and a baby are going to live in your little pocket handkerchief?’
‘There’s probably enough room for a bassinet if I move the guitar off the top of the wardrobe,’ she said.
There was a pause.
‘What happens if after five years we decide we hate each other?’ she asked.
‘Why don’t we worry about that five years from now?’
They looked at each other. He thought of Toby and of a child who could walk.
‘Go on, Grace,’ he said. ‘I’ve just jumped out into mid-air. You can do it too. Be brave.’
‘You always tell me I’m too brave.’
‘Prove me right.’
‘All right. I’ll be brave.’
My thanks to everyone for their generous advice, interest and time. For their information, advice and demonstration of the art of tattooing: eX de Medici; the staff and research students at the Division of Pacific and Asian History at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at ANU; and Deus Ex Machina of North Lyneham.
Ron and Deborah Gilchrist for their hospitality.
Dr Carol Nottenburg for her advice on patents.
A
lex Palmer is a Canberra-based novelist who took up writing full time when she was made redundant from the Australian Public Service. With
Blood Redemption,
she won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel, and shared the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for best crime novel by a woman with Gabrielle Lord.
The Tattooed Man
was the winner of the 2008 Canberra Critics Circle Award.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Blood Redemption
The Tattooed Man
The Labyrinth of Drowning
HarperCollins
Publishers
First published in Australia in 2008
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Alex Palmer 2008
The right of Alex Palmer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968,
no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Palmer, Alex, 1952– .
Tattooed man.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 8573 9 (pbk.).
ISBN: 978 0 7304 0101 8 (Epub).
I. Title.
A823.4
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